shoulder orientation in front lever progressions

[Alan O'Donnell]

Hey everyone, pretty basic question. I'm trying to work on my front lever progressions with things like knees-to-elbows and skin-the-cats/german hangs.

How should I be orienting my shoulders during the ball-up phase? For example, if you put your palms down on a table in front of you and try to press downwards (so sort of like what you're doing to the bar, except it's overhead), you can rotate your elbows a bit by fiddling with your shoulders, so that your biceps face upwards or sideways.

I find that I'm significantly stronger if I "corkscrew" my shoulders so that my biceps point up (perpendicular to the table). I can do several skin-the-cats if I activate my shoulders like that at the bottom of the dead-hang (so I guess I'm not really dead-hanging), but I've got absolutely no strength whatsoever with a more neutral shoulder orientation.

Sorry about the lack of physiological detail - I'm new to this. Is this just a shoulder-girdle strength issue? I feel like my abs are okay, I can hold l-sits on rings etc. for 20+ seconds.

[Blairbob]

In a front lever, the eye of my elbow point up as much as I can. Not completely up, slightly diagonal, but as vertical as I can.

[David Picó García]

I've never thought about elbows on front lever, just thinking to be straight, at early stages (tucked and advanced) i just thought on press down with the hands and with the shoulder. On straddle and full front lever just thought on tighten all my body (the same as above plus butt, legs, abs, lats...(face, neck )