Keeping concentration for long HS

Hi guys,

Finally...SE10. For the record: I hate parallete handstands with every fiber of my being (tip: work those wrist rocks!).

So now this 60 second business. I've got a big problem and it's concentration. For the first like 40 seconds it's ok. I'm focusing, thinking about my body and my hands. Then it's like I just lapse into a daydream about lunchtime or women and then next thing you know I'm falling to the floor wondering what happened. It's not like wall handstands, where if you lose concentration, it's not that bad because the wall is supporting you. Fine. But when I'm balancing this is a real pain in the ass now. Not just balancing, because when the concentration goes the body line goes with it...

I am sure someone, some people, have certainly dealt with this issue of concentration. What the heck do you do. Certainly I don't have to resort to adderall ??? Are there some concentration exercises anyone uses? Anything? Please! Please!

Interesting thought, I'm experiencing this too. Or maybe it's just lack of endurance in the muscles, which then signals the mind that it should stop. I'd like to know too...

Learning to maintain focus is the price of success.  

 

When reaching 60s becomes more important to you than allowing youself to zone out, you will correct the issue.  Not before.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

60 seconds is after all just 60 seconds.  If you can't focus on something for a minute then you won't succeed at tasks which require much greater concentration so master the 60 second meditation (inverted in handstand).  The fact that handstand requires focus is one of the primary reasons I enjoy it and enjoy watching others do it well.

 

Also consider this:

I saw that in the cirque du soleil I went to

As a relevant aside to this conversation, Thomas Kurz published a few articles some months back regarding gaze and success in sports.
 

"[W]hat differentiates sports experts or champions from nonexperts or also-rans:

–Fewer spots on which the eyes focus
–Smaller area of eye focus on the final target
–Longer duration of eye focus on the final target
–The optimal beginning and ending time for the final focus
–Knowing which cues are important and need to be looked at and which ones to ignore"

 

Basically, high-level athletes look fewer places, and look in one place longer, and at the appropriate (most skillful) times.

 

For long-duration HS --- and in my opinion, for all the static holds with which I have experience --- developing 'soft' or 'quiet' gaze is essential. I try to pick an unmoving point or detail in the gym and fix on it. 

 

In HS this amounts to picking a speck on the floor between the hands.

 

Best of luck with your work-

j

Micawberian said:

Hi guys,

Finally...SE10. For the record: I hate parallete handstands with every fiber of my being (tip: work those wrist rocks!).

So now this 60 second business. I've got a big problem and it's concentration. For the first like 40 seconds it's ok. I'm focusing, thinking about my body and my hands. Then it's like I just lapse into a daydream about lunchtime or women and then next thing you know I'm falling to the floor wondering what happened. It's not like wall handstands, where if you lose concentration, it's not that bad because the wall is supporting you. Fine. But when I'm balancing this is a real pain in the ass now. Not just balancing, because when the concentration goes the body line goes with it...

I am sure someone, some people, have certainly dealt with this issue of concentration. What the heck do you do. Certainly I don't have to resort to adderall ??? Are there some concentration exercises anyone uses? Anything? Please! Please!

When I was working on 60 sec ABH and Hollow Holds, it helped me to focus on my breathing instead of the timer. I got a timer on my iPhone that tells me when your 60 seconds are up. So now I put the phone where I can't see it.

dmcmanam said:

60 seconds is after all just 60 seconds. If you can't focus on something for a minute then you won't succeed at tasks which require much greater concentration so master the 60 second meditation (inverted in handstand). The fact that handstand requires focus is one of the primary reasons I enjoy it and enjoy watching others do it well.

Also consider this:

http://youtu.be/-KVPA-9hofw

So what did she do? I only was able to concentrate on the first 15 seconds.

Vincearoo said:

So what did she do? I only was able to concentrate on the first 15 seconds.

I see what you did there!

Clock watching is the enemy of quality and a rewarding static hold experience.  Some have recommended dissociation as a means of keeping form during long sets.  Personally, I prefer to stay "in" my body so to speak, cultivating kinesthetic cues that I can pair with positive external visual feedback (video of myself holding the position).  Once I've discovered what proper form elements "feel" like, while holding the position I run through the kinesthetic checkpoints in a circuit until the time is up.  It passes the time and tends to prevent flagging form in one or another of the elements.  

