Jurre said:Agree with him having hyper extended elbows in Maltese etc. I think also part of that is due to the pressure on the arms which hyper extends it just a bit more. My arms are 'straighter' (or a bit more hyperextended) in a back lever than when I just lock them. That being said, I indeed don't think his arms are completely locked due to indeed your reason.
Also does the FIG code of points say specifically locked arms or straight arms?
Yeah, what you say does seem to be true. I may be in the minority here, but I don't think one should train back levers before getting a reasonable degree of straight arm strength for that very reason. The fact that your hyperextension seems to increase could be actual elastic deformation of the bone/joint. If the bicep tendon is strong enough to hold the bones in place, the degree of hyperextension shouldn't increase. This is, however, based on pure intuition. I don't know if this is true or not, just that it is how it feels to me. Look at Yibing or Jovtchev. Significant hyperextension that is visible even when they simply lockout (for example, when Jovtchev salutes before his floor routine, you can see the same degree of hyperextension).
Yes, bending of arms is deducted. For NAIGC, ''slight bending'', ''strong bending'' and ''extreme bending'' get deductions of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 points respectively. What constitutes slight, strong and extreme is upto the E-judges I believe. I could be mistaken here, so anyone, feel free to correct me if I made an error. NCAA and Olympic judging may be more strict.
