Seabird 19 Posted November 3, 2013 Does anyone have any experience with practicing handstands on balls or anything similar? Or any pictures/videos of people doing it? Some of my inspiration for gymnastics comes from the character Ozymandias; in one pane of one of the comics, he's shown doing a one handed handstand on three balls that are concentrically placed on top of each other. My impression is thats a bit much to aim for for anyone, but I think its probably possible to do a handstand or one handed handstand on a basketball or something similar. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mikael Kristiansen 491 Posted November 3, 2013 handstand on a basketball is possible and I have done it a couple of times. You need good escape manoeuvres to practice it but its not terribly difficult if you have good handstands. 1 arm would be extremely extremely hard and you would probably get some serious wrist injuries from practising it. On one of those bosu balls its not too bad but there you have a flat surface. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yuri marmerstein 229 Posted November 3, 2013 At an advanced level of mastery, you should be able to do a handstand on pretty much anything. Every object is different and has its own learning curve. As Mikael stated, you better know how to bail Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Seabird 19 Posted November 3, 2013 At an advanced level of mastery, you should be able to do a handstand on pretty much anything. Every object is different and has its own learning curve. As Mikael stated, you better know how to bail Could you provide some examples of different things that are used to train that sort of unsteady state of balance, after having achieved that level of ability? Or any training regiment? Very curious what people have performed and what the best performers are working to achieve. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yuri marmerstein 229 Posted November 3, 2013 Canes are pretty obvious but standard. There are some interesting acts where people balance on odd objects, like a statue, or bathtub, cube, a couple wine bottles, a big metal tree that comes out of the water, rolla bolla, slackwire, the list goes on They do this not necessarily because they are such good hand balancers that canes bore them, but because an act is more interesting to watch when it is different. Being able to balance on an odd object does not make you a great hand balancer, it's being able to balance on anything with a short learning curve that is part of the mastery process. This means you have developed a deep understanding of your own balance 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MonkeyMan 0 Posted November 4, 2013 What is the key to balancing on uneven objects? I usually use my fingertips when palms are flat Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Benjamin Witkowski 7 Posted November 4, 2013 Without having any experience with either, I would think it would be harder to balance on someone elses hands than it would be to balance on most stationary objects. Maybe someone who does hand-to-hand would know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
palmcron 13 Posted November 4, 2013 When balancing on someone hands it's more being balanced by the base (and letting it happen). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eric Baum 41 Posted November 5, 2013 When balancing on someone hands it's more being balanced by the base (and letting it happen).I agree with palmcron, hand-to-hand is different from the normal handstand! It's about keeping your body as firm as possible so who is in your base can control the handstand.It can be really hard trusting and letting the other person do that for you. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yuri marmerstein 229 Posted November 5, 2013 In most cases yes, but hand to hand duos who know each other well actually both do the balancing. Also there are many moments and transitions in a lot of hand to hand tricks where the base simply does not have the leverage to really balance the flyer. A few years ago I actually did a long arm handstand on one guy(cheerleader) who was strong enough to basically be a statue and let me do all the balancing. Being able to do a handstand in as many different ways as possible is the important element. As far as H2H, it's about knowing and trusting your partner. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites