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23 hours per week of handstands

Started by Seabird, October 27, 2013 · 8 Replies · 4,875 Views

Seabird

"So, we had the usual conversation comparing schools and I told them about my school and I explained to them that I was getting, at the most 5 hours of handstands a week, now they got 23 hours a week, they couldn’t believe that’s all I got, and they were shocked and a bit confused – they even complained they didn’t get enough hours. Then I told them that those 5 hours was just me and my teacher, no one else, just the teacher and me doing exactly what he told me to do, with him spotting, correcting and pushing me to get better. Now they couldn’t believe this, they thought it was amazing but couldn’t figure out what was better – they just never considered being able to have it that way, of having a one on one class."

 

Am I missing something, or is 23 hours per week normal for handstand training?

 

http://circusgeeks.co.uk/tag/handstand/

Alex Chubb

For high levels like that, yes that is normal.

yuri marmerstein

3-6 hours a day training handstands is typical among circus hand balance students

Handbalancer

Yeah thats kind of normal. When I was in school I had 2 hours handstand every day accompanied with 1 hour of straps or acrobatics. I was in a school where we had a loads of artistic work as well along with workshops, dance and theatre classes so training wise its less than many schools where they are more technically focused. On top of that I trained much more handstands than only those 2 hours and I was seldom at home before 9pm even though we finished at 5. 

 

These very high intensity training schedules are good during periods where motivation and energy is high(as it usually is when you start circus school). Of course, in the end, efficient and smart training is better than doing tons of mediocre work, but for something like high end handstands, you need to specialize and get countless hours in.

Shia

Wow your shoulders must get amazing development with such high volume, am I wrong?

 

I'm really determined to become a good handbalancer. I've never been one for usual sports or hobbies but this is something very interesting and origional to me. Would it be ok for me to do 1-3 hours a day?

Seabird

How does this sort of training compare with what the Handstand series would offer in terms of strength and conditioning? It I remember correctly, the 3 handstand courses are supposed to cover something like 5 years, with an average of less than 30 minutes of work, twice a week, with the culmination of a 2 minute hand stand. So it just seems like there are two different games being played here.

Micawberian
Seabird said:

So it just seems like there are two different games being played here.

 

Well, there's the circus game...and the gymnastics game...

So, yea.

Seabird

My point mainly being that Coach Sommers has mentioned before that 10 minutes of handstands twice per week has been what he's recommended for conditioning, with more than that being detrimental to recovery. I may be talking out of my ass though. Its not an area that I have a much experience in at all.

Alex Chubb

I think that was for handstand wall runs. Most here seem to say ten minutes per day for skill training. Learning handstands with 20 minutes a week would definitely be a hard task...