An acrobatic flip is a sequence of body movements in which a

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

leaps into the air and rotates one or more times while airborne. Acrobatic flips are commonly performed in

acro dance Acro dance is a style of dance that combines classical dance technique with acrobatic elements. It is defined by its athletic character, its unique choreography, which blends dance and acrobatics, and its use of acrobatics in a dance context. I ...

free running Freerunning is an athletic and acrobatic discipline incorporating an aesthetic element, and can be considered either a sport or a performance art, or both. Freerunning is similar to parkour, from which it is derived, but emphasizes artistry over ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

high jumping The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

tricking (martial arts) Tricking is a training discipline that combines kicks with flips and twists from martial arts and gymnastics as well as many dance moves and styles from dance. It is not a martial art, though it borrows techniques from taekwondo, kung fu, wushu ...

goal celebration In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the supporters of the team. Whilst ...

s, and various other activities. This contrasts with

freestyle BMX Freestyle BMX is bicycle motocross stunt riding on BMX bikes. It is an extreme sport descended from BMX racing that consists of four disciplines: street, park, trails, and flatland. The sport made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Summer Olympics. E ...

flips, where a person rotates in the air along with a

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

. Acrobatic flips can be initiated from a stationary,

standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an upright (orthostatic) position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the ...

position, but they are often executed immediately following another rotational move, such as a

roundoff A roundoff is a move in gymnastics similar to a cartwheel, except the gymnast lands with two feet placed together on the ground instead of one foot at a time, facing the direction of arrival. It was also sometimes called an arabian handspring. ...

handspring Handspring may refer to: *Handspring (company), a company that made personal digital assistants *Handspring (gymnastics), a gymnastics move involving forward or backward rotation of the body *Rising handspring or nip-up, an acrobatic transition fr ...

, to take advantage of the

angular momentum Angular momentum (sometimes called moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of Momentum, linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a Conservation law, conserved quantity – the total ang ...

generated by the preceding move. Generally, the

hands A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "han ...

do not touch the floor during the execution of a flip, and performers typically aim to land on their

feet The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...

in an

upright Body relative directions (also known as egocentric coordinates) are geometrical orientations relative to a body such as a human person's body or a road sign. The most common ones are: left and right; forward and backward; up and down. They fo ...

position; however, this is not required for the move to be considered a flip.

Classification

Many variations of flips exist, with their usage depending on the specific type of activity. In

, for example, flips adhere to a small number of specific, rigorously defined forms and movements. However, in activities such as

and

tricking Tricking is a method for indicating the tinctures (colours) used in a coat of arms by means of text abbreviations written directly on the illustration. Tricking and hatching are the two primary methods employed in the system of heraldry to show c ...

, there are seemingly endless variations of flips, many of which are derived from fundamental gymnastics flips. As a result, gymnastics terminology is often applied to flips found in other disciplines. Flips are generally categorized according to the direction of body

rotation Rotation or rotational/rotary motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as an ''axis of rotation''. A plane figure can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise sense around a perpendicular axis intersect ...

; for example, the body rotates forward (face first) in a front flip and in the opposite direction in a back flip.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics flips are performed in both men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

gymnastics on various apparatus, including the

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosur ...

floor A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from wikt:hovel, simple dirt in a cave to many layered surfaces made with modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal or any other material that can support the ex ...

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

pommel horse The pommel horse, also known as vaulting horse, is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. Traditionally, it is used by only male gymnasts. Originally made of a metal frame with a wooden body and a leather cover, the modern pommel horse has a metal bo ...

, rings,

parallel bars Parallel bars are floor apparatus consisting of two wooden bars approximately long and positioned at above the floor. Parallel bars are used in artistic gymnastics and also for physical therapy and home exercise. Gymnasts may optionally wear ...

, and

high bar The horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, is an apparatus used by male gymnasts in artistic gymnastics. It traditionally consists of a cylindrical metal (typically steel) bar that is rigidly held above and parallel to the floor by a syste ...

. In all cases, gymnastics flips require the

hips In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint ...

to pass over the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

. Four body forms are commonly used in gymnastics flips: * Aerial – The

knees In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

are unbent, with legs in a forward or side

split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

and aligned on the rotational

plane Plane most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface * Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane ...

, resulting in a

front aerial A front aerial is an acrobatic move in which a person executes a complete forward revolution of the body without touching the floor. Front aerials are performed in various physical activities, including acro dance and gymnastics. The front aeri ...

or side aerial, respectively. * Tuck – The

legs A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element cap ...

are together with the knees fully bent and drawn to the

chest The thorax (: thoraces or thoraxes) or chest is a part of the anatomy of mammals and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main di ...

, and the

clutch the knees or are otherwise held close to the body. By 'tucking' tightly in this manner, the body can achieve maximum

angular velocity In physics, angular velocity (symbol or \vec, the lowercase Greek letter omega), also known as the angular frequency vector,(UP1) is a pseudovector representation of how the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time, i ...

, minimizing the time required to complete the revolution. When initiated from a stationary, standing position, a

tuck Tuck may refer to: People * Tuck (surname), including a list of people * Tuck (nickname), a list of people * Tuck (footballer), Portuguese football player and coach João Carlos Novo de Araújo Gonçalves (born 1969) * Hillary Tuck (born 1978 ...

is classified as a 'standing' tuck. This skill may also include a 360-degree rotation using a torque twist, in which case it is called a back tuck full. * Layout – The body is fully extended with

together, and the

and

are unbent, with

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

held against the sides. Compared to a back tuck, this flip requires both higher angular momentum and greater height above the floor to ensure sufficient time to complete the rotation before landing. The flip is initiated by bringing the arms down from beside the

ears In vertebrates, an ear is the organ that enables hearing and (in mammals) body balance using the vestibular system. In humans, the ear is described as having three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear co ...

to the hips, helping to initiate the flip and control the momentum for a successful landing. A layout may also include axial body rotation in addition to the fundamental rotation about the waist; such a layout is called a twist. Twists are further categorized by the number of axial rotations completed while airborne. For example, a layout with a 180-degree twist is a half twist, 360 degrees for a full twist, and multiples of 360 degrees for double full and triple full twists, and so on. * Pike – The

are bent, with the

straight and the

together. Many gymnastics flips are descriptively named based on the direction of rotation and the body position assumed during execution. For example, a front flip performed with a tucked body position is called a front tuck. When initiated from a stationary, standing position, it is referred to as a standing front tuck.

Variations

Common modifications

These modifications can be applied to many types of flips: * Gainer – A back flip that ends with the performer moving forward from the starting point due to forward momentum. * Loser – A front flip that ends with the performer moving behind the starting position due to backward momentum. * Switch – A flip that is launched from and lands on the same leg.

Tucks

* Pitch tuck – An assisted back tuck performed with partners. One partner forms a 'saddle' with their hands. The second partner steps onto the saddle, and then the first partner thrusts the saddle upward. The second partner, propelled upward with backward rotation, executes a back tuck. * Cowboy tuck – A tuck with the knees and feet separated. * Arabian – A tucking flip that begins with a backward rotation but changes into a front tuck after take-off with a half twist.

Layouts

* X-in or X-out – In these variations, the legs and arms are split perpendicular to the rotational plane to form an 'X.' * Layout or Straight – In this variation, the performer's legs are kept together and relatively straight while being whipped over the head.

Tricking and B-Boying

A virtually unlimited number of flip variants have emerged across various activities, many with proprietary nomenclature.

References

{{reflist Gymnastics elements it:Salto mortale