Event
Floor exercise

Skill type
Dance

Value
A

Known as
Cat leap
Scissor leap tucked

Named After
Things cats have literally never done. Have you seen a cat? I’m worried you’ve never seen a cat.

About
The cat leap went missing for a decade (typical cats…), absent from the code between 2006 and 2016 when the simplest credited version of this element was the cat leap with full turn at A (0.1) value. In 2017, it finally came home.

A cat leap is supposed to involve some manner of flight with the knees alternately lifted off the ground above horizontal, but when we still see it in NCAA beam (mostly the only time you’re going to see a cat leap nowadays), this doesn’t so much happen. It’s basically just walking.

It could be a solid option for a gymnast who needs an element to be the first leap in a passage of dance (with no intention to count it for difficulty) and wants to do the simplest possible thing. Cat leap.