Hold

A hold is a static position: the body must come to a complete stop and stay there. The best-known holds are the strength positions on rings — the cross, the Maltese, the planche, the back and front levers — but handstands and some balances are holds too.

Under the 2025–2028 men’s Code of Points:

• Two seconds. Every hold on rings must be held for at least two seconds, with the whole body — shoulders and feet included — still. If no stop is shown, the hold isn’t recognised.
• Angles. A hold more than 45° away from the correct body, arm or leg position isn’t recognised at all; smaller deviations are deducted.
• Limits. No more than three strength elements can be performed in a row on rings before a swing element, and only one final position of each type counts in each element group.

On men’s floor, a two-second handstand is one of the listed non-acrobatic elements. Some apparatus, such as pommel horse and horizontal bar, allow no holds at all — every element must be swung.