Started by Cody Sunk, November 29, 2013 · 8 Replies · 2,081 Views
Hey guys,
I've been traveling through South East Asia and decided to take the time to work on my handbalancing. Here is where I'm at at the moment. Was a rather subpar training day for me so it should be easy for some of you to see my movements faults. I notice many of them, but dont necessarily know how to go about correcting them (especially with weight shift drills), so any input would be much appreciated!!
Cody
The 2 arm stuff is okay but you move a bit too much in the shoulder region on 2 arms. You can rep pike press so build to 5 and then 10 reps. Learn to rep the stalder too. Get yourself some blocks and work on block walks as well.
For 1 arm you will have to get the hang of where to keep your legs. lower leg stays diagonally down. Where you are at 1.54ish the legs have kind of the correct shape(cant see very well if you twist) but you are not pushing more through your shoulder to deal with the extra weight so your hip sinks down and gets the look of being outside your shoulder line. If you push through the shoulder there so you lift your scapula you will center your weight over the arm. When you move over, dont think hips over arm, think leading leg DOWN which automatically will raise the opposite and push through the shoulder which will center your hips over your arm.
2.30 is a classical example of what not to do, while people often think this is correct. The difference is subtle but important. When you have very good control you can stay that far in towards your centre with your legs, but at your level it will build bad habits.
There are of course more, but these are some main pointers you can concentrate on. There is a lot of work to do. You need to learn the position, build strength there and finally learn to balance there, deal with twisting etc. so its just to get going.
Handbalancer said:The 2 arm stuff is okay but you move a bit too much in the shoulder region on 2 arms. You can rep pike press so build to 5 and then 10 reps. Learn to rep the stalder too. Get yourself some blocks and work on block walks as well.
For 1 arm you will have to get the hang of where to keep your legs. lower leg stays diagonally down. Where you are at 1.54ish the legs have kind of the correct shape(cant see very well if you twist) but you are not pushing more through your shoulder to deal with the extra weight so your hip sinks down and gets the look of being outside your shoulder line. If you push through the shoulder there so you lift your scapula you will center your weight over the arm. When you move over, dont think hips over arm, think leading leg DOWN which automatically will raise the opposite and push through the shoulder which will center your hips over your arm.
2.30 is a classical example of what not to do, while people often think this is correct. The difference is subtle but important. When you have very good control you can stay that far in towards your centre with your legs, but at your level it will build bad habits.
There are of course more, but these are some main pointers you can concentrate on. There is a lot of work to do. You need to learn the position, build strength there and finally learn to balance there, deal with twisting etc. so its just to get going.
Why he felt off at 2:30? I can see his scapula doing something weird, sort of disbalance because of that, but I don't know exactly why. Can you explain this?
Thanks handbalancer!
He fell there because his position was inefficient to balance in and he doesnt have the capacity to make the necessary corrections. Basically the position and lack of balance was that made the killing blow there. His scapular movements in this case are more consequences than reasons.
Handbalancer said:The 2 arm stuff is okay but you move a bit too much in the shoulder region on 2 arms. You can rep pike press so build to 5 and then 10 reps. Learn to rep the stalder too. Get yourself some blocks and work on block walks as well.
For 1 arm you will have to get the hang of where to keep your legs. lower leg stays diagonally down. Where you are at 1.54ish the legs have kind of the correct shape(cant see very well if you twist) but you are not pushing more through your shoulder to deal with the extra weight so your hip sinks down and gets the look of being outside your shoulder line. If you push through the shoulder there so you lift your scapula you will center your weight over the arm. When you move over, dont think hips over arm, think leading leg DOWN which automatically will raise the opposite and push through the shoulder which will center your hips over your arm.
2.30 is a classical example of what not to do, while people often think this is correct. The difference is subtle but important. When you have very good control you can stay that far in towards your centre with your legs, but at your level it will build bad habits.
There are of course more, but these are some main pointers you can concentrate on. There is a lot of work to do. You need to learn the position, build strength there and finally learn to balance there, deal with twisting etc. so its just to get going.
Thanks so much for such a detailed response!! Awesome of you to take the time. This clears up many of the questions I had about the movement itself. One of the aspects that has been unclear to me is whether the weight shift should be initiated from the hips coming over the balance hand or if that shift should be initiated by the lead leg positioning, so this clears alot up for me!
One question for ya if you have time... when you talk about pushing through the shoulder is there a concerted effort to push not only vertically but horizontally through the shoulder joint as well in order to keep the shoulder open (like you would in a mexican HS, but much less exaggerated)? I've been playing with this in my last few sessions and it seems to help me keep the shoulders open during weight shift, but I lose control much quicker.
For now I'll concentrate mostly on press variations and scap and leg positioning as prescribed, and I'll pick up some blocks when I move to Australia in a few weeks.
Thanks again,
Cody
No, you dont want to open as in a mexican. This is one of the things people tend to misunderstand about shoulders in handstand. Opening(as in flexing your shoulders backwards and elevating) as much as you can, will automatically make your chest stick out. Having aligned shoulders for a good handstand requires more mobillity than to just get your shoulders into 180 degrees flexion, it requires you to get those 180 degrees while staying protracted.
Protraction does not only roll your shoulders forwards as in a planche, the biomechanics of the shoulder is more complex than that because of the shoulder´s incredible ROM as a joint. Protraction involves moving your scapula away from your spine which naturally makes your spine go backwards and your chest hollow. When lifting your arms above your head, protracting your shoulders will actually close your shoulder angle and here is where things get tricky. You need the mobillity and strength to be able to do that and still hold the 180 degrees flexion with your full bodyweight on it, 2x that on 1 arm.
This is something that is quite intuitive for people who do have it, and therefore its not often mentioned. It took me quite some time to understand that I was actually doing this.
In your regular hs, I think you could rotate your pelvis more to flatten out your back. It seems like you're slightly arching to me.
Handbalancer said:No, you dont want to open as in a mexican. This is one of the things people tend to misunderstand about shoulders in handstand. Opening(as in flexing your shoulders backwards and elevating) as much as you can, will automatically make your chest stick out. Having aligned shoulders for a good handstand requires more mobillity than to just get your shoulders into 180 degrees flexion, it requires you to get those 180 degrees while staying protracted.
Protraction does not only roll your shoulders forwards as in a planche, the biomechanics of the shoulder is more complex than that because of the shoulder´s incredible ROM as a joint. Protraction involves moving your scapula away from your spine which naturally makes your spine go backwards and your chest hollow. When lifting your arms above your head, protracting your shoulders will actually close your shoulder angle and here is where things get tricky. You need the mobillity and strength to be able to do that and still hold the 180 degrees flexion with your full bodyweight on it, 2x that on 1 arm.
This is something that is quite intuitive for people who do have it, and therefore its not often mentioned. It took me quite some time to understand that I was actually doing this.
I've actually started to feel this in some of my recent sessions, though before your post it was just a sensation I was beginning to notice, but this helps me make sense of it. There seems to be a distinct point during weight shift where I can choose to maintain protraction, which to me feels like the lat wrapping around my ribcage, or release the tension from protraction and open the shoulder, which ends up in a less supportive shoulder position.
When I do protract I feel the lat lengthen and stretch through the shoulder, so I guess I can use that sensation as my cue for protraction.
Again, thanks so much for your advice Handbalancer, this info is gold.
PS- your advice to my first post has been working great for me. I'll post an update video soon.
gravy said:In your regular hs, I think you could rotate your pelvis more to flatten out your back. It seems like you're slightly arching to me.
Yeah I definitely think you're right... I've been working on it a bit so hopefully I'll see improvement with alignment soon. Thanks for the critique