Basic rules of gymnastics

25 min

Raise an arm, wait for the light

At an international gymnastics meet nothing starts until the gymnast raises an arm to the head judge and a green light comes on; after that, she has 30 seconds to begin. That small ritual tells you how gymnastics is governed: every movement happens inside a written framework set by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), the world governing body founded in 1881. This lesson covers the competition rules of artistic gymnastics as written in the FIG Codes of Points for 2025–2028 and the FIG Technical Regulations, and shows how a school competition adapts them.

Definition

Code of Points (CoP): the FIG rulebook for one discipline, renewed every four years (an Olympic cycle). The current Men's (MAG) and Women's (WAG) Artistic Codes run from 2025 to 2028.

Element: one gymnastics skill listed in the Code, with a difficulty letter from A (easiest) upwards.

Exercise or routine: the sequence of elements a gymnast performs on one apparatus.

Olympic order: the fixed order of apparatus in competition. Men: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar. Women: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor.

Competition structure

Session	What is decided	Who takes part
Qualification	Who goes to each final	All gymnasts and teams
Team final	The team title	The 8 best teams from qualification
Individual all-around final	The best gymnast over all the apparatus	The 24 best all-rounders, at most 2 per country
Apparatus finals	The champion on each apparatus	The 8 best on that apparatus, at most 2 per country

Scores do not carry over: every final starts from zero. The "two per country" rule keeps finals open to more nations.

Rules the gymnast must obey

Rule	MAG	WAG
Present to the head judge before and after the exercise	Yes	Yes
Start after the green light or signal	Within 30 s	Within 30 s
Time limit	Floor: 70 s	Floor and beam: 90 s each
Time allowed after a fall before continuing	30 s on every apparatus; after 60 s the exercise ends	Uneven bars 30 s; balance beam 10 s
Music on floor	None	Required, chosen by the gymnast
Attire	Singlet; long trousers on pommel horse, rings, parallel and horizontal bars; shorts allowed on floor and vault	Leotard (or full-length unitard)

Apparatus rules worth knowing

Floor: the whole 12 m × 12 m area may be used, but touching the floor beyond the white boundary line is out of bounds and costs a deduction. Gymnasts usually tumble along the diagonals, which are the longest straight runs available.
Vault: each vault has a fixed difficulty value printed in the Code. To qualify for the vault final a gymnast shows two different vaults, and the final score is their average. For round-off entry vaults in women's gymnastics, a safety collar (a U-shaped mat around the springboard) must be used.
Bars and rings: the coach may stand by to protect the gymnast, but must not touch her or him during an element; spotting help during an element means the element is not credited and a large deduction is taken.

Worked example

Worked example 1: applying the fall rule. On beam, Ines falls off during a turn at 41 s. She stands up, re-chalks, talks to her coach and remounts 14 s after landing on her feet. Which rule applies?

On WAG beam the allowed interruption after a fall is 10 s, timed from when she is on her feet.
She took 14 s: 4 s too long, so a neutral deduction for exceeding the fall time is taken, as well as the 1.0 fall deduction from her execution score.
Fall time is not counted in her 90 s routine time; the clock restarts when she remounts.

Worked example

Worked example 2: adapting the rules for a school meet. A school has a floor of mats 10 m × 10 m, one low beam (0.50 m) and a vaulting box.

Keep the principles: presentation to the judges, a time limit, a fixed order of events, out-of-bounds lines and no help from a spotter during a judged element.
Adapt the details: a set (compulsory) routine for everyone, a shorter floor time such as 60 s, beam work on the low beam, and vaults over the box with a teacher standing by.
Record the adaptations on the entry sheet, so every judge applies the same rules.

Tip

Memory hook for the Olympic order. The men start on the floor and end on the bar, getting higher as they go. The women start with the vault and end with the floor routine, ending to music.

Warning

Common mistakes. The floor time limit is 90 s for women but 70 s for men: do not mix them. A fall is not the end of the exercise: the gymnast has a set time to continue. Scores from qualification do not carry into any final.

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Practice

Give the Olympic order of apparatus for men and for women.
How many gymnasts reach an individual all-around final, and how many from one country at most?
State the floor-exercise time limits for men and for women.
A male gymnast falls from the rings and remounts 25 s after he is back on his feet. Is any time deduction taken? Explain.
A coach catches a gymnast's hips to help her complete a release move on the bars. What are the two consequences?
Why do most tumbling passes on floor run along a diagonal? Use the dimensions in the diagram.
Explain why a vault final uses the average of two different vaults rather than a gymnast's best single vault.
Design three rules for a school gymnastics meet that keep the spirit of the FIG rules but suit your school's equipment.

Show answersHide answers

Men: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar. Women: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor.
24 gymnasts, at most 2 from one country.
Men 70 s; women 90 s.
No. In MAG the allowed time after a fall is 30 s, so 25 s is within it. (He still loses 1.0 for the fall.)
The element is not credited and a large deduction is taken.
The diagonal of the 12 m × 12 m area is 16.97 m, about 5 m longer than a side, so there is room for a run-up and a long series of acrobatic elements.
It rewards a broader range of skill and consistency: one lucky landing cannot decide the final, and gymnasts cannot simply repeat their single best vault.
For example: present to the judges before and after; a 60 s floor routine on a 10 m × 10 m mat area with a marked boundary; compulsory beam routine on the low beam; no spotting during a judged element, with a teacher standing by for safety.

Remember

The FIG Codes of Points 2025–2028 govern artistic gymnastics.
Present to the judge; start within 30 s of the signal.
Floor: 70 s for men, 90 s for women; beam: 90 s. Fall time: beam 10 s, bars 30 s, men 30 s.
Finals start from zero; at most 2 per country in individual finals.

Sources and credits

Artistic gymnastics, Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted by Ganzaa.
International Gymnastics Federation, Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted by Ganzaa.
FIG Codes of Points 2025–2028 and Technical Regulations, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique: rules summarised, not copied.
Floor diagram, worked examples and practice: written by Ganzaa.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1Raise an arm, wait for the light

2Competition structure

3Rules the gymnast must obey

4Apparatus rules worth knowing

Raise an arm, wait for the light

Competition structure

Rules the gymnast must obey

Apparatus rules worth knowing