Planche form check: 7 ways to find out if your hold counts
A stopwatch, a mirror, scrubbing your own video, desktop analysis software, asking online, paying a coach, or a measuring app. What each one can and can't tell you about a planche, and what it costs.
Short answer
A planche form check has to answer two things: how long you were in the shape, and whether the shape was good enough to count. A stopwatch only answers the first, and it counts the entry and the fall too. Your own eye, a mirror or strangers online can spot big faults but rarely agree on small ones. To get both answers you need side-on video and a standard: either you measure the angles yourself (free, slow), a coach judges it (about $8 to $57 a month), or a measuring app does it in seconds. SkillScan, which I build, is the one that measures against the gymnastics Code of Points, and its scans are free.
What a form check has to answer
"Does this count?" is the most common caption on a planche clip, and the replies usually disagree. That's because there are two questions in it.
The first is time. The gymnastics code counts a hold from the moment you reach a complete stop, and two seconds is the minimum for no deduction FIG MAG CoP 2025-2028 · Art. 9.2.15.
The second is shape. A judge deducts for any bend in the elbows and for a body more than 5° off horizontal, and stops recognizing the planche past 45° on either Art. 9.2.8, 9.2.9. How long to hold a planche has the full tables.
Every method below answers one or both, with different accuracy, cost and effort.
The seven methods compared
Ways to check a planche, compared. Prices as listed on 6 November 2026
| Method | Cost | Times the hold | Checks elbows and body line | Against a written standard | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stopwatch or stopwatch camera | Free | Partly Whole clip, entry and fall included | No | No | Low |
| Mirror | Free | No | Partly Front view only | No | Low |
| Film and scrub frame by frame | Free | Yes By hand | Partly By eye | Partly If you apply one | Medium |
| Video analysis software | Free to about $15/mo | Yes By hand | Yes Angles you draw | Partly If you apply one | High |
| Asking online | Free | No | Partly Opinions | No | Low, then wait |
| Paid human form check | About $8 to $57/mo | Partly | Yes A coach's eye | Partly The coach's own | Low, then wait |
| Measuring app | Free to subscription | Yes Automatic | Yes Measured | Partly Depends on the app | Low |
1. A stopwatch, or a stopwatch camera
The default, and fine for tracking whether you're getting stronger. Camera apps like StopwatchCamera burn a running clock into the video, which is free and saves you a second phone.
What it can't do is tell a planche from a bent-arm lean. The clock also runs from whenever you start it, so it counts the lean into the hold and the fall out of it. A stopwatch overlay is good evidence that you were up for a while, and no evidence of what shape you were in.
2. A mirror
A mirror gives you feedback while you hold, which nothing else here does. The problem is the angle. Most gym mirrors face you, and the two faults the code deducts for, bent elbows and a tilted body, are side-view faults. To see yourself side-on you'd have to turn your head, which changes the shape you're checking.
3. Filming yourself and scrubbing frame by frame
Free and surprisingly good if you do it carefully. Prop the phone side-on at hip height with your whole body in frame, film the attempt, then step through it in your photo app. Count from the first frame where you're still in the shape to the first frame where the elbows or the hips go.
The weak spot is the angle judgement. The difference between a 165° elbow (small deduction) and a 150° one (medium) is hard to see by eye, especially on a small screen, and it's easy to be generous with yourself.
4. Video analysis software
Kinovea is free, open-source desktop software for exactly this kind of work: you can measure angles and times on a video by hand, or follow points with semi-automatic tracking kinovea.org. Its site offers a Windows installer, so you'll need to move the clip to a computer. OnForm is an iPhone and Android video platform built for coaches, with slow motion, markup, side-by-side comparison and subscriptions from $4.99 a month.
These give you real angles instead of guesses. They're also the slowest option here, and neither comes with a planche standard. You draw the lines and decide what counts.
5. Asking online
Posting the clip with "does this count?" costs nothing and sometimes gets a useful reply from someone experienced. More often you get three answers that disagree, because each person is using their own idea of a clean planche and judging from whatever angle you filmed. It's a good way to get encouragement and a poor way to get a measurement.
6. Paying a coach for a form check
A good coach sees things no camera does: your shoulder blades, your wrists, how you got into the hold. Online communities sell this at a range of prices. Two that mention the planche: Calisthenics Academy's CA Foundation on Whop lists $37 a month for its first 50 founding members ($57 regular) with two form-check submissions a month, and Calisthenics Monks on Skool lists $8 a month, with a note that the price is rising, and direct feedback on your training videos.
The trade-offs are cost per check, a cap on how many clips you can send, and waiting for a reply. Coaches also judge by their own standard, which may or may not match the gymnastics one.
7. A measuring app
These apps look at your clip and return something about your form within a minute. They differ mainly in what they measure against.
SkillScan, which I build, measures the planche against the FIG Men's Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points. You get seconds held, seconds clean (elbows within 15° of straight, body within 20° of horizontal), the fault behind the gap and the frame where your form broke. Scans are free every session; the paid part is a training plan.
CaliLens scores 11 skills out of 100 against its own published rulebook and runs on Android too. CaliPro scores 1 to 100 against "reference form". Calis AI and FormCheck give feedback without naming a standard, and Calis AI needs a subscription to scan. The best planche apps in 2026 compares all five.
The limits are the same for all of them. A phone camera filming from the side measures elbows, body line and time well. It can't see your shoulder blades, and it doesn't know whether you used a band.
Which one to use
Use a stopwatch to log training, and a mirror if it helps you feel the position. When you want to know whether a hold counts, film it side-on. From there, scrubbing it yourself is free and slow, a measuring app is fast, and a coach is the one who can also tell you how to fix what they see. Whatever you pick, use the same method each time, so a change in the number means a change in you.
Questions people ask
How do I know if my planche is clean?
Film it side-on at hip height and check two things across the hold: whether your elbows stay locked, and whether your body stays within about 5° of horizontal. Any elbow bend is a deduction in the gymnastics code; a body more than 5° off horizontal is too. SkillScan counts a second as clean when the elbows are within 15° of straight and the body within 20° of horizontal.
Where can I get a planche form check?
Free: film yourself side-on and scrub through it, or post it and ask. Paid: online coaching communities that review clips, such as CA Foundation ($37 to $57 a month, two submissions) or Calisthenics Monks ($8 a month at the time of writing). Automatic: a measuring app such as SkillScan, whose scans are free.
Can an app check my planche form?
Yes. Several iPhone apps analyze a planche from video, and CaliLens also runs on Android. They differ in what they measure against; SkillScan is the one that uses the gymnastics Code of Points.
Why does everyone disagree when I ask if my planche counts?
Because they're using different standards and looking at a video from whatever angle you filmed. Some count any time with the feet off the floor, some want locked arms, some care most about hip height. The gymnastics code is the one written standard, and it judges both time and shape.
What camera angle is best for a planche form check?
Side-on, with the phone level at about hip height and your whole body in frame. Front-on and high angles hide elbow bend and make a tilted body look flat.
