What Is a Giant Swing? | Gymnastics Explained

Key takeaways

A giant swing is a complete circle around the bar with a fully extended (straight) body line.

It carries a low value — A for a basic backward giant on horizontal bar, B on uneven bars — so it's mainly there to build swing for harder skills.

Turning, one-arm and unusual-grip versions are worth more, up to D for a Czech giant on horizontal bar.

It appears on uneven bars and horizontal bar, and as a giant swing to handstand on parallel bars.

The giant swing looks simple compared to a release move or a dismount, but it’s the skill nearly everything else on bar apparatus is built from.

How it works

The gymnast circles the full 360° around the bar with the body kept in a straight, extended line, passing through handstand above the bar and swinging down and around beneath it. Giants can be performed backward or forward, usually with a different grip for each direction. The speed it builds is what launches release moves, pirouettes and dismounts.

How much it is worth

A giant carries a small value of its own, which varies by apparatus. In the 2025–2028 Codes of Points:

Apparatus	Giant	Value
Uneven bars (WAG)	Giant circle backward or forward	B
Uneven bars (WAG)	Giant circle backward with a full turn to handstand	C
Horizontal bar (MAG)	Giant swing backward	A
Horizontal bar (MAG)	Flying giant swing backward, or el-grip giant	B
Horizontal bar (MAG)	Russian giant (rearways, forward)	C
Horizontal bar (MAG)	Czech giant (rearways, backward)	D
Parallel bars (MAG)	Giant swing backward to handstand	C

Because only the eight highest-value skills count towards the D-score, a plain giant is usually outscored by the releases, turns and dismounts around it. Turning versions and giants in unusual grips — the el-grip, where the hands are rotated outward, or the rearways “Russian” and “Czech” giants — are worth more.

How the Codes treat it

On uneven bars, the women’s Code limits how many skills from the same “root” can count — no more than three — but makes an exception for giants (and for kips and casts to handstand), recognising that routines need them to keep swinging.

On horizontal bar, giants are written into the rules: any release that passes over the bar with a salto must be followed by a giant swing, or the execution judges deduct 0.3. See horizontal bar releases.

Why technique matters more than value

Because so many higher-value skills depend on a clean, fast giant to set them up, poor giant technique — a bent body line, a short handstand, uneven speed — tends to show up in the skills that follow. Both Codes deduct handstand angle on bar skills, so a giant that misses handstand is deducted in its own right too.

Common confusion

A giant is a full circle around the bar; a kip is the skill used to get from a hang up into support on the bar in the first place. Both are basic bar skills, but they do different jobs. For the apparatus pages, see women’s uneven bars and men’s horizontal bar.