Do you punch the bottom arm?

[frankdatello]

My friends and I found ourselves in a technique argument. Do you punch the bottom arm and lock it out at take off using your bottom arm to bend the pole?

[rainbowgirl28]

No, you should never lock out your bottom arm. If you watch video of the elite men, it looks like they have a HUGE bottom arm, but that is mainly because the angle between the pole and their hands is a lot bigger than what you have. Watch the elbow on their bottom arm carefully, it never really locks out, but stays pointed to the outside and allows their arms to move above their head.

Watching videos of the elite women will probably be more useful to you, they are on bigger poles and jumping higher than you, but more relevant than the men.

You want to apply some pressure with the bottom arm upward, but never locking the elbow out.

[frankdatello]

Thank you for the clarification .

[altius]

If you want photo evidence -and a rationale - take a look at the images in BTB2.