Skills' name origins

[Francesco Pudda]

Hi all.

 

I don't know if this was already asked but looking for planche or manna or whatsoever produces simply too many results to look over all of them

 

My question is just pure curiosity: which is the origin of skills name like front and back lever, planche, manna, etc??

 

I thought about that and I reached to some conclusions that I would like to confirm. More over I will make the comparison with how we call them in italy.

 

I know that english terms for FL, BL are respectively: hanging scale frontways and rearways. Apart that I cannot find front and rearways in wordreference either, anyway I got the meaning of it (are they synonim of front and rearward?). The name is pretty logic because it gives the idea of the position even if you don't know it. If I had to translate literally the italian original names, they would be "supine/prone horizontal suspension". Then, in calisthenic world we "imported" english terms of front and back lever, which make sense but they are less precise than they original name.

I would like to ask to whoever attend the gymnastic world, whether they knew when front and back lever names were born. Were they born in calisthenic world, or in gymnastic? Are they recent or not?

 

A different argument regards planche and manna. In the code of points they have a specific name, respectively support scale and V-sit with horizontal legs, and then their current name between brackets in bold. This is the way in which named elements ar written (for example cassina element, or rodriguez); moreover even in the italian code of points there is their specific named followed by planche and manna. So I thought that planche and manna are the names of whom executed them first in competition. Would this make sense? Same argumentation for maltese alias hirondelle?

 

EDIT: I've just found a very interesting comment under the manna video of GB:

 

Bob Manna was my teammate at UNM in 1968-69 He used to swing into this skill on the P-bars. Our coach, the legendary Rusty Mitchell, said something like, "You do that at nationals and I'll get it named after you . . " Imagine my surprise forty years later when I found out that Bob's name is a household word in gymnastic circles!

Edited December 23, 2015 by Francesco Pudda

[Alessandro Mainente]

Every skills has generally a technical name (that refers to the movement execution)  and the reference to the people who performed it in a recognized competition. 

[Francesco Pudda]

Yup I know. My question was if anyone has some reference to the origins of the names. For example, videos or documents stating when the movement was accepted in the code of points.

 

Whenever I look for planche in gymnastics google send me only link to tutorials or progressions, I cannot find any documents about mr planche. Same thing for a certain mr hirondelle.

 

As regards manna I was very lucky to find the answer under a GB video

Edited December 23, 2015 by Francesco Pudda

[Romulo Malta]

I doubt there was a "Mr. Planche". The word itself derives from French, 20th century, and means simply "plank", that is having the body straight as a plank. Of course what we generally call plank today is a much more simple exercise, but that´s the origin of the word.

 

What search produced your "Hirondelle" results? I guess you were looking for swallow/maltese and the term "swallow" is quite broad and can give you lots of non related results. Swallow is hirondelle in French, so you can get lots of birds results and also the ship called Hirondelle (Swallow) created by Dassault.

[Francesco Pudda]

Thank you very much the info, very appreciated

 

As regard FL and BL instead? Does somebody know when/how were they born?

[Romulo Malta]

Thank you very much the info, very appreciated

 

As regard FL and BL instead? Does somebody know when/how were they born?

Those seem so common sense that I never thought otherwise. Never heard the names you mentioned like "hanging scale frontways and rearways" being used commonly. 

 

The term "lever" is quite intuitive and easy to deduct, isn´t it? In the case of the FL, you are LEVERaging the majority of your body weight around the fulcrum of your shoulders. You have a fulcrum, a leveraging movement, seems clear enough to call it a lever. The rest is just the position of the body, be it front, back or side.

[Joshua Slocum]

I don't know how long "front lever" and "back lever" have been around in gymnastics but it is quite a while: my coach, who competed in the 80's, used the term. Interestingly, all of my circus friends call a front lever a "front planche" and a back lever a "back planche". They don't really have a common word for what we would call a planche, because it's not commonly done.

Hirondelle is listed as the "official" name for the Maltese in the MAG code of points. I don't know the origin of the word "Maltese". Presumably there was a Mr Hirondelle at some point. Similarly I believe there was a Mr Victorian.

[Romulo Malta]

Maybe maltese has to do with the shape of the maltese cross, arms in an angle instead of being perpendicular to the body. The same analogy for the name swallow/hirondelle, from the wings angle of the swallows when they are flying.

[Francesco Pudda]

 

The term "lever" is quite intuitive and easy to deduct, isn´t it? In the case of the FL, you are LEVERaging the majority of your body weight around the fulcrum of your shoulders. You have a fulcrum, a leveraging movement, seems clear enough to call it a lever. The rest is just the position of the body, be it front, back or side.

With this argument also the planche would be a FRONTal lever since arms are in front of the body. Perhaps because those two skill were first executed much before than the planche and they give them this name. Then when first planche was shown they had to find another name

 

Hirondelle is listed as the "official" name for the Maltese in the MAG code of points. I don't know the origin of the word "Maltese". Presumably there was a Mr Hirondelle at some point. Similarly I believe there was a Mr Victorian.

Actually the technical name is "support scale at rings height", then, between brackets in italic "swallow/maltese", and then between brackets in bold "hirondelle". So swallow/maltese still seem to be the technical names, while hirondelle the name of the "creator" provided that they were coherent while CoP was being written.

 

More over the english CoP is even more unclear since planche and maltese are called differently from rings to floor XD.

 

In italic the technical name, in bold the probable creator's name according to CoP.

 

Floor Planche: Support Lever

Floor Maltese: Swallow

Floor Manna: V -sit with horizontal legs (Manna) (confirmed the name by Bob Manna, UNM, 1968-69)

 

Rings Front Lever: Hanging Scale Frontways (Front Lever)

Rings Back Lever: Hanging Scale Rearways (Back Lever)

Rings Planche: Support Scale (Planche)

Rings Maltese: Support Scale at rings height (Swallow or Maltese Cross) (Hirondelle) (not confirmed a possible mr. hirondelle)

 

So it seems that swallow/planche are called like this just for how they look like, exactly like cross. Anyway you have to have a great imagination to link gymnastics maltese and victorian to real maltese and victorian cross :P

 

I like this treasure hunt

Edited December 23, 2015 by Francesco Pudda

[Leonhard Krahé]

Those seem so common sense that I never thought otherwise. Never heard the names you mentioned like "hanging scale frontways and rearways" being used commonly.

Interestingly, that would be the almost exact translations into English of their respective "official" or, if you will, "terminologically correct" names in German, "Hangwaage vorlings" and "Hangwaage rücklings".

[Jon Douglas]

Hirondelle is listed as the "official" name for the Maltese in the MAG code of points. I don't know the origin of the word "Maltese". Presumably there was a Mr Hirondelle at some point. Similarly I believe there was a Mr Victorian.

I think there is a reference to the military medals in the named crosses. Once you have Iron Cross (German military decoration), an inverted cross is a simple extrapolation. Maltese and Victorian crosses are also the names of medals; it seems to me there is a mix of pun and a seriousness in the hierarchy of them

 

Or maybe they're just named after people *shrug*

[Francesco Pudda]

 

I think there is a reference to the military medals in the named crosses. Once you have Iron Cross (German military decoration), an inverted cross is a simple extrapolation. Maltese and Victorian crosses are also the names of medals; it seems to me there is a mix of pun and a seriousness in the hierarchy of them

I looked for images about the two medals, and I confirm: you have to have a lot of imagination to compare them to swallow and inverted swallow :D