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November Gymnastic Progress

By admin on December 2, 2010 in Tumbling

I put together a short video showing some on the recent progress I’ve made in gymnastics. There’s plenty of other things but I don’t get everything on film.

The first move shown here is a back lever on the rings. This is a strength movement that requires whole body tightness and coordination. You’ll noticed I’m straddling the legs which lessens the leverage slightly.

Just lowering into a horizontal position takes skill, especially being able to know when you’re parallel to the ground. It’s helpful to have someone tell you when you’re there.

As in the case with all these moves I had better attempts but they weren’t always caught on film.

The next move is an aerial. This is like a cartwheel done without the use of the arms. I still figured I was weeks or even months off from being able to do these but all of a sudden I was successful.

This move tends to be much easier for women due to hip flexibility. What I may lack in there I try to make up for in power. The landing was not graceful but I have since duplicated the move gradually making more improvement.

The third is a goal I set just because I thought it would be fun. My goal is 10 backflips in a row. In the video I do seven. Since then I have hit nine.

The difficult part about this is two-fold. One, I get dizzy and my take-off becomes less vertical giving me less space to flip. Secondly, it’s tiring to do such an explosive move over and over.

Hope you enjoyed the video. With my new gym I have some exciting projects in store. Stay tuned.

Good Luck and Good Gymnastics,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Nothing takes the place of practice but learning is a way to start and build the foundation. To do many of the moves I recommend Tumbling Illustrated. You’ll learn tons of tumbling moves whether you’re beginner or advanced.

Comments { 1 }

Victorian on Rings

By admin on October 21, 2010 in Rings

Here is a video of a great routine, even including a rarely seen Victorian on the rings at 0:08 by Stanford’s Peter Derman.

Obviously quite impressive.

These skills may be way beyond your ability but that doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by them.

In my gymnastics class I’ve talked quite a bit about the tumbling and even parallel bars and progress is still coming fast there. But I also play around with the rings.

For the first time I hit multiple muscle-ups on the rings in a row without re-gripping. Never worked on that before. Also working a bit towards one arm chinnups. Still have a long ways to go there.

Another thing that is inspiring is that there’s a couple guys there that can just about do the iron cross. Watching videos is one thing but seeing it live and up close is another.

If you get around people that are better than you, you have no choice but to be pulled upwards.

Good Luck and Good Gymnastics,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Want your own pair of Gymnastic Rings? You can get them here…

Comments { 3 }

Regaining My Wrist

By admin on October 19, 2010 in Flexibility & Contortion

As you know if you’ve been sticking around here for a long time I’ve had chronic issues with my right wrist making it much less flexible then my left one.

With handstands taking some degree of flexibility this has made progress hard at times. In fact, it has gotten so bad at times I couldn’t do a handstand. (At least not a straight one, if you notice in some pictures I’m favoring my left side.)

This stretch alone wasn't cutting it...

Walking around, presses, and forget about a one hand handstand on the right arm. At times its better, at other times its worse.

But in the last couple weeks I have made lots of improvement. This is because I have been following a systematic approach that hits the issue from all sides.

I truly believe that within a few months I will completely get over this pain that has held me back for nine years.

I write this message to ask who is interested in this information?

If it was one simple thing I would just write about it or throw a short video up explaining my process. But it takes more than that.

What I’ve been doing addresses the physical, nutritional, mental and even emotional sides of a bad wrist. While I believe this approach would work for just about any chronic issue, I can’t say for sure.

Of course, if you do have a chronic joint pain or problem I know you’re willing to try about anything to fix it up.

Just comment down below if you’re interested.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

Comments { 26 }

Back Handspring Progress

By admin on October 6, 2010 in Tumbling

The back handspring is one of the staple moves of gymnastics. It is a great move in and of itself, but its also used as a move to set up, and gain momentum for even bigger moves.

It is also one of the tougher of the basic tumbling moves. In my opinion it is harder to do then a back tuck. While accomplishing it is not too difficult, get it to work smoothly and correctly is a bit harder.

And, as it is back tumbling, its not something most people can jump into. While many people could easily work up to a front handspring with a little practice, going backwards over your head can be much trickier, mentally.

The basics of the move is to jump up and back. You need to hit the right amount of both or else you can miss your hands entirely (jumping too high) or not give yourself enough room (jumping not high enough).

