Critique my Handstand

Hello everyone,

I filmed my handstand and I am curious what you guys think. I have worked on it since oktober 2009. Back then I could not stay straight for 10sec. Now my record is 90sec (on parallettes). I train my handstand 3 times a week; sometimes on parallettes but most of the times on my hands. I usually do 3/4 sets of 40/50 sec.

Sounds great but I always have had a slight arched back and I dont know how to make my handstand really straight. I have a fealing this is stalling my progress. I mean I can do a set of 40/50 sec but it doesn't feel rock SOLID. Its a bit shaky sometimes..

It's also difficult to work on my freestanding handstand pushups while having a hollow handstand.

So any tips on how I can improve my form and how I can keep making progress?

This is the video:

(Ignore the stupid musice, its the radio)

shVuxcuhBTw

Did you ever spend much time on wall handstands with your wrists 0-2 inches from the wall?

trianglechoke7 said:

Did you ever spend much time on wall handstands with your wrists 0-2 inches from the wall?

No sir, I used to do that in the beginning but just for like 3 weeks. Do you reccomend back to wall or chest to wall, or both?

Chest to wall. If you have your wrists 0-2 inches from the wall you must be in a good hollow position with open shoulders. From the video, your shoulders are still too closed.

trianglechoke7 said:

Chest to wall. If you have your wrists 0-2 inches from the wall you must be in a good hollow position with open shoulders. From the video, your shoulders are still too closed.

Ok man I will try this, many thanks :wink:

Nice HS but I agree with Triangle

not bad. you could be more open in your shoulders but that will come if you work on it

the main thing I would comment on here is the hip movement. you shift between arch and hollow, using your hips to balance.

ideally, you should be able to lock your hips and shoulders using only the wrists to balance

If you point your toes hard it will tighten your core and help alot with keeping your hips locked and your body hollow. Good work though keep it up!

Yuri, once you have achieved a pretty solid freestanding HS. would you recommend reverting back to Wall HS (belly to wall) to improve your freestanding HS? Sometimes I will kick up or do a bent arm tuck press to HS and not have to move my hands or adjust one bit and I am in perfect form. I will hold for a solid 1 1/2 min to 2 min. Then sometimes when I kick up I can't get my balance, my hands are moving around and I find myself also arching my back and moving the hips to gain control. Once i am balanced I push hard and get hollow. Just wondering if reverting back to the wall would help me improve or should I continue practicing freestanding?

Eddie said:

Yuri, once you have achieved a pretty solid freestanding HS. would you recommend reverting back to Wall HS (belly to wall) to improve your freestanding HS? Sometimes I will kick up or do a bent arm tuck press to HS and not have to move my hands or adjust one bit and I am in perfect form. I will hold for a solid 1 1/2 min to 2 min. Then sometimes when I kick up I can't get my balance, my hands are moving around and I find myself also arching my back and moving the hips to gain control. Once i am balanced I push hard and get hollow. Just wondering if reverting back to the wall would help me improve or should I continue practicing freestanding?

the wall will help, because chances are your line can always use improvement. I used to have the same problem too, I still get it a little, and I see it often where people kick up into an arched handstand then adjust.

Try to get in a good position as soon as possible. Work the kick on the wall with your hands really close to the wall to avoid arch. Try to open your shoulders and engage your glutes right away.

Actually, an interesting point, after my training with Yuval there are some new insights into the matter. I will be implementing this a lot more in my training to come.

Rather than kicking up, Yuval prefers a jumping tuck to handstand. Then when you lower, do a negative straight arm tuck press. This is a symmetrical movement and gives your balance set a defined beginning and end. It will help to focus you more rather than just kicking up and holding until you fall.

Try it out. It should feel organic and natural. Basically squat down, place your hands on the floor and jump your hips over your hands. Get a balance then slowly straighten out. This will also help to get up in a better position.

Thanks for the advice yuri, I appreciate it! It's definitely frustrating when I go into a HS and can't catch my balance to fix the arch or it takes me forever such that I am spending the first 20s moving around trying to get steady. I actually started doing the method you described as my first form of a press up before I tried from a tuck planche position. I still can't press from a tuck planche without bending my elbows. I have always heard that once you can press up to HS, that you should always press up (Is this true ?). Having said that I usually try to press up for the first few sets and then kick up for the rest holding it until I loose balance and kick down. Do you think I should continue working this press or only attempt it with straight arms? Should I focus on only going into the HS with the method you described and do pressing work seperate? Thanks for your time yuri!

Yuri that is excellent advice. Back when my handstands were relatively good that what i was doing as well and it worked very nicely. It also is great prep for working presses, which now that i think about it i could do when i was regularly coming into handstand via the two leg jump.

I moved to the one leg kick up, because of screwing up my shoulders and found it to be better for getting the shoulders in place and stable, but it does lead to the hip balancing problem. In the final analysis i think both have something to offer.

When Mikael was here giving his workshop, he was completely relaxed, and it was fantastic to note how he got into handstand, as he was just casually demonstrating things, he got into handstand any which way, sometimes press, some times two leg jump, sometimes one leg kick up.

One small hint for the OP in addition to what has already been given, try looking more in front of you rather than straight down between the hands as this will tend to cause the body to wrap into the banana even it the shoulders are open, it will cause them to close.

Eddie said:

Thanks for the advice yuri, I appreciate it! It's definitely frustrating when I go into a HS and can't catch my balance to fix the arch or it takes me forever such that I am spending the first 20s moving around trying to get steady. I actually started doing the method you described as my first form of a press up before I tried from a tuck planche position. I still can't press from a tuck planche without bending my elbows. I have always heard that once you can press up to HS, that you should always press up (Is this true ?). Having said that I usually try to press up for the first few sets and then kick up for the rest holding it until I loose balance and kick down. Do you think I should continue working this press or only attempt it with straight arms? Should I focus on only going into the HS with the method you described and do pressing work seperate? Thanks for your time yuri!

First of all, tuck planche press and tuck press are completely different movements. Second, the movement I described is not a press at all, but a jump. The goal is to use as little energy as possible to get up in a good handstand so you have energy for the balancing you are going to do.

The whole point is to not lose balance, and I am trying to get away from this as well because I am used to falling. My old sets would be: kick up, straddle, right arm handstand hold until I fall, repeat with left arm. Now one of my sets looks more like: tuck jump up to HS, right arm HS 5-10 sec, back to middle, left arm HS 5-10 sec, back to middle, neg tuck press down. This is much more organized and gives the set a clear intro and conclusion. You start and end at the same point having control the whole time.

Of course, you should be able to get into a handstand in many different ways, so don't neglect them. Don't neglect presses either, they are very valuable. If you can lower as a negative press every time you come down from HS you will build strength very quickly. You can wok straddle and pike negatives too. Focus on keeping hips over the hands and open shoulders as you bring your legs down slowly

The funny thing is the jump, though its easier actually helps the core strength and at least for me got my pressing to at least happen. (Sadly its gone now, but we are working on it)

I think its the fact that you have to break yourself from a somewhat tucked position, the hips are stable and the core does the stoping. It feels very good.

BTW Mikael had the same idea of having an organized set that one would practice as technical work. Since we were all only at the two hand level its was up, straight legs, straddle, tuck, down. Very smart.

Thanks for the advice yuri!