Handbalance:Does weight and size matter?

Just curious about a few things...

1. Does body weight percentage really matter when handbalancing? Heavy set vs. Thin?

2. Does height matter? Tall vs. short?

3. Is there a certain balance point which requires little effort to maintain a handstand? Handbalancers seem to have this?

Tao

You, of course, must have sufficient strength to practice safely. The secret sauce for handstand progression is practice.

1. Check out the picture of Bert Asseratti in the link below. He is definitely not ripped but he sure is strong

http://www.dieselcrew.com/how-to-do-a-hand-stand

2. Not that I have seen, flexibility can play a role when your talking presses or certain leg positions.

3. There is a 'sweet spot' where you are neither over nor under balancing and the hold feels 'easy'

1+2: Height and weght do matter to some extent. With pretty much any type of bodyweight skills being smaller and lighter is an advantage. That said, it is also true that size and weight differences dont create any actual limitations until you really get into extremely advanced skills. I think the biggest difference might come in terms of stress put on the joints rather than an actual difference in mechanical difficulty. When I was accepted to a circus school in Montreal the hand balancing coach there refused to teach me hand balancing as my primary discipline because he thought that at 6ft and 185lbs my wrists wouldn't be able to handle the training load. To my dismay, even though I was primarily training a different discipline and only hand balancing about 5 hours a week i still suffered a wrist injury a few months after the school year started. I've since recovered and have progressed quite a bit with hand balancing (basic one arm handstands, presses from l-sit and straddle l-sit). But my wrists are still the biggest limiting factor in my training, a limiting factor that a smaller person might not need to worry about or be slowed down by.

3: I wouldn't really say there is ever a "sweet spot." If your form is very good and you have good body tension you can get damn close though. I have moments when I feel like I'm just perfectly balanced and don't need to make any balance corrections at all in my handstand, but they only last for just a few moments. In general you are always making very small corrections with the wrists and fingers and the better you get the smaller and more subtle those corrections will become.

Tao said:

Just curious about a few things...

1. Does body weight percentage really matter when handbalancing? Heavy set vs. Thin?

2. Does height matter? Tall vs. short?

One's natural build is of tremendous importance, yes. It's not as simple as taller vs. shorter, though - instead, certain proportions are required and certain limb-length proportions, as well as how your muscles attach to the bone and what kind of leverage they can achieve. Also how sturdy your joints are, as mentioned. Really a lot of things go into it, the only way to determine how well predisposed someone is to handbalancing (or whatever else) is to have them give it a shot.

I know people who cranked up into a perfect flag the very first time they tried it, and were holding straddle planches after a few weeks. How? Ideal body proportions and excellent leverages for that sort of thing. And certainly no shortage of muscle on their frame - though they weren't "big" by any means.

But... they can't run for more than about 200m without seriously struggling - and going a few miles is utterly out of the question.

I, on the other hand, am tall with a light frame, long legs and narrow joints - easily injured in strength sports but well fairly well suited for long-distance running, cycling and swimming. I naturally sat at around 140lbs and 6ft tall, but to have any strength at all I need to keep myself at around 190lbs+, by which point the strain on my thin wrists is really exceptional.

People are really immensely different in build and we all have different strengths and weaknesses. If you're naturally good at something you probably know, or will find out very early on. If you're not, then never mind, you can still progress in your own way and have fun doing it.