When you jump your arms are thrown overhead, preferably locked out and in line with the ears. For those less flexible the arms aren’t always kept straight or in line. While the move can be accomplished this way you won’t have as much speed and momentum useful for going into any other move.

You transition through a sort of handstand position (obviously not pausing at all) and then come to your feet, preferably in an upright position. You want to avoid being bent over or in a squat.

You’ll notice I mentioned ‘preferably’ several times. This is the difference in doing the move and doing it well. When you’re starting out its great to just get through the move, but as you progress you tighten up your form, making the move not only better but easier to do.

I’ve been doing the back handsprings for awhile. Always working on improving my form, but my primary goal has been to string these moves together. My weakness thus far has been in doing just that, going from one move to another seamlessly.

For a couple weeks I’ve been practicing doing roundoff back handsprings as well as double back handsprings all on the mats.

I’m happy to report as of last week I’ve been able to do these on the floor. You’ll notice many of the points discussed above are not shown here. 🙂 Not perfect but a big step in the right direction.

There are some who say if you can’t do something perfectly don’t do it. I say first accomplish the move. Then work on making it better. Yes, you can set in bad habits, but if you constantly work towards improvement these won’t stay a problem.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. For tons of tumbling fun be sure to get a copy of Tumbling Illustrated.

Comments { 6 }

Science behind Parkour

By admin on September 30, 2010 in Parkour

I saw this video over at Gymnastics Coaching and thought it was worth sharing. While I’m not surprised like the hosts of the shows seem to be it is a fun watch.

Want to gain these skills? Then I highly suggest you check out the Parkour Crash Course.

Comments { 0 }

Trampolining and Tumbling

By admin on September 23, 2010 in Tumbling

Trampolining and tumbling go together hand in hand. Trampolining involves doing all sorts of acrobatic tricks on a trampoline which provides much more height. Tumbling involves doing the same or similar moves on the floor (and with gymnastic spring floors more height can be had).

I’ve mentioned this before. When I first started doing gymnastics I never really used the trampoline. My idea was that I should be able to do all the moves without artificial apparatus. Basically I wanted to be able to do every move outside.

The problem with this idea is that the trampoline is such a useful tool. Although it easily allows you to get tons of air without needed to generate it yourself (by jumping off the ground for instance) you need to control your body in the air. The same control and acrobatic ability in the air is applicable to being on a trampoline or not. It doesn’t really matter.

So even if you only want to do moves outside like I did, the trampoline is a useful tool for getting there.

Just ask Damien Walters. One of the best out there in free running and all manner of acrobatic stunts. One of his primary training methods and tools is the trampoline even competing in the trampoline world championships along with doing all manner of stunts in the gym and out.

For this reason you should use everything available to you. Set goals for tricks you can do on a trampoline. If you need ideas on getting started check out the Trampoline Handbook. In it you’ll find 48 different moves to work on. These range from basic to intermediate. From there the world of trampolining really opens up. Work on doing more complex tricks as well as stringing several more basic tricks together.

Here’s a video showing some amazing trampolining stunts from Adam Menzies along with some other moves at the end.

Want to do a twisting backflip? Do it on the trampoline first and nail it down, before moving onto the floor. Not to mention a trampoline can just be a lot of fun.

When it comes to tumbling on the floor you should follow the same progressions. Work on what you can and build from there. For a wide range of moves (248 to be exact) check out Tumbling Illustrated. And again, do more complex moves and focus on stringing moves together.

The truth is just about anyone can build up decent acrobatic skills if they work on it with persistence. You may not be trying out for Cirque du Soleil anytime soon but you’ll master moves few people can do.

Trampolining and tumbling skills are well worth going after. Working on one will help the other and vice versa. Use the combination and get better starting today.

Comments { 2 }

Hand Walking

By admin on September 16, 2010 in Handstands, Walking & Jumping

I’m often asked about handwalking in the many questions that come in. Usually it comes in two types; how do you hand walk, and what to do next?

Let’s talk about the first part.

hand walking First a warning. I’ve said this many times before and will continue to say it. You must learn to stand on your hands first, before you start walking around. The reason for this is that if you learn to walk and never to stand, you will only be able to balance by walking around and never learn the necessary wrist and shoulder balance necessary for all other hand balancing.

Assuming you can stand, walking should pose no problem. Simply lift one arm up slightly, place in a little in front of where it was, repeat with the other arm, and continue on.

