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Can Hand Balancing Help Doing Backflips?

By admin on May 29, 2008 in Tumbling

It looks like the last email unleashed a fury of new questions. Because of the volume of them I might not get back to you personally, but I’ll try to answer the good one’s here.

Hi Logan,

I’ve been making tremendous progress with my handstands. I can also do a lot of those presses that I’ve seen on your site and on youtube. I did have a question though. Will hand balancing improve things like backflips and other aerial tumbling moves? Will it help me build more nerve when it comes to flips and things like that? I’m very athletic and I can do a backflip, but I was just wondering if hand balance training would make it even better.

Thanks for your tips,

Nelson

Thanks for the question, Nelson. It’s an interesting one that I have given some thought to before. Here’s my take on it.

Any move you work on will only improve your skill in that exact move. There is some carryover between related skills, like doing a frogstand will help somewhat with doing a handstand because of the similar balancing aspect.

But when you have skills that are far apart like hand balancing and a backflip, there is very little relation and therefore carryover. The skills of one will not help the other.

Just because someone is a master of hand balancing doesn’t mean necessarily they can do high flying aerial moves. Or vice versa.

That being said, here’s the flip side (no pun intended). This sort of training helps you to learn control over your own body. To really know it and be able to make it do what you want.

I believe someone with your skills should be able to pick up various other physical skills easier than someone with no experience hand balancing.

No amount of hand balancing will give you the ability to do backflips, you have to work specifically on the skills you want. But learning to control your body one way or another will speed your learning curve.

Plus the strength you build from hand balancing is likely to make many other moves easier as well.

Since this email is already getting long and most of the questions are in depth I’ll have to save them til next time.

But before I go I want to let you know about my other site. Just recently re-launched it and have some awesome things in store.

I like to keep this site well targeted on hand balancing and acrobatics, but that is only one aspect of the much larger world of physical culture.

If you want to learn more of my thoughts on strength training, bodyweight exercise, kettlebells, hand strength, old-time feats of strength, and much more you’ve got to check it out here.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Go to Legendary Strength and be sure to sign up for the email tips there too to regularly get all the up to date information.

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Tumbling Tip to Train Relaxation + A Deadline

By admin on May 13, 2008 in Tumbling

Today is the last day you’ll be able to get your hands on the Tumbling Course for the launch price of $49. After midnight tonight (PST), it goes up to $79.

I know I’ve been mentioning a lot. But I don’t want someone to come after me in an angry manner because they failed to see it coming. This is your last chance!

Now on to a great comment from a reader. About why you NEED to have the most basic tumbling skills.

Also a great tip for training yourself to relax through tumbling moves and not tense up. Something I’ll be practicing myself. I wish I had thought of it.

Hey Logan

This looks like a great course I will be ordering it soon.

I learned many tumbling moves from my Ju Jitsu and Judo training, I think people need to learn this valuable tool.

I remember my instructor telling me a woman who use to take her son to his Ju Jitsu class use to watch them tumble and do break falls.

Well one day she fell down a flight of stairs and was able to walk away from that fall with a few bumps and scrapes, due to her learning how to tumble in her sons class and without ever practicing them.

She told him that if it wasn’t for her being able to tumble she would have broken her neck or back.

So tumbling is not just for exercising only but it can be good for your health and well being, also for self defense purposes as I teach my students to tumble as opposed to break falling, this way they can pop up off the ground and fight standing up instead of staying on the ground and fighting from there if they are knocked down.

That’s not a good place to be in a street fight.

Here is a tip I learned that helped me in tumbling; when rolling in any direction always hum as you do it, as you roll if you catch yourself not humming you tightened up your muscles in that area.

Which means you have to either loosen the muscles in the area or relax more, then when you can hum all the way through the movement you have mastered the roll.

Well take care Logan

Daniel
www.SuperHeroSystems.com

Thanks Daniel. Its true that you need to know how to roll should you ever need it.

For some reason I always picture having to roll out of a car going high speeds on the freeway, but falling down stairs is a better example, and much more common.

If you don’t know how to roll safely and effectively, take the time to learn it. If you never move beyond those rolls that’s alright. Just learn those necessary skills.

But if you want to move beyond the basics than you know where to start. (Although this course does teach the most basic moves, as well as everything progressing up to the most advanced.)

Get the Tumbling Course here.

