Static holds revisited

As I mentioned, I am currently doing exercises other than GS, one of them - pullups, on rings or bar. With my innate urge to research anything I do I was searching the Net for the info and came across a very interesting exerpt from Sommers' "Building the Gymnastic Body" The quote in question relates to inproving pullup reps:

"Many people believe that an easy way to increase your repetitions in the pullup is the focus on performing a bottom static hold (the "hang" portion of the pull-up). I agree. In addition, I would submit that it is equally important to train the top position as a static hold as well."

Counter-intuitive and unexpected, especially bottom static hold. Which brings us - again - to the question of the value of static holds in GS, rack and overhead. Static holds are very popular among Russian GS coaches, but are snubbed by US gurus. One line of reasoning is that according to OTW, the most popular (as far as I am aware) training method in that country, jerks are performed at very low cadence striving to get to the 10 minute set. As such, this method includes long periods of rack holds, therefore no additional static work is required.

One critique that comes to mind immediately is that the method does not emphasize overhead holds. At the same time, overhead holds are very useful: they help find the correct top position, the one of most efficiency that leads to the least fatigue.

Sommers' remarks on static holds pullup holds are interesting to me for one reason: static exercise helps improve the results of a dynamic movement. I suspect the situation in GS should be similar.