A great (new?) way to develop Press Handstands!!

I don't know if this has ever been discussed here on the forums, and even if it hasn't maybe people already know about this method, but I thought I would share just in case, since I myself only very recently came up with it/discovered it!

As you know pressing to handstand, straddle & pike, is an essential and fundamental skill to master in gymnastics.

Most important thing here is the form, because most people tend to planche too much (i.e. the shoulders move forward) during the press, which is completely wrong. The correct form is to lean slightly forward with your entire body, shoulders not traveling forward, and head tucked in between your hands, then press up to a handstand.

An awesome way I found to building the strength to do a press with the aforementioned proper form is to go to a handstand position next to a wall, with your hands slightly away from the wall. Then start trying to lean forward with your entire body, assisting as needed with your legs by way of bending your knees slightly while you lean, then lean back to normal vertical body position. Do this a few times, and then practice your pressing right after. You'll immediately notice much greater control over the movement, better activation of the muscles involved, and you'll find it a lot easier to press while maintaining the proper form and not feeling the need to planche in order to get your legs up!

Try it! And tell me what you think!

Roman

This is indeed a really useful exercise, I just remembered I meant to include it in the video I made but it slipped my mind

I'm not quite sure i'm picturing it.

A back near the wall HS, bend knees and lean body towards the wall?

Edit:

I did misunderstand -

From Yuri in a thread he posted -

Belly to the wall handstand, lean shoulders forward a bit and come back so you are working on forcefully opening the shoulder angle from a slightly planched, closed position

Helps a lot with more than just presses

Actually with your stomach to the wall it would be quite dangerous because you could fall forward.

Video?

Ok, you did mean back to the wall.

If you can set up a crash pad falling wouldn't matter, but the stomach to the wall would give better body line. Back to the wall would certainly be more comfortable in a home setting.

Bdk1786 said:

This is a weak area of mine. So am I understanding right that it is like a planche lean kind of from a HS. Not to the extent of a full planche lean, but going from | to \ then back to | ?

Yes, pretty much!

Cole Dano said:

Ok, you did mean back to the wall.

If you can set up a crash pad falling wouldn't matter, but the stomach to the wall would give better body line. Back to the wall would certainly be more comfortable in a home setting.

I'm not sure because I think that when your stomach is to the wall you are basically starting from the opposite angle you need to be when you are leaning forward, meaning you have more distance to travel until you're vertical, and then again going forward. Seems more tricky to me, but I may be wrong... Also when you lean forward that way, you have nothing in front of you to hold against in order to control/assist with the lean, so you might as well be doing it from a free handstand, where as the whole point is to give you that extra assistance if you're not strong enough to do it freestanding.

Simply learn how to roll out of a HS :!: :wink:

Blairbob said:

Simply learn how to roll out of a HS :!: :wink:

I know how to roll out of a handstand, the point is that if you don't have something there helping you, then you will simply fall (or roll) forward before you have enough TUT. Also if you fall forward, you won't be able to lean forward and then back again, which is an essential part of the movement.

I've heard of these called "shoulder drops".

I have been using these for a few weeks once a week (nowhere near enough scapular control to do these every day) and they definitely do help. I have played with these on and off, but until I started to re-learn scapular control and retrain my movement patterns this didn't help me. NOW it is finally starting to help some. Hope to be able to use this as well as Yuri's rant to really make some great progress by end of summer!

Thanks guys!

slizzardman said:

I have been using these for a few weeks once a week (nowhere near enough scapular control to do these every day) and they definitely do help. I have played with these on and off, but until I started to re-learn scapular control and retrain my movement patterns this didn't help me. NOW it is finally starting to help some. Hope to be able to use this as well as Yuri's rant to really make some great progress by end of summer!

Thanks guys!

Awesome! Good Luck to you slizzardman, and to every one else!

Having a hard time visualizing the whole thing. Video anyone (please) ?

yes video? Please? Thanks

I'll bump this with a request for video as well, if someone is able.

Thanks.