Elbow Position in Handstands

[Charlie Reid]

I've been taking a handbalancing course at my local circus arts school and as i work on my bodyline positioning and linking all the pieces together, i'm still feeling stuck at the elbows. I have a background in strength sports (olympic lifting, powerlifting, etc) and whenever i overhead press, i was always told to externally rotate the shoulder joints as much as possible. However, in my handbalancing class, the instructor mentions that the pits of the elbows should be facing each other when inverted. To me, this is more of an internal rotation of the shoulder. I've seen other gymnastic skills emphasize strong external rotation as well (i.e. planche progressions, planks, Ring support, and other straight arm drills, etc). Is the handstand different from these or are there different camps that opt for different techniques? Sorry if this topic was already covered and thanks for the discussion. 

 

 Charlie

[yuri marmerstein]

There are different camps.  The external rotation is more for gymnasts who are working ring strength

 

As far as basic handstand goes, elbows facing each other is the way I teach as well.  For hand balance the goal is to use less strength and make the position as easy as possible to hold

 

You can play with both positions, but I've never been a fan of performing the handstand with that much external shoulder rotation outside of rings. 

If I am working planche presses, handstand pushups, HB presses, etc. I simple externally rotate when I break my shoulder angle and come back to neutral when I am in HS again

[Joshua Naterman]

When you are snatching, you are retracting the scaps, which requires perceived external rotation of the humerus in order to maintain the same glenohumeral alignment, so you can't really compare this with a protracted position like a handstand.

 

In a handstand alignment, some internal rotation actually keeps the tubercles of the upper arm (bony bumps) from impinging anything, so you would want that alignment on the ground.

 

I am not familiar enough with ring handstands to say much of anything about them, beyond "they are hard." However, I think you will find that the majority of turning the rings out is supination at the wrist, and not external rotation at the shoulder. There's some of each, but almost certainly more is happening at the wrist than the shoulder, just based on the mechanics of supination, handstand scapular positioning, handstand body alignment, and bone shapes in the shoulder.

[Vagabond]

I confirm this, on the rings, most of the rotation of the rings come from my wrists, unless my shoulders are really far forward, like in a maltease (even a planche don't make me turn out as much). (Memory from when I was doing maltease, I haven't trained it in a few years now.)