Improving handstand form.

Hello everybody,

I am trying to get a good form in my handstand and it seems that I am running out of patience. I have been reading a lot and basically I know how a good handstand is done and how it looks but I can't do it properly. The biggest problem I am having now, in my opinion, is the inability to control my lower body, because I tend to pike my hips when I try to tighten up the abs and the glutes or I get a little bit of arch in my lower back and / or my ankles go past my wrists when I try to avoid piking in the hips (the ankles and wrists aren't in the line which is perpendicular to the floor). You can see some of my handstand attempts in the video below, there are lots of obvious mistakes I mentioned and there are other problems which I can't see. Any advice is appreciated because I feel stuck and I just can't feel that "aha moment" when trying to control my lower body. Thanks in advance.

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EDIT: fixed video link.

The video is private.

I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem THAT bad. Seems like your glutes aren't tight, though, as your hips are flopping all over the place. For me personally, I rotate my legs outward a tad (bringing the soles of the feet closer together), which allows me to get more glute tension in there, which effectively locks my hips in place.

Not bad at all, you are almost there. You now just have to focus on balancing with the hands by not moving the feet

I would do some alignment drills that focus on hip extension and spend a little more time with back to the wall HS.

A couple things I recommend are to start with your feet closer to your hands and hips up higher for the kick up to make it easier. The other things is to try to open your shoulders as you are kicking up instead of catching a closed shoulder HS then correcting it

I was stuck at the same place for quite a while and Yuri's advice is what I found to work for me as well, though it didn't happen overnight, and there is still room for improvement.

The problem is getting in the HS without needingto fix it too much when you are there. By arching up from the lower back you are setting up the need to balance from the feet right away. I was given the cue to close my chest on the way up, I know this sounds contradictory with open shoulders at first, but by closing the chest you will feel you can press up rather than the arch and fling method you are now using. And once you are up, everything will be in line so you can balance from the hands right away.

Another thing that I found helps me to avoid arching up is to fix the upper leg so it doesn't go so far back as to break the line, and by keeping it fixed, and moving more deliberately you feel the pressing action rather than flinging up.

You have to be really patient with handbalancing, don't give up you are getting close.

phrak said:

I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem THAT bad. Seems like your glutes aren't tight, though, as your hips are flopping all over the place. For me personally, I rotate my legs outward a tad (bringing the soles of the feet closer together), which allows me to get more glute tension in there, which effectively locks my hips in place.

In these attempts I am actively trying to find the "right" position of my lower body so I am wobbling all over the place. I will try to rotate my legs a bit and see how it feels.

yuri said:

Not bad at all, you are almost there. You now just have to focus on balancing with the hands by not moving the feet

I would do some alignment drills that focus on hip extension and spend a little more time with back to the wall HS.

A couple things I recommend are to start with your feet closer to your hands and hips up higher for the kick up to make it easier. The other things is to try to open your shoulders as you are kicking up instead of catching a closed shoulder HS then correcting it

The problem is that I can't tighten up the glutes and the abs to create posterior pelvic tilt without piking the hips. Perhaps I am trying to get more of the posterior pelvic tilt than needed? Actually this moment is the one I can't control. When I am upside down and I try to play with my hips position I can't get the feeling of a correct position.

What hip extension exercises would you recommend? And why do I need to do back to the wall HS? Standing this way may give me an opportunity to reduce the pike in the hips but at the same time it enforces to have an arch in the lower back.

And yes, I have troubles with the kick up as well as with the correction movements in the beginning of a handstand. Will be working on that.

Cole Dano said:

I was stuck at the same place for quite a while and Yuri's advice is what I found to work for me as well, though it didn't happen overnight, and there is still room for improvement.

The problem is getting in the HS without needingto fix it too much when you are there. By arching up from the lower back you are setting up the need to balance from the feet right away. I was given the cue to close my chest on the way up, I know this sounds contradictory with open shoulders at first, but by closing the chest you will feel you can press up rather than the arch and fling method you are now using. And once you are up, everything will be in line so you can balance from the hands right away.

Another thing that I found helps me to avoid arching up is to fix the upper leg so it doesn't go so far back as to break the line, and by keeping it fixed, and moving more deliberately you feel the pressing action rather than flinging up.

You have to be really patient with handbalancing, don't give up you are getting close.

That closed shoulders approach is interesting and I think that I get the idea.

I have tried to kick up with the first leg fixed in the right position and then bring the other leg together, but most of the times I just come back to the ground without even having a several seconds HS. But I need to try this kind of kick up more seriously to see how it goes.

Sometimes I just get lost in my training and can't realize how to solve the problems I have so an opportunity to ask experienced people is a great step forward. I thank all of you for your advice and critique.