Every ELITE gymnast should be able to do at least ONE of these moves

The double layout is one of the most beautiful skills in women's gymnastics, when properly executed, of course. It consists of a double salto backward with a fully straight body. However, a slightly arched position is allowed, which also helps to make the skill more aesthetically pleasing in most cases. It carries an F rating, and some gymnasts perform it in combination to increase their start values, like the explosive Vanessa Attler, who added a punch front at the end, the powerful Kristen Maloney, who linked it to a backward whip, or the dynamic Claudia Fragappani, who jumped out of it. The double layout has been around since the 80s and was very popular during the 90s, with many of the top athletes using it as their opening pass. Three decades later, it continues to be a pretty common skill in a multitude of floor routines. The three-and-a-half twist carries an F rating as well, but it's much less common. It consists of a salto backward laid out with three-and-a-half rotations, and it's fair to say it can be a bit of a deduction-prone skill, since we often see underrotated landings, which are pretty dangerous for the knee and ankle joints. In addition, we may also find some of the most common deductions associated with twisting elements, like the crossing or separation of the legs, which incur a one-tenth deduction each, or the slightly bent knees, also a one-tenth deduction. Nonetheless, some gymnasts have taken the three-and-a-half twist to a whole new level by adding a salto at the end of the pass, which increases their difficulty score by two-tenths and helps to control the landing. The Podkopaeva II consists of a double salto forward in a tucked position with a half-twist and is valued at F. It was submitted by Ukrainian gymnast Liliya Podkopaeva in 1995, and only a select group of gymnasts have performed it since. Forward tumbling is, unfortunately, not very common in women's gymnastics, and in most performances, athletes will cowboy their legs to rotate faster, which causes body-shaped deductions up to three-tenths depending on the width, and on top of that, it also makes the skill less pleasing to watch. The Dowel was submitted at the 2015 World Championships by American gymnast Brenna Dowell and given an F rating. It consists of a double salto forward in a piked position and favors the most explosive and dynamic athletes, especially when performed without a hand-supported element. This skill was actually first performed by Swedish gymnast Veronica Wagner all the way in 2006. However, she was unable to successfully submit it at an official competition. As mentioned before, forward tumbling, especially this hard, is pretty rare in women's gymnastics, so don't expect to find the dowel in many routines. The Dos Santos I looks similar to the dowel, however, this one has a backward take-off, therefore joining the Arabian family of elements. It carries an F rating as well and is described by the technical committee as an Arabian double salto forward in a piked position. Brazil's Dayane Dos Santos successfully landed this outstanding tumbling pass at the 2003 World Championships, hence carrying her name in the rulebook of the discipline. It's not an extremely common skill when compared to a double layout, for example, but its popularity has grown in the past decade. Some athletes add a dance element at the end to earn an extra tenth in bonus and avoid landing deductions. Overall, the double-piked Arabian is beautiful to watch when the correct execution is presented. The Maldonado is definitely one of the rarest skills on this list. It was born in 2019, after Andrea Maldonado submitted it at the Cottbus World Cup, and it consists of a salto forward laid out with three twists. To date, the Puerto Rican gymnast has most likely been the only female athlete to perform it in competition. Twisting elements with a forward blind landing can be quite taxing on the knees and ankles if underrotated, so this F-rated skill does require a good amount of height and a sharp twisting technique to avoid a dangerous landing. The Geron is the most recent addition to the list of most difficult skills on floor. It was submitted by Hilary Geron from Panama at the 2024 Cairo World Cup, and received an F rating from the technical committee. This element had been performed by multiple gymnasts since at least 2004. However, it took 20 years to finally be added to the rulebook of the discipline, as it hadn't been successfully executed at an FIG official competition yet. It consists of a double salto backward tucked with one and a half twists, and its blind landing makes it a bit more of a challenge to perform cleanly. What's your favorite floor skill in this list?