Someone will probably answer this better than me, and bear in mind I come to this from a calisthenichs and lifting perspective rather than a purely poledancing one. The body we have is the same though, and it works on the same principles whatever we do with it.
EVERYONE: if I am wrong please correct me =)
SHORT ANSWER: yes, neutral shoulder/scapula position is needed in most polework, namely in all work requiring you to use strength.
LONG ANSWER (bit of a novel, sorry):
Shoulders are (should be) a fairly "free" joint, so that your arms can move in several directions. You can roll shoulders forward, push them back, scrunch them up... All these have their uses. But shoulder position is directly linked to what your spine is doing, and for ANYTHING that requires strength (be it an invert, an iron x, the strength moment of a climb, a deadlift or bench press) you want your back (spine) to be in PERFECT position, for 2 reasons:
- SAFETY: a bendy/unstable back will make you more likely to get injured
- PERFORMANCE: your back and your core are the stabilizing point of all your body. You cannot perform any arm or leg (or anything else) movement with any real strength if your foundations (your back and core) are not solid and stable. If you do headstands, think of how solid your neck feels during a headstand. Now imagine (DON'T TRY!) to be in one and bend your back this way or that. Even just imagining it makes you cringe at the thought of your neck collapsing under you, right? That's because your back would not be engaged.
So, to engage your back, you need a few things. You need your hips to be level, your spine to be aligned (think of having your lower ribs pointing "down" rather than forward), your shoulders to be flat and in neutral position, and your abs to be engaged (how much depends on how much tension your back will be under to tolerate what the rest of the body is doing).
From here, you can extend your arms up, but this should not be done by overreaching. That means, your arm should go up, but if you keep your other hand on your shoulder, you should notice how the shoulder is down and engaged, how it feels "solid", rather than feeling like it's stretched upwards. If you watch any gymnastics videos, it will be easy to notice how a gymnast's shoulders are normally pushed down even when the arms are up. Rings are especially good to see the difference between an engaged back/shoulders and a dead hang (what we do not normally want).
If you cannot raise your arm much this way, that usually means you are lacking shoulder mobility, which many of us do. The good news is it's fairly easy to work on to get acceptable levels =)
sorry for the superlong post, got a bit carried away, but I can outdo many male friends at pullups despite having fairly weak arms (especially weaker than most guys!), all because I focus on working pullups (on and off the pole) from my back rather than from poor biceps trying to work against the rest of my body... so it's a special pet subject of mine ^^
