“Being a gymnast means having the strength to hold on and the courage to let go.” – Simone Biles. This is one of  my favorite quotes because you have to have a lot of strength to do bars and you have to have a lot of courage to do all your skills. Today I’ll be telling you all about bars and why it is so difficult.

Things to know about bars, bars take a lot of upper body strength so you have to be really strong. Bars are one of the hardest events in women’s gymnastics and in the 80’s they had super hard skills that got banned. They were considered too dangerous to compete and if you messed up the skill you could get seriously hurt and possibly could die. One skill that got banned is called “Korbut Flip” which is where you stand on the high bar and do a back flip and recatch the bar.

What I know about bars, I don’t know a whole lot because I’ve only been in gymnastics for 3 years. I love bars even though I don’t get the best of scores. My bars routine is easy but hard because it’s so hard to keep your legs straight and your toes pointed. If you don’t have your toes pointed, you will get a 0.05 to 0.10 deduction per occurrence. One of my favorite skills on bars is a kip, which is where you jump to the low bar and glide, then bring your toes up to the bar, slide your legs up, then you land with your hips on the bar.

What another gymnast knows about bars. Sometimes it’s nice to get other opinions about gymnastics from different people, because routines are different for every person, and you don’t know they process the skills when they do them. For this topic I will be interviewing one of my friends who is also a gymnast and her name is Addy Moree.

Q: Why do you like bars?
A: It’s a really fun event and lots of skills you can learn and there is no limit to how many skills you can learn
Q: How long have you been doing bars?
A: 8 years
Q: What is your favorite skill on bars?
A: My favorite skill I’ve ever done on bars is a fly away (which is where you do a back flip off of the high bar and land on a mat). Thank you, Addy, for letting me interview you and ask you questions about bars.

I hope you learned lots about bars and why they are so difficult, and I hope you will now have a little more respect for gymnastics. For bars, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Here is a link to watch Suni Lee’s crazy bars routine at the 2024 Olympics.