One Arm Front Lever and variations

Has anyone here achieved one before and does it have much carryover to any other skills or exercises? I was thinking that it may have a lot of carryover to the iron cross since it seems to work on shoulder adduction, but I'm not entirely sure how much carryover there is between the two. I think I feel my triceps long head the hardest when I attempt these. What difficulty score would you give this skill and how long do you think it will take to attain this in full lay?

I haven't really started training for this yet, but I'm thinking about starting soon since I can't work on crosses yet because I only can hang my rings on a doorway chin-up bar and because it's a pretty beastly looking skill. This is different from the one arm front lever where you have your body tilted more upwards instead of to the side. Also, feel free to discuss anything about this skill.

A pic:

EDIT: The 'one arm side lever' I was talking about is actually a variation of a one arm front lever and not a side lever which I originally thought it was.

I think this is called a one arm front lever. I guess it would have carry over to the iron cross but I suspect the cross is easier.

I call it a one arm side lever because the body is facing the side and the pulling arm is to the side of the body to differentiate it from the one where the body is facing up and where the arm is still sort of in front of the body which I would call the one arm front lever. I think John Gill just calls it a one arm lever. I believe this one is easier than the body facing up one.

Do you suspect that this is harder than an iron cross on long rings (10 ft) though? It appears that this skill is not really popular, but I believe there is at least one guy in the GB community that can do this?

This video only has it for one scene, but in case you were interested.

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It's @ 3:50. I figured any video showing an attempt would be for this thread.

Nice, I haven't seen that video before, but the guy was sort of doing a OAFL instead of the OASL. I think the OAFL is harder than the OASL though. I think I might aim to get the OASL before the OAFL.

Here's a video of someone doing a slightly low OASL at 4:35 and 5:44:

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The photo of John Gill above is of a one arm front lever rather than a one arm side lever. The degree of torso rotation is actually irrelevant. The primary distinction between a front lever and a side lever is that the front lever is a "pulling" element and the side lever is a "pressing" element.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the correction Coach. Have you ever worked this skill or have any experience with this skill with your athletes before? Do you also think there may be any useful benefits that may transfer over to other gymnastics skills or strength moves? Thanks!

Definitely a kind of 1 arm front lever. Like all 1 arm moves, the biomechanics are different and some form of twisting is neccesary to stay balanced. However I like the version in this clip at 2.36 at a lot more, at least aestethically. He straddles, but his body shape is very well aligned. Keep in mind that with the spinning direction he is rotating in it is harder to hold it, while 1 arm back lever that he does afterwards, becomes easier. I have seen an old black and white picture of a russian circus artist doing this type of 1 arm front lever with legs together, and I really want to see more people attempting it. I have been working a bit on it here and there, but never given it enough focus to make solid progress.

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No Worries-Nic

Handbalancer said:

Definitely a kind of 1 arm front lever. Like all 1 arm moves, the biomechanics are different and some form of twisting is neccesary to stay balanced. However I like the version in this clip at 2.36 at a lot more, at least aestethically. He straddles, but his body shape is very well aligned. Keep in mind that with the spinning direction he is rotating in it is harder to hold it, while 1 arm back lever that he does afterwards, becomes easier. I have seen an old black and white picture of a russian circus artist doing this type of 1 arm front lever with legs together, and I really want to see more people attempting it. I have been working a bit on it here and there, but never given it enough focus to make solid progress.

Thanks for the video, I forgot that a OAFL with the shoulders lined up horizontally was possible. Do you need to twist for the John Gill type side facing OAFL too? It doesn't seem like the the side facing OAFL needed any twisting. I think I would focus on this type of OAFL first before the upward facing OAFL since this one seems easier than that one.

By twisting i mean that the body needs to move in 1 or the other direction on its own axis. So in that sense Gills twists, but not like the other one. I think the two versions will be very different to work on really. The "chest up" version works well from meathook that is straddled and lowered into. Gills version I have no idea how to work for, except I suppose good 1 arm chins will help, and pulling into it like some guys do in those videos.

I see what you mean now about the twisting. I think you can train the side facing OAFL like how you would for the other levers by using easier variations like tuck, half, etc., that's how I plan to train it. I sometimes pull into it from hang and I think working on iron crosses may help too. The two versions are different for sure (adduction vs. shoulder extension), but there has to be some carryover since they use most of the same muscles; specific work for each should still be required though I believe.

Here is the most perfect one arm front lever i have ever seen at 0:40!

Oh yeah, I seen that one before too. It was amazing and his shoulders were almost in the same plane like the handbalancer ones. Here is another video showing that same guy and OAFL, but from another angle at 0:30.

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Also, this climber has a nice straddle OAFL at 1:34 in the video below.

http://vimeo.com/3059724