SkiErg · Shoulder Flexion at Catch

Why this matters

Global extension tells you the whole body is reaching up. Shoulder flexion isolates how high the arms are reaching within that overall extension. Two athletes can both stack ankle–hip–shoulder at 180° and still differ in how high their hands are above the head — that's purely a shoulder mobility / cueing variable.

The hand position at the catch sets the elevator height for the handle's downward travel. Hands just above the eyebrows / forehead is the canonical mark.

What good looks like

• Trunk and upper-arm forming a ~160° interior angle at the shoulder.
• Hands sit slightly above and just in front of the forehead.
• Shoulder blades retracted into the back (not shrugged up to the ears).

Common faults

Short Reach (< 140°)

Arms barely above the head. Often paired with thoracic stiffness — the athlete can't get the chest up, so the arms can't reach high without the trunk angling back.

Causes: tight pec minor, hunched daily posture, lack of overhead mobility.

Effect: the entire stroke height is capped by the lowest reach in the chain.

Over-Reach (> 175°)

Arms pulled too far behind the head. Looks impressive but the shoulder rotates into impingement-risk territory under thousands of strokes.

Causes: mis-cueing "as high as you can" without limit, or chasing extra reach to compensate for shallow hip extension.

Effect: stress concentration at the acromioclavicular joint.

Coaching cues

• "Hands above the eyebrows" — name the target position.
• "Tall through the chest, hands just in front" — biases reach height through thoracic extension instead of shoulder hyperflexion.
• "Don't lean back to reach" — fixes the over-reach fault when it shows up.

How to draw

1. Same Catch frame as the Global Extension tool — handles fully reached, just before they drop.
2. First line: greater trochanter → acromion (the trunk).
3. Second line: acromion → lateral epicondyle (the upper arm).
4. Interior angle at the shoulder is the reading.

Related measurements

• Global Extension at Catch — full-body geometric check that this measurement specialises.
• Terminal Elbow Extension — the opposite-extreme arm position. Together they describe the arm's full sweep.