This week, Yang Fanyuwei successfully performed the full-twisting layout Jaeger on uneven bars at the 2025 Antalya World Cup qualifiers, making the skill officially named after her. Suni Lee had also attempted the skill at the Winter Cup but slipped off the bars and, due to not meeting international assignment criteria, focused on making the Olympic team instead. Now that the skill has been named after Yang Fanyuwei, Lee has indicated she may be officially retired.
Though I’m sad for Lee, I can’t be mad that Yang has the skill named after her. Not only is her full twisting jaeger beautifully razor straight, but she connects it out of a one arm pirouette the Chinese gymnasts are famous for, meaning she goes into it with her shoulder fully twisted in the wrong direction (Think of how you would do a chin up, then twist your hands 360 degrees outwards until they are grabbing the bar in the same direction.). That is the grip from which Yang Fanyuwei completed one of the hardest release moves a woman has ever done.
In honor of Yang Fanyuwei, here are some other innovations I’d like to see on uneven bars:
- The McNamara mount out of a stalder: Julienne McNamara’s mount, inspired by men’s gymnastics, involves a direct free hip to handstand from a stand. Male gymnasts like Brody Malone perform a similar mount on parallel bars. McNamara does it on high bar instead by jumping into a free hip to handstand. It always surprises me that no women really train this — it requires strength, yes, but avoids a kip or cast to handstand, and it’s eligible for a D connection bonus. In terms of naming, the only mount in the code is the free hip version. Following the logic of the code, a stalder or toe-on variation would likewise be rated D, and an inbar version could be an E.
- A ‘front’ pak: When I was (trying to) learn straddle backs to handstand, this is a skill I accidentally did many times. This would be a front-flipping version of a Pak: a straight-body straddle back caught past handstand in an undergrip, then swinging forward. It’s possible the code as it is written would consider this still a variation of a straddle back, which may be why no one has tried it, but I think this is a different skill — it would be caught not in a handstand, but at the same angle as a pak, more like a front layout flyaway. Since a straddle back is a C and a regular pak is a D, I’d expect this to be rated D. The main challenge would be connecting out, but an endo stalder could work. Someone like Yang Fanyuwei could do an E pirouette — front pak — endo ½, earning 0.20 in bonus and leaving room for additional Shaposhnikova-style connections.
- Mukhina/Ma dismounts from other shapes: Hip Hecht dismounts have fallen out of style, but they could make a great comeback. In gymnastics, Hecht transitions involve a free hip, stalder or inbar followed by a backwards release to catch the high bar. The code also includes Elena Mukhina’s free hip to back tuck dismount (D), as well as harder versions with a half-turn (E) and full twist (F, named after Ma Yanhong). These dismounts can be performed off both low and high bars, and some gymnasts have already done them from a clear hip; the non-twisting version is currently being competed by Dutch gymnast Elze Geurts and also was competed from a true hip circle by uneven bars legend Shantessa Pama back in 2006. While the first step is to bring back the Mukhina/Ma style dismounts, I’d love to see gymnasts try them from stalders and eventually inbars. I’m unsure if the inbar version would be rated higher, though it seems unlikely based on the ratings of Hecht transitions (all Cs).