In the beginning, strive to make small steps to stay in control. As you improve you can lengthen your stride. With this you’ll be spending more and more time on a single arm, thus making hand walking harder to do.

The thing you want to strive for at all times is to stay in control. Just about anyone can stumble around on their hands for a few seconds. Even someone proficient in doing handstands may be able to walk on their hands but lose control the last few steps as they over balance beyond their ability.

Now let’s tackle the second part. After you’ve done some handwalking what do you do next. Here is a list of different things you can do.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

As was already mentioned work on lengthening your stride.
Work on going for distance. This is especially fun to challenge someone else in.
Walk and stop. This method really increases your control and is further detailed in this Handstand Walking article.
Vary the speed of your steps. Try hand walking faster and slower then normal.
Walking forward is easy. Try handwalking to the sides and to the rear. And of course make turns, doing pirouettes on your hands.
Try slapping while walking on your hands. Take the free hand and touch it to your head, shoulder, or hip with each step. (Each one of these is more difficult then the last).
Can you dance on your hands? Sure, if you’ve got the skill and the rhythm.
Handwalking is normally done with a regular position of the body. But there is no reason you can shift that around to add to the fun.
And of course you can combine many of these. Try going for distance, quickly, while slapping your hip with each step.

For tons more details on all these and more, including stair walking and jumping, be sure to check out Walking and Jumping on Your Hands, one of the books only available in the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

This should give you tons of ideas on where you can take your hand walking skills.

In fact, I’m going to be working on some of these tonight at my gymnastics class.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

Comments { 1 }

5 Backflip Video

By admin on September 10, 2010 in Tumbling

Progress has been real good in my gymnastics class recently.

Here I wanted to show a backflip video of not one but five backflips in a series.

They’re not the prettiest back tucks but they are getting increasingly easier to do. A week or two ago was the first time I could ‘see’ the ground as I flipped. I don’t think it was that I closed my eyes before, just that the ground moved to fast.

In this series I was jumping too far back with each one. It was near the end of the night and I was fatigued. Plus it gets hard doing backflips repeatedly as I begin to get dizzy and jumping straight up becomes even harder. But for the most part my take off, my tuck and everything is better than ever.

With the progress here I’ve even started doing these backflips again outside at the beach, on grass and dirt.

It’s funny. Back flips are one of the easier basics of tumbling (much easier than a standing front flip!) yet they can be one of the scariest moves to do. Once you get over that fear and progress to being able to safely doing this skill you may find it can be easy. For more details on getting started check out the article How to do a Backflip.

My current goal is to do ten in a row like this. After that I’ll move on to more difficult variations like those found in Tumbling Illustrated.

I hope you liked the Backflip Video that I made.

Good Luck and Good Flipping,
Logan Christopher

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New Article – Gymnastic Bridge

By admin on September 2, 2010 in Bridging

Just put up a new article on the site that gives you some details on getting started with the gymnastic bridge.

Click to read it: Gymnast Bridge.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

Comments { 3 }

30 Day Challenge – Done

By admin on August 21, 2010 in Uncategorized

The 30 day challenge is over.

Just to recap, or for those of you that aren’t aware, this involved two parts.

The first was to practice my hand balancing in one form or another every single day.

To be honest, in this regard I failed. I missed a couple days at the end. This was a result of getting busy, putting off the practice and forgetting to do it later.

But I don’t think of this as a failure. What I did accomplish was to practice my hand balancing almost everyday. I’m back into it with renewed vigor.

Progress at gymnastics is coming fast. Back to tumbling with a fury. Gained back my old skills fast and moving onto the new. In addition I’ve begun working on the other apparatus like the parallel bars, pommel horse and more.

And I did see improvement in my one hand handstand and one arm half planche (my two big hand balancing goals right now) over the month. They’re still a long way off but no one said you could master these moves overnight.

In fact, most people say it’ll take years if you even ever accomplish the one armer.

The second part of the 30 day challenge was to post on the site every single day. While it was difficult at times I did accomplish this one! Lots of pictures, a wide range of videos and short helpful tips are all there to see.

Not to mention holding a sale and releasing a new training tool during this time. I would say it was a great success.

So what happens now?

I’m going to go back to writing to you once or maybe twice every week. And the good part is this will be a more in depth piece then what I’ve been putting up lately.

I will continue to practice my hand balancing regularly and report on my progress here.

If you did the 30 day challenge with me, I’d love to hear about how it went for you down below.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

Comments { 1 }

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