Which gymnastics event is the hardest

Catlike reflexes are required as the gymnast switches her legs in the air and bends her back leg toward her head, losing sight of the Beam in the process.

Still, it was a surprise when she unleashed her unique element - a double back flip done in a layout position with a half twist at the end - in The gymnast who does the Biles lands the skill facing forward, meaning she loses sight of the Floor before her feet hit. The gymnast who performs the Silivas cranks two flips and two twists between the time she launches herself into the air and the time her feet hit the floor.

The Silivas is done in a tucked position. Women's Artistic Gymnastics. Introduction Ever more daring, ever higher - gymnasts have always been innovators, striving to nourish their sport with new moves and greater difficulty. About Women's Artistic. The Amanar When Simona Amanar of Romania debuted the Vault that came to bear her name at the Olympic Games, she could not have imagined that her element would become one of most potent weapons in Gymnastics.

Acro is not yet an Olympic sport. However, acro is included in the World Games, the European Games, and has its own Acrobatic World Championships held in even-numbered years.

Many acrobatic gymnasts have also gone on to work as professional acrobats for various performance companies including Cirque du Soleil. Gymnasts develop a lot more upper body and core strength, as they need their arms to be as strong as their legs to do flips, lifts, and other balancing feats. Dancers focus more on their legs for strength and balance, while their arms work as an accessory for dance routines….

Trampolining or trampoline gymnastics is a recreational activity, acrobatic training tool as well as a competitive Olympic sport in which athletes perform acrobatics while bouncing on a trampoline…. On the other hand, when it comes to the balance beam you risk falling off of the beam with practically every maneuver that you do. Also, compared to the vault which is over in a matter of seconds there is much more training time, skills, and possibilities for something to go wrong in the balance beam event.

Finally there is pretty much no debate that it is harder than the floor event, since it will always be harder to do the exact same moves on a beam than it is to do them on the floor. One of the reasons for this is that even starting to learn the most basic skills for it can take a long time to master as well as a lot of strength.

This is not the case for the pommel horse, with none of the maneuvers from the other events being transferred to this one and none of the skills that are learned here being useful elsewhere. The result is that there is much more that has to be learned specifically for this event. The hands are the only part of the body that is allowed to touch the pommel horse during the whole of the routine. This is because almost each of the skills will need the gymnast to change his hand positions at the end of every maneuver in order to get into position to start the next one.

Also, there are some maneuvers that are done on only one arm. This means that the gymnast will spend almost the whole time he is on the pommel horse supporting his whole weight up with only one arm. You're on such a small area, trying to control you whole body weight. The likelihood of being off balance and falling off is much greater. Three-time national all-around champion Sam Mikulak did just that during Wednesday's training session, flying off the horse after a skill went awry.

In competition that would cost him a full point deduction. He remounted and finished the workout. Because the pommel horse is an outlier for all those reasons, it's not especially popular among young gymnasts - even those with Olympic aspirations. And that often breeds a diffidence, if not disdain, toward the vexing piece of equipment.

Alexander Naddour, one of three former Oklahoma gymnasts on the Olympic team, has never felt that way. So it's little surprise that he's the country's best at it, a four-time national pommel-horse champion. How does Simone Biles have such incredible balance? A neuroscientist weighs in.

Coached by his father since childhood, Naddour has taken the approach of staring the demon horse in the eye and doubling down on practices, repeating each skill until it's drilled into his muscle memory, in much the same way the NBA's Stephen Curry perfected his shot-making.