My story of sirsasana

Everybody likes to try upsidedown, well almost everybody. I also wanted to come up. When I first tried to come up to sirsasana 1 from the position; head down, knee up and on tip toes, my elbows kept rising up. The teacher watched me and told my shoulders were too tight to even straighten the back.
I started to pay super attention to my shoulder opening immediately. A few months past. I could easily come up to sirsasna 2 with both legs straight. But still elbows kept rising up for sirsasana 1. I tried and tried and tried. About a year past. Still trying. By this time, I could come up to sirsasana 2 from Kakasana.
One day one advanced student was studying me and suggested that I might have shorter upper arm compared to the distance from shoulder to crown of the head. Yes, that was absolutely right. She suggested me to put folded towel under my elbows. I rose up finally by taking step by step. I kept on practicing this way. Soon, I could manage to raise both leg up in ashtanga way. The teacher watched me and told me that I had to lose the towel someday. But my arms were still short!
I found I had another weakness in my tight neck and back (whole spine) by doing halasana and it was another reason of preventing me from sirsasana 1.
I paid extra attention to doing shoulder stand and halasana as much as I could.
Several months past. Sometimes I could go up without towel from one leg up and the other leg down position. But it wasn’t stable to go up or hold for a long time.
Finally our master Wei Ling watched me doing it, and suggested me to shorten the distance between the elbows. Bingo! She instantly found the solution for short upper arm problem!
Of course I had to work on a lot of shoulder openings, too. I think the posture it helped a lot is urdhva dhanurasana because by straightening elbow and pushing the chest forward in this posture will help strengthening both arms and shoulders and opening shoulders and chest in a great amount.
Going up and holding sirsasana also uses core muscles and first of all, it is the must to find the right position of your crown to keep balance. But it will come along once you come up.
Anyway, thank you very much Wei Ling! You are the best!!