Let’s talk about sevens, half sevens, shoulder flexion, shoulder collapsing and tucks.
Those ideas and concepts are intertwined, but to achieve the harder progressions, we need a clear understanding of what is happening here.
#Piked shapes
First things first: your shoulders dictate where your pelvis sits in space.
In all shapes.
With this in mind, we could define piked shapes as: open-shoulder + butt out + undershot legs positions.
Piked shape = open shoulders + overshot butt + undershot legs
This means that, in a piked shape, your shoulder angle is “fully” flexed, allowing the pelvis to be nicely stacked over the shoulders. (We can reinforce that by adding an anterior pelvic tilt and / or arching at the lower back).
In turn, the legs, either bent or straight, are positioned before the vertical axis, to counterbalance the pelvis.
If you think of a fulcrum, you wouldn’t be far off: the butt is on one side, the pelvis on the other.
The tuck, the straddle, the half 7 and the 7 would fall in the category of piked shapes.
If you look at those shapes, very often the shoulders are nicely flexed, which allows the pelvis to be past vertical.
This is crucial, as it sets you into an efficient handstand, one that relies less on shoulder strength and more on the counterbalancing act between the legs and the pelvis ⚖️
Indeed, the less open the shoulders, and the less the pelvis will be able to help us achieve this efficient handstand... and the more we have to fight against gravity with our shoulders.
When the shoulders are not fully flexed, the pelvis and both legs start dragging us towards the floor.
In essence, we then step into the realm of pressing strength.
Shoulder collapsing
Shoulders will start collapsing forward when there is simply too much weight either undershot or overshot.
In other words,
if you tip the scale either one way, or the other, because both legs AND the pelvis start travelling forward or backward, the base of your scale won’t be able to hold that pressure.
When there is too much weight overshot, ie when we bring our pelvis too far out, we need to work on control and body awareness.
When there is too much weight undershot, we usually need to work on:
→ our shoulder flexion, to be able to bring our body back into a more efficient position,
→ and strength to hold whatever shape we can currently achieve.
Levers
Following this logic, straight leg piked shapes are mechanically harder to hold than bent leg.
The length of the lever simply increases as you start extending your knees.
A 7 is therefore harder than a half 7, which itself is harder than a tuck.
So, strong tucks first and foremost.
Your starting point
When practicing your piked shapes with the wall, you will be able to assess whether your shoulders can optimally flex or not yet.
If they can’t and you can nonetheless hold a piked position, sometimes thanks to good lower back mobility, you may achieve a closed-shoulder piked position, let’s say for argument sake a closed-shoulder tuck.
This is however a fragile equilibrium.
The shape isn’t super efficient, and mainly held thanks to good shoulder strength.
The window for error is smaller, and any change in the lever undershot will make things worse.
Think of our fulcrum one last time: the longer the lever, the more it tilts you one way.
Therefore: if you catch yourself already compromising the shoulder position in a tuck, chances are any progression towards one or two straight legs will make things worse.
Advice for practice
If your shoulders are a bit “closed” → work on improving that range of motion.
Otherwise, your shoulders won’t stand much of a chance. Mechanically, the disadvantage is too great. You will, however, build strength. That’s not nothing.
If your shoulders are open → don’t rush to the final position. Start by gradually extending one leg.
I ask people to go for a hybrid half 7, where they don't fully extend the leg, just to the amount where it doesn't start tilting the fulcrum in the way that would make the shoulders collapse.
Then to get strong there.
And then to keep extending.
Rinse and repeat till you get your 7.