Hs Form Check

So I've been a long time lurker of the site, and this is my first post... So excited to be a part of this community.

I've been training handstands for about six months so far, and thought this might be a good point to take a step back and make sure I'm not developing any bad habits, really working on opening up my shoulders more and getting that arch out of my back. Here's the video, any critique and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtgtKYM3j10

Thank You!

3 alignment cues you need to get: ribs in, shoulders open, hips open. Right now all 3 are a little skewed. Keep working on this

as for the actual balance, try to get your feet to be still. At the moment you are balancing by swaying your feet, this is something we want to avoid

hi yuri, when trying to open the hips while at the same time tensing the glutes and abs as in front body line drill, should the hips be 180 degrees like the arms? or is it ok to have a slightly smaller angle

Thanks Yuri, does this swaying of the feet mean that i need more body tension? I've noticed my swaying before and I'm finding it really hard to avoid. Are there any cues you would suggest to put a stop to it?

Joey Frad said:

hi yuri, when trying to open the hips while at the same time tensing the glutes and abs as in front body line drill, should the hips be 180 degrees like the arms? or is it ok to have a slightly smaller angle

Ideally every joint should be at 180 degrees, but almost everyone compensates somewhere. Even most professional hand balancers have a bit of pike

Robby S said:

Thanks Yuri, does this swaying of the feet mean that i need more body tension? I've noticed my swaying before and I'm finding it really hard to avoid. Are there any cues you would suggest to put a stop to it?

Not necessarily, it's more about making smaller corrections. This means you need a more sensitive feedback loop, you need to be more aware of slight changes in your balance so you can react before you come out of the center line.

Tension is part of it as you need to be conscious in locking your shoulders and hips.

When balancing just try to be aware of the feet; since they are the furthest point from your COG they will be the most sensitive to changes. The corrective movements should come mostly or completely from the wrists and fingers and every movement performed with the hands needs to have the goal of keeping the feet in the center.

I notice in the video that you're not pointing your toes - doing that might help you put Yuri's advice into practice. When I started consciously pointing my toes it made me more aware of my feet and helped me to tense my legs and keep them straight and still.

Thanks so much for the advice guys. Yuri what you say makes total sense, when I'm balancing it seems like i make a few big adjustments instead of many micro ones. I definitely need to work on pointing the toes too!

emos said:

When I started consciously pointing my toes it made me more aware of my feet and helped me to tense my legs and keep them straight and still.

Yuval said the same thing to me - pointing the toes isn't about having the prettiest toe point, but it makes you aware of where your feet are in space

phrak said:

Yuval said the same thing to me - pointing the toes isn't about having the prettiest toe point, but it makes you aware of where your feet are in space

This is so true, I spent some time working on pointing my toes in handstand yesterday... day and night difference, my legs tensed up more, which made it much easier to find my balance point. I'll post a video soon with updates!

So I've been concentrating hard on pointing my toes for the last week or so, man it's surprising because it feels like it changes the entire dynamic of my handstand. I still slip up at times by moving my feet around a little as you'll see in the video, but it seems like there's already some improvement in my amount of swaying... Tell me what you think?

As always, thank you for any feedback!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj7mgErhp-0