Maltese

## Description

The maltese is an isometric anterior strength position.

It is described as a *"support scale at rings height"* in the gymnastics code of points.

Common mistakes in the maltese are: not maintaining a proper horizontal line during the hold, having sagging shoulders (retracted and elevated) and an extended body. In a clean hold, you should remain in a hollow position, your body being a straight line.

Other common cheats are using the friction between your lats and your arms (lat-tri trick) or a false grip.

Imbalances in shoulders' positions is also very common.

## History

The maltese goes by several names: swallow, hirondelle, rondine...

The name swallow (as well as hirondelle and rondine) comes from the position attained, which resembles the one of a flying swallow.

"Maltese" could come from the maltese cross, but it is highly improbable (the shape of the cross doesn't fit the position). It has obviously no link with the dog.

The first maltese apparently occurred in the mid 1950s.

The first maltese ever recorded was by Ruggero Rossatto in 1992.

In the first years of the skill, it was common to use a wrist-breaking motion to perform it. Yuri Chechi was one the first to perform a leveled maltese, without wrist breaking motion. In the following years, the standards for the skill increase a lot.

## Prerequisites

The maltese can be performed on a lot of surfaces: single bar, floor, rings, parallel bars... The easiest one being the parallel bars, and the hardest "common" grip being floor.

Before training for the maltese, it is strongly advised to be at least able to hold a straddle planche and to have a strong backlever. For harder variations that put a lot of strain on the elbows (floor, rings, supinated), experience with the Iron cross and supinated planche grip will be strongly appreciated.

## Carry-over

The maltese is a very common hold on gymnastics rings. It opens up a lot of new difficult elements starting or ending in the position (maltese press, Balandin 1, Van Gelder or swing elements).

It has tremendous carry-over to planche, backlever and iron cross strength.

## Difficulty

The maltese is rated C on floor and D on rings in the FIG code of points. In the Burningate code of points, the parallel bars version is rated 4,1, the single bar 4,5 and the rings and floor 5,1. Depending on the variation used, it is therefore an advanced or elite movement.

It is debatable whether the hardest variation of maltese is floor or rings.

In favor of floor maltese:

* Stability in the rings maltese is performing an adduction/abduction motion with the arms, which is impossible on floor (fixed hands).
* The rings naturally adapt to your body in the angle best suited to provide the most force.

in favor of rings maltese:

* The apparent area of force is greater, moreover the center of gravity is often over the support point in rings, so stability is way harder on them.

## Misconceptions

**Maltese vs planche**

It is a common misconception among street workout athletes that a maltese needs to have a wingspan of at least 45 degrees. That is incorrect since body weight distribution can greatly affect your wingspan. The only thing that determines if a skill is a maltese and not a planche (or wide planche) is the height. According to the british "*Male artistic gymnastics handbook for regional judges"* a maltese is defined as following:

*"Maltese – This element has been scrutinized for many years and is relatively well understood and performed more accurately than before. Shoulder position which should be in line with the bottom of the rings, the moment it goes above the line of the top of the ring the debate goes to whether it is a top planche. High shoulders (0.1/0.3). Body position which could well be arched as a result of technical errors on shoulders. Overgrip can be seen in the poorest performers as well as time deductions"*

## Notable athletes

Viktor Kamenov

Dailong Huynh

Giuseppe Latino