Sven Ravnstag said:

Clock watching is the enemy of quality.  

Sven-

This is great.

 

To build on what you've described, in addition I also try to focus on cycling my breath smoothly and steadily.

 

j

Coach Sommer said:

Learning to maintain focus is the price of success.

When reaching 60s becomes more important to you than allowing youself to zone out, you will correct the issue. Not before.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I like that. A lot.

Sven Ravnstag said:

Clock watching is the enemy of quality and a rewarding static hold experience.  

Agree with Jason, this is a nice statement. When I just balance w/out regard to time, it is a kind of relaxation that I can't explain well.

 

The timer is difficult to work with but IMO, what better & clear measure of progress is there?

Anyways, thanks for all the responses guys. I actually picked up this little book called "concentration" by Mouni Sadhu. It has a lot of spiritual junk in it so far, but the exercises are really nice. My idea here is to just train the concentration separately from everything else, and then apply it to handstand. It's just too difficult right now to try and work on concentration in the handstand, because there are so many variables to think about.

So....

1. Use my gaze to focus on a non-moving spot. If my eyes move, bring it back to the spot.

2. Use my breath. Keep it smooth and regular.

3. Use my body. Cycle through the various lines/cues/tension-relaxations making sure each is accurate. Work at feeling each and making it more in alignment with the proper application of strength and go through it again. Probably from the point of contact with the ground and working up, making the base more solid and the parts more connected.

Thanks, guys.

The amount of silliness on this forum is astounding. Your problem is you are daydreaming about women during training??? Unacceptable. You have to take responsibility for your training. There is nothing more important than the rep or exercise you are doing at that moment. Period. You have trouble focusing? Get a timer. Look at the timer until it says 0. Come down. Then think about Sponge Bob or whatever tickles your fancy. I see the softest complaints on GB and i just shake my head. What are we training for?  Get that answer in your head before you step in the gym, living room, garage, prison rec facility, bedroom, bathroom, or wherever you train. Coach usually favors the simple answer before the complex and he is so right. But really? My focus? I hold this Planche, Front Lever, Side Lever, Back Lever, HS or someone i love dies. I do it in front of mirrors and cameras to check my height and form. I do it in front of other people so they can say "Hey Coach Ryan straighten your legs or you are arched". I've got to do this because there is someone like me out there in the world getting better than me because i could've been a little more focused today. Matter fact... i'm about to train right now. I'm done

RyanC said:

 I've got to do this because there is someone like me out there in the world getting better than me because i could've been a little more focused today. 

I like that, not that I'm competitive or anything.     

RyanC said:

The amount of silliness on this forum is astounding. Your problem is you are daydreaming about women during training??? Unacceptable. You have to take responsibility for your training. There is nothing more important than the rep or exercise you are doing at that moment. Period. You have trouble focusing? Get a timer. Look at the timer until it says 0. Come down. Then think about Sponge Bob or whatever tickles your fancy. I see the softest complaints on GB and i just shake my head. What are we training for?  Get that answer in your head before you step in the gym, living room, garage, prison rec facility, bedroom, bathroom, or wherever you train. Coach usually favors the simple answer before the complex and he is so right. But really? My focus? I hold this Planche, Front Lever, Side Lever, Back Lever, HS or someone i love dies. I do it in front of mirrors and cameras to check my height and form. I do it in front of other people so they can say "Hey Coach Ryan straighten your legs or you are arched". I've got to do this because there is someone like me out there in the world getting better than me because i could've been a little more focused today. Matter fact... i'm about to train right now. I'm done

Cool story, bro. You pacing up and down the aisle between sets? 

RyanC said:

The amount of silliness on this forum is astounding. Your problem is you are daydreaming about women during training??? Unacceptable. You have to take responsibility for your training. There is nothing more important than the rep or exercise you are doing at that moment. Period. You have trouble focusing? Get a timer. Look at the timer until it says 0. Come down. Then think about Sponge Bob or whatever tickles your fancy. I see the softest complaints on GB and i just shake my head. What are we training for?  Get that answer in your head before you step in the gym, living room, garage, prison rec facility, bedroom, bathroom, or wherever you train. Coach usually favors the simple answer before the complex and he is so right. But really? My focus? I hold this Planche, Front Lever, Side Lever, Back Lever, HS or someone i love dies. I do it in front of mirrors and cameras to check my height and form. I do it in front of other people so they can say "Hey Coach Ryan straighten your legs or you are arched". I've got to do this because there is someone like me out there in the world getting better than me because i could've been a little more focused today. Matter fact... i'm about to train right now. I'm done

What, get a timer and look at it until it says 0? That's all I have to do? So simple...so...simple! Wow! woooooow! woaaaah! I bow to you, great honorable sifu. Amitofo, amitofo, amitofo!!!

