Improving flare technique

hello, I have been training flares for several years as I have been a bboy for quite some time. i am now a circus handbalancer and I have good press handstand and planche strength and above average both active and passive flexibility, but I still have a very hard time getting my flares consistenly on the level I want them. During several periods, also ones where I was in much worse shape than now, I have done very well and been able to do at least 10 rounds, as well as flare90(bboy version of handstand pirouette) back down to flares again. It has, however never been consistent as I never feel I have grasped what makes it work. I have friends that have outright terrible flexibility and no gymnastics conditiong, but can do very powerful flares with good extension, so I figure it is a technique thing.

I can still do 7-10 rounds, but my main problem is that I bend my legs when I swing trough, both to the back and to the front. I have tried, with no success, to point or flex my feet and lock the knees to prevent this from happening, but it seems rather like a flaw in my technique makes bending a physical necessity to get around. I am also too piked in the back, and I feel little power in my feet which probably is connected. I have done it like this for a long time so I know it is something which could be hard to fix, but I would like to hear more about it from people with more knowledge about the principles why this is happening.

I now have access to a mushroom, and I thought to start learning the basics, but it would be interesting to hear from some of you.

Windmills? Also, if you want to learn gymnastics flares, you should learn to do circles.

sounds like you have to take it back to formula. get some video up, but until then no idea what is going wrong except perhaps extension of the hips in the front part of the circle/flair

a little question....i know that if i want to learn the correct circle i must do the "hips torque"...i must focuse on the hips torque also when i'm doing flares?

Yes, you still need to counter-turn your hips for the Thomas Flair. Basically, it's just a spindle with the legs in a straddle doing the flair action.

oooohhhh i never think that before, the idea of the splindle is awesome....i have another question on flair...i see many flares in youtube and i notice that in the flare of gymnast (that for me is the perfection) you have to swing your legs far away from the body, is correct?...for example (suppose a clockwise flare) i notice that the 99% of the bboys when they start a new flare from the back, they swing the right leg under the body...the gymnast swing the leg in the side! swing the right leg as bboys does not compromise the hip extension??

Most bboys do their "flares" with piked hips versus extended hips with straddled legs.

In the breakdance club, 3 guys can do 1-3 rounds of flares (bboy style of course). They said you should learn those before what they call "virgin flares" or what we all know as circles.

However, I heard from here that circles should be done first.

So now what?

Circles. In my opinion bb style does not exist, just wrong tehnicque (I am not talking about asthetic part, such as bending knees).

I do quite right to Gregor, i'm a bboy and i can say that before training circles my flare was orrible...i decided to stop training flares and learn circles for the correct tecnique, and only the ability of do 20 circles on pommel helped me for flares, the first thing that i didn't is bent my legs...which is very frequent in the bboy....

i have a question...to lift up my ass and my legs when i'm on the back of flre i must lean forward with my arms and my body?

yes, you need to do that to counterbalance.

If you circle counter clockwise the left leg must stay as close to your face in the rear support so your right leg can swing backward faster to a somewhat hollow straddle planche..

alex87 said:

to lift up my (hips) and my legs when I'm on the back of flare I must lean forward with my arms and my body?

Yes, that is correct.

A good drill, for both elevating as well as extending your hips (getting rid of the pike), is to begin and end your flairs from on top of a panel mat set just behind you. Simply adjust the height of the panel mat depending on your current level of flair proficiency.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Very good drill Coach, never heard about it. What I do to get flares up at the back is put a lot of tension in my left arm(I go clockwise) and try to tense a lot my abs without allowing my back to curve or get hollow, just keeping a neutral posture, so you will not loose momentum.