Talk:Flip (acrobatic)

UK trampoline "flips" -- definition problem?
In gymnastics in the UK a flip is NOT a somersault. It is any acrobatic move, landing on two feet, with siginficant travel where rotation is generated through the shoulders by leaning in to the move and using the strength of the mid section to whip the legs over the top. Therefore a handspring is a flip as is a back-handspring, commonly termed a back-flip in the UK, also an aerial, a layout on floor and a round-off. Tuck or pike front and back somersaults are not flips and neither is a straight back on the trampoline because rotation is generated from the hips and travel is minimal.87.114.253.187 (talk) 14:09, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't understand what you mean when you say that rotation is "generated through the shoulders" (or hips). Can you be more concise? Lambtron (talk) 15:49, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

I think what I have said would be clear to a person with any understanding of acrobatic techniques. In a flip you lean forwards to rotate forwards or backwards to rotate backwards. In a handspring you jump into it leaning and reaching forwards (you can see the dancer perfoming the aerial does the same thing), in a backflip (known as a back-handspring in the USA) you lean and throw your arms back. In a somersault you reach up, regardless of direction of rotation. To generate forwards rotation you push your hips back on take off, to rotate backwards you push your hips forwards. If you watch the Olympics coverage of the trampolining, you will see this is the technique trampolininst use to generate rotation (there are no flips in trampolining) but artistic gymnasts use it too. It is just clearer to see in trampolining because the moves are so much lower and faster on the floor. 87.114.253.187 (talk) 21:12, 8 September 2012 (UTC)


 * It's possible that an acrobat might know what is meant by "rotation is generated through the shoulders", but that phrase is literally meaningless and therefore of no value to the average reader. The proposed definition has several other problems as well. For example, "significant travel" is ambiguous; does that mean that a movement can optionally become a flip simply by traveling further, and if so, how much further? I don't doubt that you are on to something here, but there must be a more concise way to define a UK flip. Lambtron (talk) 05:04, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

I didn't claim the information was understandable by the average reader, that's why I put it on the talk page and didn't try to edit the article. I am a basic level trampoline coach with little experience in floor gymnastics so I can't speak with real authortiy about artistic and acrobatic gymnastics. The ideal is that a somersault would have zero movement because all rotation is generated by pushing the hips either forwards or backwards, with no lean in with the shoulders, but that often isn't actually achievable on the floor and in some instances, e.g. a dismount from a vaulting horse or beam it would obviously not be desirable, the same goes for high board diving. That is why I used the phrase "significant travel". The travel in a flip is a result of the different take off, leaning in to the move and leading with the shoulders so I would say it is the manner of the take-off and the way in which the rotation is created that is the defining feature. The travel is a consequence which is easily apparent and might help a person who is not familiar with acrobatic sport to differentiate the two. On a trampoline you are always aiming for a pure somersault take off but on floor you might see both techniques used in conjunction so I think it would be a question of which dominates. Watching the Olympics I can see that while high board divers must lean a little into their dives to avoid hitting the board or platform on the way down they predominantly generate rotation using a somersault technique. Tuck and pike shapes aren't recognised in flips in gymnastics and I don't think they make a lot of sense in a flip from a biomechanics standpoint. Flips are usually performed hyper-extended, i.e. with an arched back, and the gymnast uses their abdominal muscles to whip their legs over, but if you tuck or pike it causes your back to round so you can't do that. I've seen people accidently flip when attempting tucked somersaults on the trampoline but it is dangerous because of the travel and because it is less controlled. I think the somersault/flip distinction might be why a similar move is sometimes called a straight-back somersault and sometimes a back layout but as I say, I'm no gymnastics expert. It is not such an easy thing to explain without recourse to diagrams or demonstration. I really just thought I'd put this up here so if someone who does know about acrobatics/gymnastics comes to edit this page and they are American then they might take account of the difference in terminology in the UK that they might not otherwise be aware of.87.114.253.187 (talk) 23:33, 9 September 2012 (UTC)


 * The generic term "flip" is commonly used for a variety of acrobatic moves; it's meaning is widely understood by laymen and the definition given in this article conforms well to that understanding. Even the somersault article says that "a somersault is an acrobatic exercise in which a person does a full 360° flip". The discrepancy you mentioned seems to apply only to trampolining in the UK; it doesn't appear to be applicable to acrobatics in general or other gymnastics genres, or to trampolining outside the UK. Even so, this issue deserves dicussion in this article (and in somersault, trampolining, and elsewhere) if a reliable source confirms that trampoline moves are not flips. Lambtron (talk) 14:39, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

I did say I was talking about in the UK. Wikipedia articles are supposed to be international and a lot of people in the UK do use Wikipedia. Also it may not be correct to assume that all countries or even all English speaking countries except the UK use the same terminology as the USA. While trampolining is more my area this does also apply to other branches of gymnastics in the UK such as artistic and acrobatic. Certainly what Americans call a back-hanspring is called a backflip in UK floor (artistic and acrobatic) gymnastics so you can see it is not a requirement of a flip in UK gymnastics that the hands do not touch the floor. It probably doesn't apply to things like skateboarding, bmx or dancesports which take their terminology from the USA. I am not saying the page should adopt the UK definition, I am saying it is an area of confusion which it is very much within the scope of the article to address and attempt to clarify. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.114.253.187 (talk) 12:05, 12 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I totally agree with you. I searched extensively for suitable references after you brought this to my attention, but unfortunately, I didn't find even one. For example, I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a reliable source that confirms (or even implies) that in the UK (or anywhere else for that matter), a tuck is not classified as a flip. I then tried casting a wider net, but couldn't find any authoritative source that categorizes moves as flips or non-flips based on travel distance or rotational energy source. If you can cite reliable sources that expound your understanding of this issue, please do so; otherwise it seems we will have to wait for an expert (or at least a better researcher than me) to address this. Lambtron (talk) 14:59, 12 September 2012 (UTC)