Half-in, Half-out: A tumbling skill and bar dismount that consists of a double salto with a half twist on the first salto and a half twist on the second salto, usually done like an arabian double front with a half. 

Hamstring: The muscle at the back of thigh which is stretched when bending forward in a pike position with the leg straight. 

Hand Guards: Also called Grips  Designed to help gymnasts on the bars, P-bars and rings.  They are usually made up of a strip of leather and a wrist strap and held on with either a Velcro strap or a buckle. The strip of leather has finger holes up the top. The gymnast’s fingers should go down to the first knuckle and the number of these holes in the grips depends on the apparatus. On women's uneven parallel bars and men’s high bar, the grips only go over the third and fourth fingers, but men's rings grips go over the index finger as well. Wrist guards are normally worn under grips and are cotton or foam padded bands.  Some coaches and gymnasts make simple grips out of athletic tape. Gymnasts use varying amounts of water, spit and chalk to prepare their grips just he way they want them.  In general, with dowels produce a better grip on the bar and grips are used to help reduce friction between the bar and as the less friction that is generated, the less likely that rips (torn open blisters) will occur. 

Handspring:  A front or back tumbling skill that takes off the feet onto the hands and back onto the feet.  It is commonly a set-up for a front or back salto.  See also Flip-Flop, Front Handspring, Back Handspring

Handspring Front: A term used to indicate either a tumbling pass or vault involving a handspring and front salto.  The handspring front vault is a double front vault with a handspring on the front side and a front salto on the back side.  The tumbling pass is two skill performed in sequence a front handspring directly connected into a front salto.

Handstand: An inverted gymnastics control skill performed by supporting the body on both hands, with the arms straight and the body vertical. It is a core gymnastics skill and used or passed through on every gymnastics event.  Performing a solid handstand requires above-average upper body strength. In a proper handstand, the legs are together, but there are a large variety of optional leg positions used on floor and beam. 

Hayden: This is a high bar skill named after U.S. gymnast Daniel Hayden. It consists of a double salto backward in layout, with full twist over the bar.  It has been rated by the FIG as a D level skill. 

Head In: This is a body position in gymnastics, usually in a handstand, during tumbling or during a giant, where the gymnast’s head is down, with their chin tucked in on their chest or close to it.   This is the correct head position on handstands and many tumbling, bars and beam skills.  It is a commonly heard coaching correction.

Head Out: A gymnast’s head is up and their chin is tilted back.  This automatically causes an arch in the back, which is a weak body position.  There are very few skills in gymnastics and virtually none on bars where having the head out is desirable.

Healy: A common maneuver on the parallel bars and now on uneven bars, high bar, beam and floor where a gymnast starts in a handstand and then falls forward, lifts one arm and executing a full-turn.  On the P-bars, a gymnast re-catches the bar in a support position and usually continues swinging to a handstand.  On high bar and unevens, the gymnast re-catches the bar in a L-grip and continues swinging. On floor and beam, the gymnast lands out of a healy in a seated position
 

Heel Drive: Coaches use this term or correction to inform their gymnasts that they want them to drive their heels harder up and over on the front side of a handspring vault or front handspring on floor.  Increasing heel drive creates more rotation and potential for block and power to be utilized on vault or tumbling. 

Henrich: A balance beam skill named after U.S. gymnast Christy Henrich.   The skill consists of a stag-split,r split leap or jump forward with ½ turn, landing on both feet or in a one-two step-out.  It can also refer to a split jump in side position with bending of rear leg backward upward that starts from a cross stand. The skill has been rated by the FIG as a C level skill and its FIG number is 2.301.

High Bar: This term denotes either the men’s horizontal bar apparatus or event.  It can also refer to the top bar on the women’s uneven bars.

Hip Circle: A very basic bar circling skill done on the uneven bars or high bar in which the body circles around the bar with the body touching the bar at the hips and the hands and arms supporting the body.  There are both front hip circles (usually done out of a kip) and back hip circles (done out of a cast).  Neither of these skills are used in optional competition any more.  Back hip circles are a progression of free hips. Both hip circles are currently used as USA Gymnastics Compulsory skills.

Hip Flexors: The set of leg muscles and ligaments including the iliopsoas muscle and the iliofemoral ligament which helps control the turnout of the legs from the hip and are primarily responsible for lifting the leg upward. While raising the leg to the front, the hip flexors contract. When the leg is raised to the rear, the hip flexors are stretched and extended.

Hollow:  A term referring to a gymnastics body position, where hips are turned under, the butt is tucked in and the chest is rounded forward. This is a very important body position in the sport of gymnastics and must be memorized and strengthened.  It is often subtly used in connection with a slight arch position to initiate or control gymnastics movements on every event.

Horizontal Bar: A men’s gymnastics competitive apparatus consisting of uprights holding a metal bar 240 centimeters (8 & ½ feet) long and 2.8 centimeters (1.1 inches) in diameters, and set at a height of 275 centimeters (9 feet off the floor.  The bar is designed to deal with a force of around 200,000 pounds per square inch of force and is bolted to the floor and held down with four cables to deal with the tremendous G-forces generated during circling skill and tap swings. 

Horse: Formerly, the official gymnastics apparatus for vaulting for both men and women.  It was long and narrow and women vaulted over it sideways and men vaulted over it the long way.  It is no longer used for vaulting and has been replaced by the new vaulting apparatus – the vault table. 

Humphrey: A floor skill named after U.S. gymnast Terin Humphrey. She first performed it in international competition in 2004. It consists of switch split leap forward with a ¼ turn to side split leap or straddle pike position.  It has been rated by the FIG as a D level skill and its FIG number is 3.406.

Hurdle: This term refers to a gymnastics transition from a run to a tumbling skill, most commonly a round-off or a front handspring. A hurdle resembles a skip. In actual gymnastics competition, the hurdle is done from a full-speed run.  For training purposes, a power hurdle is often done where the hurdle is done from a two-foot stand.  This term also refers to the transition skill from the vault run to the two-foot landing on the vault springboard or into the round-off in Yurchenko vaults.  Hurdle steps onto the vault springboard should be long and low to best transfer running momentum to vault momentum.  This is a very critical skill to master for both tumbling and vaulting as it will determine the upper limit of power that can be created.
 

Gymnastics Dictionary