Thank you so much. This advice worked perfectly. I just tried it and I managed to do a 4 minute handstand on my first try. I just looked at the timer until it said 0, and then I came down!

In return for this glorious information, let me tell you how to do an iron cross: You mount the rings and lower into iron cross. Go try it, tell me how it goes (you will be successful now that I gave you the simple secret!).

You fail because you are weak and lack the mental fortitude to stay focused on a task for 60 seconds. You can't even read what I wrote and extract the important part. You started this post yet can't absorb any useful information from it.

Since you didn't read any of that because you were zoned out. My advice is to isolate the problem. Not enough noise... Turn on music. Getting distracted... Watch a one minute video during the handstand. Figure out your strengths and leverage them. Focus is a tool you'll need far beyond the gymnastic realm. I'm not on here to get into some word war. Leave your ego at the login screen. My comment had .023% to do with you personally.

Thread finished a couple posts back. Leave it there please, let's have results prove our points for us

Coach Sommer said:

Learning to maintain focus is the price of success.  

 

When reaching 60s becomes more important to you than allowing yourself to zone out, you will correct the issue.  Not before.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach is right.

 

Everyone is too worried about numbers, not the process to achieve the numbers.

Perfect form is achieved only through seeking perfect practice, not just any practice.

It is a conscious effort to correct technique, it is not possible to zone out if you are constantly trying to improve your technique. 

Not possible!

Your only job is to practice improving technique and the numbers will increase. Don't just wait for time in a set to pass. It s what your doing with that time.

This repeats itself for another forum topic "When do you end your set". One can sacrifice technique for additional time or repetitions. Fore some exercises, wtihout good technique you can also miss repetitions, so put the effort into the moment now and you'll know when to continue.

 

I've walked roofs for 20 years without fall protection, have soloed ice & rock climbs with no fall gear and what kept me safe is my execution of quality technique. Being in the zone is focus on improving your execution. It is not necessary to have consequences either, to focus on your execution, i.e.,; like handstands with someone spotting you.  Focusing on improving technique under conditions with low risk enabled me to execute under conditions with increased risk when I chose to do so, or found it necessary.

 

Seek perfect practice

I'll endorse focusing on breathing, and focusing on the feedback of knowing your body is in the right position without needing to look in the mirror. Kinesth... kineseiolo... kinesio-soething. 

 

For timing, I use a metronome set to 60Hz, or one tick every second. For breathing sometimes I'll do 3s in, 3s out; or 2s in, 4s out. Varying the timing helps me focus on something other than "this hurts" and/or "I can't do it." I read somewhere that counting down rather than counting up makes us psychologically more able to bear pain (I think it was Dan Ariely who wrote this; read about how he recovered from terrible burns), so sometimes on my last set I'll count up halfway and then down halfway. 

 

The metronome technique works really well for keeping yourself honest at 60s too. Don't start counting until you're in position. Can't do that with a timer, unless someone else is hitting "go" for you. 

 

P.S. ... I told my friend about this technique, and he said "oh for the love of God, no." So ... might not work for everyone. 

 

-1 to the dude who flamed you. 

The Bit Timer app allows you to set a short interval, a 0 rest, and a number of repeats. So you can set things to 10 s., 0, and 6, and that way you hear a short chime after each 10 s. interval, for a total of 60 s. I find it much easier to reset my focus every 10 s. I agree that over time it would be best to be able to focus unaided for 60s., but in the mean time that might help.

Hi, that sounds like an interesting application. I will definitely check that out.

The "quick fix" for concentration ended up being very straightforward - do handstand training in a very public place. The pressure from one's own ego to perform well in front of others proves as an excellent motivational tool and my handstand holds are steadily (slowly) improving once again. I am still frustratingly having much trouble training in a quiet solitary environment where my thoughts take over, but it gets occasionally better - like valleys and peaks...