HS/SE4 form check

Hello, this is my first post! After working for several months on flexibility, prehab, alignment and balance I want to finally achieve a handstand! I believe my biggest weakness is balance/control, because every time I try to bring my legs together I loose balance, mostly falling to my feet. 

You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob50FfwHlw4&feature=youtu.be

I have several questions that I hope somebody can help me with:

1) Is my flexibility enough? I don't mean optimal, but sufficient to start working on freestanding handstand

2) Is the core/shoulders/wrist/etc in the correct position?

3) I know if I wall to my hands I must press the heel of my hand, but I find that they do not generate as much power as the fingers so I almost always cannot correct this. What would be another option to rebalance the falling to my hands? In the shoulders/elbows/etc

Another issue I've experimented is that focusing so much on tension, alignment and positioning takes makes my really tight and I forget the important aspect which is balance, so one question would be how much body tension is needed, specially with the posterior pelvic tilt.

Any other feedback is highly appreciated, the movement that I really want above planche/front lever/whatever is a nice straight handstand.

Thank you!

Santiago

If you have previously master the mobility elements from flexion/extension up to dislocates and the following version you should have the necessary shoulders mobility that is the most important factor.

Now the question is up to you, did you master them ?

...and then there was silence...

There was silence because I asked 3 questions and the only answer was, like all handstand cues here "shoulder flexibility and alignment". Gymnast some decades ago were balancing banana handstands, and a straight handstand is a lifetime project. No perfect shoulder mobility->there can be a handstand. No balance->no handstand. It's not all "be a tight stick and you will balance", I was actually looking for rebalancing drills/cues. 

Well I think you got the standard answer because you're asking about SE4 and you say you've only been working the course for several months. That's completing 16 separate elements in like three or four cycles - you've clearly skipped ahead at more than one point. It took me 27 months to get to SE4 (hell it took me five months to do PE8) - now assuming you're twice as good as me (and most are) you can see that still isn't enough preparation. Alessandro's point is that it shows. 

I know you don't want to hear it but all that emphasis on strength, alignment and tightness is part of what makes the balance manageable - we spend time on it because that it what works. There are specific PEs & SEs that work the balance aspect but they expect a straight bodyline (e.g., PE11 - SE3).

Ok I'll take your advice and practice more the previous progressions before tackling this one

There are also in the cirque world different athletes and now teachers who believe that you can balance in an arched form, yes you can, and your journey in handstand stops here.

BUT that's not we are searching for and not what we are promoting, reasons are different. first of all from a GST pov handstand is a starting point then a resting position for a more advanced skills, from press to handstand to preparation for iron cross. for this reason if we are searching the position of less energy effort we need alignment, if you want alignment you need shoulders mobility.

If we decide to hold an high standard it is because high standard makes the difference, everyone can reach near the success by doing a bit, to reach the success in gst you need more.

I think if what you are looking for is just a handstand (and there is nothing wrong with that!), then you want a book like "The 15 Second Handstand: A Beginner's Guide" (you can find it on Amazon). It contains all the important bits and cues that you are looking for.

This course is about something else, and the handstand is almost a byproduct of it in a sense. The fact that you can hold a perfectly aligned handstand for 2 minutes is a showcase of strength and mobility, and not the goal itself, because you can ask - OK, so what is it good for? What is the purpose? To impress girls or to have a healthy body in the end?