My Hand balancing

[Nic Scheelings]

I've been inspired by the guys who recently posted their hand balancing videos to post an update of my own. Nowhere near the level of the other guys who recently posted but hopefully someday. A lot of the drills I used were illustrated far better in Ido's video so this may look like a crappier version of his but they have really helped me gain a lot more control.

I'm hoping to have some sort of attempt at a one arm late next year, not sure if that's realistic or not.

Cheers

Whoops forgot vid

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[Neal Winkler]

Good work, man.

You seem to put more weight your left side, or are my eyes deceiving me?

[Nic Scheelings]

Your eyes are fine, it's still a problem i'm trying to fix.

Thanks for the comment

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Work with your arms closer to your head. Now they are farther out, and it will make it more difficult for you later when you will be going for 1 arms. When you put them a little closer together it is easier to push more from your trapezius, which also helps the shoulder alignment. Also try to lock the elbows and keep stretching them shoulders to get a perfect line.

You look pretty strong, but you rely too much on your arm strength when you lean over. Locking out the elbow and pushing from the trapezius through the shoulder really helps getting the placement better. Again, arms closer to your ears makes it easier to get a feeling of this push. It will probably feel awkward at first, I remember I felt totally lost when I started doing that from my old technique, but trust me, it pays off.

It should be possible for you to learn 1 arm as long as you keep working it. Also do leg flexibility since a better split makes it easier.

[Nic Scheelings]

Thanks man,

I have been trying to get my arms closer together (I think they are a little closer) but yeah like u said it feels weird at first so I think I have that tendency to revert to wat feels comfortable.

Yeah Flexibilty is still a problem I need to dedicate more time too. Definitely over the next few months I'm going to push my flexibility hard. Thanks for the tips.

[jutajata]

Great work Demus!

I think you really have to straighten and lock your elbows ASAP to prevent any bad habit in the future, will make the pursue of the "no effort balance" on the one hand a lot more easier.

You should work a lot on pike press ups and straddle press ups, this things gives a lot of strength and endurance and increase the sense of balancing for the handstand, along with that you really should do more flexibility work to reach full pike with no effort, will make a lot of difference in the long run. Since you have very strong legs you really should focus some time in streching and active flexibility to make the presses more easier.

In the sideviews we can see that you are putting a lot of pressure in your fingers, try to relax more over your bones and spread the weigth trough your fingers istead of pushing them against the floor, will make the balance a lot more confortable and will increase a lot your endurance because you wont be doing too much effort to hold the balance, again i think that this "fingers tension" issue its because your elbows are not locked then your weigth didnt rest in the proper places.

For how long are you practing handstands? For now you have to do a grease the groove(do handstands all day) approach to optimize the balance and correct that little issues about your elbows and allignement (you lean a little to the left).

As Ido say handbalancing is a journey to life so dont stop and keep posting your results and insights!

[Nic Scheelings]

Thanks for the tips,

Yeah I think I want to find or make a really consistent surface to practice on to eliminate the allignment issues I have. I find it easier to have my elbows fully locked on paralettes not really sure why, perhaps the wrist flexibilty element is also limiting me from locking my elbows. I've made a commitment to do hs wall runs once a week in order to really up my shoulder endurance at the moment I find the workout pretty demanding, I'm hoping for it to start to become relatively easy over the next few months.

I guess i've been working handstands around 18 months or so, but only really focusing on them over the past 4 months or so.

[Bob Sanders]

Hey great job your handstand looks really good. Impressive control and balance. May I ask what do you think helped you the most in achieving the balance and control you have now

[Nic Scheelings]

Hi titan,

Thanks a lot. Its hard to say exactly what helped me the most but once I achieved some sort of control in a Hs I started doing them all the time. eg: Helping someone move = do some hs, going to the beach = do some hs. Just about every chance I got. Now I'm trying to do hs on lots of surfaces, when at the park ect..

I think that probably made the biggest difference to get some control and then little allignment adjustments have made further big improvements.

Hope that helps

[Bob Sanders]

Demus,

I hope you don't mind asking you question. For the handstands how do you kick up and then not falling over to your back. I thought I had it figured out. Anyways I would but up above the hands prior to kicking up. SO when I kick up I would just rotate my hips over the shoulder and up. Then afterward I didn't know if I was fatigued or what but It would not work anymore I would would start flopping on the wall again. I would try stretching up legs up but I still fall back on the wall. This was today's practice. Any suggestions?

And also for balancing I figured it was best to be over balancing and pushing off the figures really hard to keep balancing but then my fingers and arms would fatigue so then I would end up flopping on the wall again. What is the best way to keep balance?

[Joshua Naterman]

My big breakthrough was centering my weight on the first knuckle, where your fingers are attached to your hand. That way I can actively stay balanced.