A bluffer's guide to artistic gymnastics: Uneven bars

What you don't see when gymnasts swing around the uneven bars is the state of their hands. Despite wearing handguards (or grips, in America), which counteracts some of the friction created from hours of skin against the bars made of fibreglass covered in wood laminate, gymnast's hands are more often than not covered in sores and blisters. It's par for the course, and everyone has their own way of patching themselves up, but also look out for the kerfuffle involved in the preparation of the bars before each routine.

Each gymnast – only women do uneven bars but the following is true of most bar events for both genders – has their own exacting way of preparing the apparatus. Some like it super tacky, some like chalk caked on, some add honey – yes honey – those gymnasts are not falling off, but one thing is for certain, the scraping, chalking, and water-spraying between each gymnast's routine can resemble a whirling dervish of a chef in a kitchen.

But then, briefly, there's that momentary pause between the gymnast presenting to the judges and taking a deep steadying breath, before launching into the routine.

An example of a cracking bars routine is gymnastics' fan favourite and Rio 2016 bars champion, Aliya Mustafina from Russia. Recently retired but the current Olympic champion on the event – for another few weeks anyway – check out her leg extension and toe point. Gorgeous.

What to look out for

Now, what you're looking for in a nice routine is one move flowing fluidly into the next, toes pointed, legs locked together a la Mustafina – unless doing a move that requires otherwise – each move through a gorgeous handstand, perpendicular to 12 noon on a clock face, crisp rotations on the bar, high release-and-catch somersaults (the catch part of that is pretty important to be fair), and a high floaty dismount that lands without a murmur of movement of the feet.

Gymnasts need to string together movements in both directions as well as above and below the different height bars – the low bar is 170cm high and the top bar often around 250cm – the distance between the two set at a maximum of 180cm. Elements with twists and somersaults with multiple grip changes and high flight often are awarded with the highest scores. The more difficult a move, the better, and if you can combine that difficult move with another difficult move, then you – quite rightly – get a bonus.

Some of the best routines don't look that long but that's because they have less superfluous moves that don't add much value but make it slightly easier to move into the next element.

Scores on all apparatus these days are made up of an execution score (the E score) and the difficulty score (the D score). Both marks are shown to viewers, so for fans of the old-school perfect 10 scoring system, check out the E score. This starts at 10 and marks are removed by judges for loss of form such as toes that are not pointed or a fall from the apparatus.

The D score is the total marks calculated by judges from the value given to each move performed by the gymnast via a Code of Points, which is renewed every Olympic cycle. In Mustafina's routine above, which is from the women's uneven bars final in Brazil, she scores a hefty 15.900. That's 6.800 in difficulty and 9.100 in execution.

Here comes a science bit

Right so Tokyo 2020 has delved into a few events now in this Bluffer’s guide series, so you’re ready for something a little more technical – a move on bars called the Nabs. Originally performed by retired Russian gymnast, Tatiana Nabieva, in 2010, the move is just so floaty and gorgeous.

So you're looking at the move at the beginning of the routine where she puts her toes on the bars and then flies backwards in a straight position over the bar to catch again.

When a gymnast competes an original move for the first time, it is named after them, hence this one is called the Nabieva, now shortened to Nabs by the gymnastics community. The move is so hard, just a handful of gymnasts do it even now. The video shows Nabieva debuting the move way back in 2010.

The full term for the move is a toe-on layout Tkatchev but all you need to take on board from that is that the gymnast must be in a straight position as per America's Sunisa Lee in the photo below. Some gymnasts pike down, that is, bend forward at the waist, which makes the move slightly easier, but is just not the perfection that is required.

This is what the gymnastics community is in all of a dither about, whether some of the attempts are actually 'Nabs' or 'not quite there Nabs'.

The amusing thing is, the few gymnasts who have competed the Nabs have loads of comments on the posts about whether someone thinks it's a Nabs or not.

But there's one social media poster who has suddenly appeared of late of which they all take note, and who has the definitive say on whether it is definitely a Nabieva or not. Tatiana Nabieva herself.

What to expect in the uneven bars apparatus final

Any apparatus final tends to be a free-for-all in terms of those winning medals, so expect emotional moments from unexpected winners. Many of the top gymnasts will have already competed over three days in the qualifiers, the team event, and individual all-around competitions, so start to get weary by the latter stages of the nine-day event.

This is when the apparatus specialists step up, those who focus on one or two events only, and some of the lower profile gymnastics nations come to the fore. Some gymnasts have literally just qualified for Tokyo 2020 for one of the apparatus, via various events and World Cups leading up to the Games. Their country may not have even have qualified a team. So for them, it’s all or nothing in the qualifiers, trying to make the top eight. If they make a mistake, that’s it, Games over.

So who to look out for come the Olympic uneven bars final on Sunday 1 August?

Basically, anyone who has made the final and who has the difficulty and goes through a clean routine is in with a shout of a medal at this point.

Mustafina will not be around to try and make it a threepeat but two to look out for are Lee – her of the beautiful Nabs above, and Belgium's Nina Derwael, the two-time world champion on the event from 2018 and the most recent world championships in 2019 in Stuttgart, Germany.

Derwael is considered tall as a gymnast, at 5ft 6ins (168cm) so has been innovative on the event throughout her career.

Back to Lee and it appears, as of the US Classic earlier this month, she now has the most difficult routine in the world so if she hits, well she could be in with a shout in Tokyo. And check out the Nabs here too. See? You know what you're looking at now so you are ready to bluff your way through the uneven bars event at Tokyo 2020.

If you need some help bluffing your way through other artistic gymnastics events at Tokyo 2020, head to the others covered so far in the bluffer's guide series: Vault, Rings, Pommel Horse, Beam, Floor, Parallel Bars,

The artistic gymnastics qualification starts on Saturday 24 July 2021. Next up in the weekly bluffer's guide to artistic gymnastics series, is the spectacular high bar, published Tuesday 6 July.