Rings Swing Elements vs Backward Salto Skills: Scoring Guide
A clear guide to still rings swing elements and backward salto skills: giant swings, Yamawaki, Honma, double-back dismounts and the 2025 FIG D-score rules.
On the still rings, swing elements are dynamic skills where the gymnast swings the body on two motionless rings and links into saltos or handstands. Backward salto skills in particular appear both as swing elements and as dismounts, and they heavily influence the D-score. This article compares rings s
wing elements and backward salto skills through their classification, difficulty values and scoring, based on the FIG element groups for rings.
What Are Rings Swing Elements? Their Place in Four Element Groups
A rings routine combines strength (hold) elements with swing elements. To understand swing elements, you first need to know how the whole apparatus is organized into element groups.
The Four Element Groups on Rings
According to the English Wikipedia overview, rings skills fall into four element groups (EG), and a routine must draw skills from each.
Group | Name | Contents |
|---|---|---|
EG I | Swings & swings to handstand | Giant swings, Yamawaki, Honma held on the rings |
EG II | Strength holds | Iron cross, Maltese and other 2-second holds |
EG III | Swings to strength holds | Swinging into a static hold position |
EG IV | Dismounts | Salto finishes to landing |
Strength holds are covered in Strength Skills on Rings: Iron Cross & Support Scoring. This article focuses on EG I swing elements and the backward salto skills that dominate EG IV.
The Role of Swing Elements (EG I)
The ner">The Gymnastics Authority guide
defines EG I as elements that swing from a hang, including giant swings to handstand and Honma-style skills that look like double front somersaults on the rings. They connect the strength holds and set the rhythm of the whole routine.
