Handstand Critique

After two surgeries and 10 months of rehab on my left shoulder I have finally been able to start easing back into things in the past 2 months. This is my first decent freestanding HS so far:

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I took a video from the left side and one from the right side to compare the shoulder angle. I have been working very hard to get all my ROM back and get my left shoulder all the way open. If anyone has any experience in coming back from surgery and dealing with varying shoulder ROMs, my ears are open!! Please critique....

not bad, definitely a difference from side to side

Try to visualize everything over your hands, as you can see, your feet go slightly out of line. Feet over the hands should be your primary cue for balancing.

The other issue to try to work through is locking the hips. In the ideal world your body would stay completely as one piece with the only part moving at the wrist and fingers.

As far as getting your ROM back in your injured shoulder, a compression band coupled with band traction should help quite a bit.

Thanks you for the tips Yuri, I really appreciate it!

yuri said:

Try to visualize everything over your hands, as you can see, your feet go slightly out of line. Feet over the hands should be your primary cue for balancing.

Will more time on the wall (belly to wall) working the hands closer and closer help with this?

yuri said:

The other issue to try to work through is locking the hips. In the ideal world your body would stay completely as one piece with the only part moving at the wrist and fingers.

I have been working the Pre-requisite FSPs hard to work on this and have a much better understanding of a true hollow body postition; however, when in the handstand I find it difficult to actually contract the abs in the same manner. Should I be sucking the gut and just focus on squeezing the glutes to creat pelvic tilt, or is ab contraction a key focal point?

yuri said:

As far as getting your ROM back in your injured shoulder, a compression band coupled with band traction should help quite a bit.

Band traction is one thing that I have not been doing a whole lot of, I will start immediately. I googled compression band, and although I know what it is I am not sure where you are suggesting I wrap it to effectively help?

Thanks again for your help!

One more thing I noticed, when you kick up you start with your feet far away and your hips way off from your hands.

It takes a bit more flexibility, but try to start closer to your hands, this way your body has to make less movement to get to the HS thus increasing the efficiency with which you get into it

As far as the line goes, this mistake of keeping the feet too far towards the heel of the palm is typical of too much stomach to wall HS.

My recommendation would be to alternate stomach and back to the wall HS in your training. This way you will feel the feet leading in different directions and feel the weight shift to different parts of your hand, it will help you feel the balance way better than only one of these could.

The main thing you should be thinking about when you balance is the connection of hands and feet. Your feet will be the most sensitive to weight shift and changes in balance so try at all costs to not let your feet move when you balance. To keep the line all you really have to do is flatten the back, open the shoulders, and extend the hips(squeeze them buttcheeks)

The hollow position is important, don't get me wrong, but I use a modified hollow position when teaching a handstand. HS is a resting position, and is vertical, so the tension in the HS will not be the same as in a horizontal hollow.

To be honest, I relax my abs in a handstand and tend to focus a lot more on the glutes. If I actually want to contract my abs in HS like I would standing, I have to concentrate pretty hard. The cue I use if a handstand is not properly hollow is not "contract your abs" but rather "pull your ribs in". If this is done right, there is an ab contraction that comes with it, but it is not the same feeling as a hollow hold on floor.

Hopefully this gives you an idea, I can explain it a lot better in person. Let me know if you have any more questions

Remember though, hand balancing technique differs a bit from gymnast technique

For the shoulder, you will get the most dramatic effect by compressing the shoulder itself while doing band traction for a couple minutes or until you get the tingles. Then, when you release the compression all the blood will rush to your shoulder and it will feel amazing.

yuri said:

One more thing I noticed, when you kick up you start with your feet far away and your hips way off from your hands.

It takes a bit more flexibility, but try to start closer to your hands, this way your body has to make less movement to get to the HS thus increasing the efficiency with which you get into it

Great point, didn't even think about that.

yuri said:

As far as the line goes, this mistake of keeping the feet too far towards the heel of the palm is typical of too much stomach to wall HS.

My recommendation would be to alternate stomach and back to the wall HS in your training. This way you will feel the feet leading in different directions and feel the weight shift to different parts of your hand, it will help you feel the balance way better than only one of these could.

The main thing you should be thinking about when you balance is the connection of hands and feet. Your feet will be the most sensitive to weight shift and changes in balance so try at all costs to not let your feet move when you balance. To keep the line all you really have to do is flatten the back, open the shoulders, and extend the hips(squeeze them buttcheeks)

I actually tried a few sets belly to wall and then flipped to back to wall last night and really focused on my feet and could feel when they were in line, it almost completely takes away the pressure on the fingers which was wearing me OUT! Thanks I will work on it.

yuri said:

The hollow position is important, don't get me wrong, but I use a modified hollow position when teaching a handstand. HS is a resting position, and is vertical, so the tension in the HS will not be the same as in a horizontal hollow.

To be honest, I relax my abs in a handstand and tend to focus a lot more on the glutes. If I actually want to contract my abs in HS like I would standing, I have to concentrate pretty hard. The cue I use if a handstand is not properly hollow is not "contract your abs" but rather "pull your ribs in". If this is done right, there is an ab contraction that comes with it, but it is not the same feeling as a hollow hold on floor.

Hopefully this gives you an idea, I can explain it a lot better in person. Let me know if you have any more questions

Remember though, hand balancing technique differs a bit from gymnast technique

I think I understand it, you pretty much explained eactly what confusion I am having, I will play with it this wknd. and let you know if I get confused or have trouble with it.

yuri said:

For the shoulder, you will get the most dramatic effect by compressing the shoulder itself while doing band traction for a couple minutes or until you get the tingles. Then, when you release the compression all the blood will rush to your shoulder and it will feel amazing.

Got it! I think I found a video of it, I will try it out today. Thank you very much for your comments and taking the time to respond. I really appreciate it!

yuri said:

The cue I use if a handstand is not properly hollow is not "contract your abs" but rather "pull your ribs in".

My circus acro instructor used the same lingo: "squeeze your butt" and "pull in your ribs" - she'd yell it across the room all the time. "YURI! PULL IN YOUR RIBS. POINT YOUR TOES"

HA HA, I yell pretty much the same thing to my students too!