How long do you have to hold a planche for it to count?
Two seconds from a complete stop, in a shape the gymnastics rulebook still recognizes. What that means for your elbows and your body line, and how to time your own hold so the number is honest.
Short answer
Two seconds, counted from the moment you reach a complete stop. The FIG Men's Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points sets that as the minimum for every hold element Art. 9.2.15. A shorter hold still counts but costs a 0.3 deduction, and a planche that never stops doesn't count at all. The seconds also have to be in the shape: bend the elbows more than 45° or tip the body more than 45° off horizontal and the element isn't recognized. Inside those limits, every visible bend and every few degrees of tilt is a deduction, so a hold can count without being clean.
The two-second rule
Gymnastics has a written answer to "does it count?". In the men's Code of Points, Article 9.2.15 says: "All hold elements must be held for a minimum of 2 seconds." The rest of the paragraph sets the price of falling short. Two seconds or more costs nothing. Less than two seconds is a medium error, 0.3. A hold with no stop at all is a large error, and the judges don't recognize the element.
Where you start the clock matters more than people expect. The code counts from "a complete stop position", so the two seconds begin once you're in the shape and still: arms straight, shoulders ahead of the hands, feet off the floor, nothing drifting. If you time from take-off to touch-down, you're also counting the lean into the hold and the fall out of it, and on a short attempt those can take up a surprising share of the clip.
Calisthenics competitions write their own rules, and most training talk online doesn't use any. The gymnastics code is the one standard that's public, numbered and the same for everyone, so it's the yardstick this post uses. It's also the one SkillScan measures against.
What counts as the shape: your elbows
The code says the arms must stay straight for the whole hold and deducts on a sliding scale when they bend Art. 9.2.8. The second column turns the code's bend into the elbow angle you'd measure on video, where 180° is a perfectly straight arm.
Bent arms in holds, FIG MAG Code of Points 2025-2028, Art. 9.2.8 and 9.4
| Bend from straight | Elbow angle | What a judge does |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 15° | 165° to 180° | Small deduction, 0.1 |
| Over 15° to 30° | 150° to 165° | Medium deduction, 0.3 |
| Over 30° to 45° | 135° to 150° | Large deduction, 0.5 |
| Over 45° | Under 135° | Large deduction, element not recognized |
The table starts at the first visible bend. A slight bend already costs a small deduction, and locked arms are the only way to avoid it. Bent elbows are also the fault phone footage hides best: a front-on or high camera can make a 20° bend look straight.
What counts as the shape: your body line
The second limit is how far the body sits from the ideal position, which for a planche is a straight body parallel to the floor Art. 9.2.9.
Angular deviation from the perfect hold position, Art. 9.2.9
| Deviation from horizontal | What a judge does |
|---|---|
| Up to 5° | No deduction |
| Over 5° to 20° | Small deduction, 0.1 |
| Over 20° to 45° | Medium deduction, 0.3 |
| Over 45° | Large deduction, element not recognized |
Hips piked above the line, legs sagging below it and a body tilted with the head high all count as deviation. Five degrees is a small margin. Most people can't see a 10° tilt in a mirror, and the planche lean makes the body look flatter from the front than it is from the side.
Which planches are in the code
The men's code lists two planches as floor elements: the straddle planche is an A element worth 0.1, and the full planche a C element worth 0.3 FIG MAG CoP 2025-2028 · Floor, Element Group I. The planche also appears on rings. Both carry "(2 s.)" next to their names. The tuck and advanced tuck planche aren't in the code at all.
So the first planche that can be credited in the gymnastics sense is a straddle, held two seconds inside the limits above. That doesn't make a tuck planche worthless; it's how nearly everyone gets there. The same elbow and body-line limits are still the fairest way to judge a tuck, because they're the limits that will apply once you reach straddle, and holding them early saves you from building a habit you'll have to undo.
Held versus clean
A stopwatch gives you one number. Judged against the code, the same hold has two: how long you were in a recognizable planche at all, and how much of that time stayed inside the smallest deduction band.
A diagram with example numbers, not a real athlete's scan. The stopwatch says 10.2 seconds. For 4.1 of them, the elbows were within 15° of straight and the body within 20° of horizontal.
SkillScan calls these seconds held and seconds clean. In the app, a clean second is one where the elbows stay within 15° of straight and the body within 20° of horizontal, which is the small-deduction band on both of the tables above. The gap between the two numbers points at the fault that's costing you time.
How to time your own hold honestly
You don't need an app to get an honest number. You need a fair camera angle and a rule for when the clock runs.
- Film side-on, with the camera level at about hip height and your whole body in frame. Front-on and high angles hide elbow bend and tilt.
- Start counting on the first frame where you're set and still: arms straight, shoulders past the hands, feet off the floor.
- Stop on the first frame where the elbows bend past 45° or the body drops past 45°. For clean seconds, stop at the first visible bend instead.
- Log anything under two seconds as an attempt, even though a judge would still credit it with a deduction.
- Film from the same spot each time, so the number moves because you did.
Scrubbing frame by frame on a phone works. It's slow, and estimating a 15° elbow bend by eye is hard, which is the job SkillScan was built to do.
How long to hold before moving to the next step
This is a training question, so the answers are coaching conventions rather than rules. GMB suggests working up to five sets of 20 seconds on a step before moving on GMB · planche guide. A common rule of thumb online is 10 to 15 seconds at a tier before you start attempting the next one. Steven Low's tables put training holds at about 60 to 70% of your best, so a 10-second best becomes sets of about 7 seconds Steven Low · isometric tables.
Whichever you follow, count the clean seconds. Isometric strength builds mostly at the joint angle you train Lum & Barbosa 2019, so seconds held with bent elbows mostly train the bent-elbow position.
Questions people ask
Does a 1-second planche count?
In gymnastics judging, yes, with a 0.3 deduction, as long as you reached a complete stop. Two seconds is the minimum for no deduction, and a planche that never stops isn't recognized. For your own training log, it's fairer to call a 1-second hold an attempt.
Does a planche with bent arms count?
Up to 45° of bend, a judge still recognizes the element and takes a deduction: 0.1, 0.3 or 0.5 depending on how far the elbows bend. Past 45° it isn't a planche by the code anymore. Most clips posted with "does this count?" sit in the small or medium band.
Does a tuck planche count as a planche?
It's a planche progression, and nobody will argue if you call it a tuck planche. It isn't an element in the gymnastics code, though. The straddle planche is the first one that is.
How can I tell if my body is horizontal?
Film side-on with the camera level at hip height, then look at the line from shoulder to hip to ankle against the floor. More than 5° off horizontal is a deduction, and more than 45° means the element isn't recognized. A 10° tilt is hard to see by eye, so a measured angle helps.
Does a planche lean count as a planche?
No. In a lean your feet stay on the floor, so it's a drill that builds the shoulder position. The two-second clock only starts once your feet are off the ground and you're still in the shape.
