Magyar and Sivado Explained: How Pommel-Horse Travels Work
A pommel-horse travel moves the gymnast’s support along the apparatus while the circling or turning action continues. The Magyar travels forward in cross support; the Sivado travels backward in cross support. Both cover the horse from one end to the other in their recognized full-travel forms.
Contents
These names are useful anchors for watching a routine, but they do not mean “any forward movement” and “any backward movement.” The route, support pattern and extent of travel identify the element. This guide uses the senior international 2025–2028 FIG men’s rules.
Follow the Hands Along the Horse
The two pommels are raised handles on the padded body of the apparatus. Gymnasts can support themselves on the handles and on the body of the horse. To recognize a travel, follow where those support contacts move rather than only watching the feet.
A stationary circle can sweep the legs through a large space without advancing the gymnast along the horse. A travel changes the location of the support. That distinction is easy to lose in a tightly cropped television shot, where the ends of the apparatus are outside the frame.
The movement is still a continuous swinging action. It is not a sequence of stationary holds with the gymnast walking the hands between them. The pommel-horse event guide places travels alongside circles, scissors and the other movement families.
Magyar and Sivado Compared
| Feature | Magyar | Sivado |
|---|---|---|
| Direction of travel | Forward in cross support | Backward in cross support |
| Extent | Full 3/3 travel to the other end | Full 3/3 travel to the other end |
| FIG entry | III.34 | III.40 |
| Difficulty | D — 0.4 | D — 0.4 |
| Element group | III, travel-type elements | |
Those entries appear in the FIG men’s Code of Points. The tables distinguish them from other specified full-travel routes and from shorter travels. Calling every end-to-end passage a Magyar or Sivado would therefore be too broad.
Cross Support Is Not the Same as Front Support
The words describe different aspects of position. Cross support concerns the gymnast’s orientation relative to the horse. Front and rear support describe phases of the body’s relationship to the hands during the movement. A gymnast passes through changing support phases as a circle continues.
It is misleading to say that the Magyar is performed only in front support while the Sivado stays in rear support. The backward direction of a Sivado does not remove the circling action or freeze the gymnast into one support phase.
For a spectator, the practical approach is to follow a whole circle and then watch where the next hand contacts occur. The direction of advancement becomes clearer across the sequence. A still image can show position, but it cannot establish the complete travel.
What 3/3 Travel Means
The notation describes a full traversal of the apparatus, not a requirement to count exactly three circles. The Code uses defined support positions and travel descriptions to distinguish elements. A move starting near the middle and ending at one end should not automatically be called a complete end-to-end travel.
Nor is “handles, middle, far end” an adequate universal description. The handles are already part of the middle region, and particular hand-support routes distinguish different entries. The start and finish, the route between them and the movement structure all need to be visible.
This matters when comparing videos. A close-up may show only the middle of a passage and make a full travel look short. A camera pan can also exaggerate apparent movement. Use the fixed ends and pommels as landmarks before deciding how much of the horse was covered.
Why the Magyar–Sivado Pair Appears in Routines
The two travels offer recognizable forward and backward movement within the same element group. Under the Code, they may share a connecting circle and still receive D plus D difficulty. That provision explains how the pair can flow together without a visibly separate pause.
It does not mean the pair earns an additional generic connection bonus. The two recognized D elements contribute their own values when counted. The travel-group requirement is another part of the calculation, not a second group award for every travel performed.
For senior routines, a counting D-or-higher element can fulfill the travel group’s 0.5 credit. A qualifying lower-valued counting element receives the lesser group credit specified by the rules. This explains one reason the element selection matters, without claiming that the same pair is the best choice for every gymnast.
The men’s scoring guide separates element values, group credit and execution. Keeping those components distinct prevents the same content from being counted twice when a fan tries to reconstruct a D-score.
Other Travels Are Not Just Renamed Magyars
The apparatus also includes travel with turning and different support patterns. Terms such as Russian travel and traveling spindle describe additional movement characteristics. The gymnast may be changing orientation while moving along the horse, rather than simply reversing an ordinary cross-support travel.
Similarly, legs-apart and legs-together work can create different silhouettes. The circles and flairs comparison explains the leg patterns. Identifying the legs alone does not establish a travel’s complete name or value.
The Code restricts repetitions and families, so a routine cannot build unlimited difficulty by repeating the same route. When watching an exercise with several travels, ask what actually changes: direction, support, turn or leg action. Apparent variety and credited variety are not always identical.
What Execution Adds to the Picture
A travel may be recognized while still showing execution faults. Bent knees, a break in body shape or disrupted swing can affect the performance even if the gymnast reaches the intended end. Avoiding a fall is not the only measure of quality.
Watch how the travel begins and ends. Does the preceding element feed into it smoothly? Does the gymnast continue into the next movement without an obvious struggle? A short highlight focused on the middle can miss those transitions.
For learners, these observations are vocabulary for discussing the event with a coach, not a hand-placement recipe. A full travel draws on controlled circling and support changes developed through suitable progressions. Understanding what the elite element does is the first step toward appreciating it; performing it requires a separate, supervised learning process.