Question on Straddle Press Handstand Tutorial

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if someone could further clarify #3 and #5 on this tutorial: http://gymnasticbodies.com/tutorials/st ... handstand/

Particularly "If done perfectly there will be no forward shoulder lean whatsoever; only a perfect vertical line". That seems impossible to me. Is the video accompanying this considered to have no forward shoulder lean? To me it looks like it does (not a lot) but I'm curious if a perfect one was even more vertical than that.

For example an old video of me doing a pike press (

Thanks!

It's a matter of active flexibility. You have to be very flexible to be able to press without leaning. The example in the tutorial has a slight lean.

Your pike press is really good, from L you have to lean a bit to shift the hips, but you keep your compression in it really well.

Similar question: when the tutorial says "no forward lean", is the forward lean in the video acceptable? Because it seems like he's leaning forward quite a bit. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something

That's because ideally, and I do mean ideally, from a gymnastic perspective you should have developed the flexibility in the hips and posterior chain along with abdominal compression to the point where you can be completely pancaked, but vertical instead of horizontal (like pancake stretch on floor). With this ability there will be NO forward lean at all.

Without that ability, there will be forward lean to the point necessary to maintain center of gravity over the hands. That's why I would have to be incredibly strong to do a straddle press right now My flexibility is crap. It would basically be somewhere between a flat tuck planche press and a straddle planche press for me because of poor flexibility, which means enormous forward lean.

Thanks guys, that helps.

I'm just getting back into handbalancing from several years ago and this forum been such a valuable resource for me (just lurking so far)

Thanks again!

Joshua Naterman said:

That's because ideally, and I do mean ideally, from a gymnastic perspective you should have developed the flexibility in the hips and posterior chain along with abdominal compression to the point where you can be completely pancaked, but vertical instead of horizontal (like pancake stretch on floor). With this ability there will be NO forward lean at all.

Without that ability, there will be forward lean to the point necessary to maintain center of gravity over the hands. That's why I would have to be incredibly strong to do a straddle press right now My flexibility is crap. It would basically be somewhere between a flat tuck planche press and a straddle planche press for me because of poor flexibility, which means enormous forward lean.

So it's essentially like saying "you should be able to deadlift 2.5xBW" or something - and end goal to strive for, but not something that invalidates successful, 2xBW DLs.

phrak said:

... is the forward lean in the video acceptable? Because it seems like he's leaning forward quite a bit. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something

This is incorrect. While not perfect, there is only a very modest degree of forward lean present in the video. The degree of lean is measured in relation from the position of the shoulders over the top of the hands.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

phrak said:

So it's essentially like saying "you should be able to deadlift 2.5xBW" or something - and end goal to strive for, but not something that invalidates successful, 2xBW DLs.

Right, and like Coach said the press in the video is pretty good. A completely perfect one is fairly rare But there was very, very little lean in what was shown, and what is shown is definitely achievable by virtually everyone here.

Dillon was as inflexible as I am right now when he started 5 years ago, and look at the progress he's made despite such awful flexibility starting out.

Coach Sommer said:

phrak said:

... is the forward lean in the video acceptable? Because it seems like he's leaning forward quite a bit. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something

This is incorrect. While not perfect, there is only a very modest degree of forward lean present in the video. The degree of lean is measured in relation from the position of the shoulders over the top of the hands.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I was looking at the literal "degree" of the angle of the forearm, not the position of shoulder relative to hand.

Hi hi, I have a further question if the above has been illuminated and Im not interrupting. I have my straddle press down to standing on flat bricks, and have finally got a stable handstand, so Im also working the press in limited rom starting from hs. So I'm chipping away, currently, at starting it from either end of thr movement, which seems to me to be a solid approach.

Where should I put the priority in this, or is it more a matter of repping both along with handstand holds until I can bring my negative and concentric together?

In my experience it's good to work both. It's what I did to get it. If I could I would go all the way down to a straddle L sit, but you might not be there yet. My old coach said if I could do 20 clean, controlled negatives (from HS to Straddle L) in a few minutes (5 maybe?) I'd have no problem going back up, which turned out to be pretty accurate.

Just make sure you are doing it with as good form and control as you can.

raphaelb said:

In my experience it's good to work both. It's what I did to get it. If I could I would go all the way down to a straddle L sit, but you might not be there yet. My old coach said if I could do 20 clean, controlled negatives (from HS to Straddle L) in a few minutes (5 maybe?) I'd have no problem going back up, which turned out to be pretty accurate.

Just make sure you are doing it with as good form and control as you can.

Thanks for that, I'm okay with the negatives to straddle l maybe 8 times out of 10. That sounds like a reasonable sort of threshold goal.

Jon