I wanted to share with you an interesting debate I had with one of my subscriber’s and than I want to encourage you to add your own comments.
So here is part of Nathan’s comments:
“I take issue with some of the things you say on this site, also I do not believe you should be creating videos and tutorials that teach people handstands when you yourself use the technique deemed improper by Gymnasts and Circus Artists alike.
“Handstands should not be taught over the internet as it is an incredibly precise discipline that requires constant feedback and personalized training, something which with this medium you cannot deliver.”
And my response:
Deemed improper? Perhaps the straight body style is better but its not easier to learn. Having an arch is natural which is why it ‘use’ to be the only way up until about the 70’s. All the gymnasts (don’t actually know any circus artists myself) I’ve talked to say its just a matter of style anyway. In the end you should be able to take any position and balance right. After all look at many contortionists. Are they doing straight handstands?
I agree with you partially here. Yes personalized instruction would be best but its not really feasible. But isn’t some instruction better than nothing? Not all the people that come to my site are looking at this as a career, just something they’d like to be able to do.
And his comments back:
“Just to add to the perfect handstand discussion that’s going on. I believe the straight bodied handstand came around when people were trying to emulate the standing up normally position on their hands to create a more stable position. Hands below shoulders below hips below feet, in essence standing up but reversed.
“The arched position handstand is the beginners preference as the body naturally falls into that position and requires less core strength. The scorpion handstand common among contortionists is an entirely different type as this is a handstand trick rather than a base handstand. As you said earlier both work and are fine, but the more solid and versatile handstand in my opinion is the straight body one.
“Just my two cents, was an interesting little debate to read.”
And now here is your chance to weigh in on the situation. You know blogs are made to be two-way communication tools. But I haven’t ever encouraged this in the past. Well now I am.
All you have to do to post your comment is register here:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/wp-login.php
And then go to the post itself to leave your comments:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/comment-on-the-hand-balancing-blog
Think you can do that? I’d be happy if you took the time to give it a shot, so you can let me know what you think.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. It really sounds harder than it is. I’ve resisted this blog stuff in the past but once I got into it, its actually a lot of fun.
I don’t know about what’s a perfect handstand — I guess different folks can have different standards. In the ’60’s Twiggy was the icon of female beauty — 25 years later it was Pam Anderson, it would take more than two Twiggys to fill Pam’s brassiere! The point — fashions change. As far as posture — upright posture has health implications because you bear your weight that way so much. Alignment is key for health because of that. But you hardly spend any time balancing on your hands, and the posture has no long terms health implications. So, if it’s about aesthetics, then beauty is in the eye of the beholders.
I have to disagree about the desirabilty of hand balancing help on the internet. I would have been working on hand balancing with NO instruction, totally on my own, anyway. How can having some of these resources that Logan’s assembled be worse for me? Can’t be.
Whatever, this dudes crazy. Look, I agree as I am sure most other peope will that having a trainer teach you things is the optimum. But to say that you shouldnt learn from videos or newsletters is ridiculous. There are thousands of skill out there that are taught by videos, magazines and any other format that people will use to learn something. Hand balancing is a skill. Logan knows this skill very well. Why shouldn’t he teach people a skill that he knows. And it is not like his teachings aren’t working. There are countless people who have learned how to hand balance thanks to this site. He has also expanded things with his news letters and videos. Before this place existed you couldn’t a great deal of information about the subject, but now you can watch, read and coverse with other burgeoning hand balancers. Before I found this wonderful site I sucked. Now I can hold a handstand (straight or arched) for a good 35 seconds. So how is that a bad thing?
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