Once again, last chance to get it at this price. Don’t put it off any longer.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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The 7 Values of Tumbling by Loken and Willoughby

By admin on May 8, 2008 in Tumbling

The past couple days have been crazy. I was amazed at the response to the Tumbling Course. Within a few minutes of putting the page up orders were coming in.

The good news is if you’ve bought your copy of the Tumbling Course before today, it is in the mail and on its way.

For those of you who’ve ordered, could you do me a favor and send me a email when it does arrive, with your initial impressions? Thanks!

There are quite a few left so if you’ve been waiting now’s the time to act. When I was looking over the course I couldn’t help but to think what a good deal it is.

In order to actually show you I’ve added a picture of all that you’ll get to the Tumbling Course page, but you can see it right here.

Tumbling Course

And that doesn’t even include the bonus tele-seminar. Right now, you have 5 days left to get it at $49.

Those that have ordered will understand the following. Here is a list of the benefits of tumbling, an excerpt from Loken and Willoughby’s ‘Complete Book of Gymnastics’.

The specific values of tumbling activities are:

1. Tumbling develops coordination and timing.

2. Tumbling develops agility and flexibility because of the nature of the movements involved in the activity, Much bending, tucking, and twisting is required to perform the stunts well.

3. Because of the running and springing necessary in tumbling activities, strength is developed in the legs. This is somewhat unique in that most other gymnastic activities tend to neglect the legs.

4.Courage and determination are developed in some of the more daring and difficult tumbling stunts. More advanced stunts involve movements performed with the body completely in the air.

5. Learning to control the body in basic tumbling skills has great carryover to the other sports.

6. The art of falling correctly, as learned in tumbling, is of great importance in many sports as well as normal daily activities. A relaxed rolling fall very often prevents or reduces injury and enable a person to regain his feet quickly after a fall.

7. Because tumbling is a natural activity, it is self-motivating and provides a great deal of fun and enjoyment for its participants.

Very well said, and succinctly too. As complete as list as there could be. If you want to get started quickly you know where to go, https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/tumbling.html

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I’ll be sharing with you some old hand balancing pictures this weekend that you haven’t seen before.

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Tumbling Workbook and Dive Rolls

By admin on May 2, 2008 in Tumbling

Tumbling Illustrated is the main book I’ve been talking about. But on top of that when you order the Tumbling Course next week you’ll get the Tumbling Workbook.

I explain it fairly well in the video. But to recap, in the workbook you have all 248 moves from Tumbling Illustrated listed by name and picture. What’s missing is the text for each move telling you how its done. But once you’re use to the moves you won’t need anything more than the name and picture to go off of.

It’s a different format then Tumbling Illustrated too. The purpose of the workbook is to keep track of your progress. How its done is explained a bit more in the workbook itself.

With 248 moves you’re sure to not remember them all. Although when you have the workbook with you when you’re training, all you have to do is flip the pages to find out new moves to try.

One way of training is to go down a series of moves like I do in the video. I show you many of the moves in the Diving chapter.

Dive rolls are a progression of normal rolls, but somewhere short of mid-air flips. You can continually add height and distance to your dives and they’ll teach you one way of rolling safely on the ground.

I practice these in the sand, because like I said, there is less impact. But you can do them just as well anywhere. With enough practice you could even do them on rough surfaces like concrete, but for training purposes I’d stay away from that.

Put these into practice and more details to follow before the official launch next week.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Handstand, Tumbling and Athleticism

By admin on May 1, 2008 in Tumbling

Wanted to start off today’s message with a powerful comment from a subscriber.

Logan,

Your website is absolutely fantastic and it has helped me learn a whole new approach to physical-culture training. Over the last few months, I have incorporated handstand push-ups and some elementary handstand training into my weightlifting routine, and the results have been nothing short of incredible.

A while back you received a comment from somebody who was upset that you are putting acrobatic videos on the Internet for all to view. He was apparently concerned that some people may develop bad form or bad training habits without direct supervision from a qualified trainer. While I’m sure this gentleman meant well, I must say that I have benefited enormously from watching the videos you have posted. I suspect that many other people have too.

Viewing your videos and reading your articles helped me to refine my views of what is possible with physical culture training. Before I made a visit to your site, I paid virtually no attention to the athletic side of physical training, and I new very little about the many benefits which can be derived from doing handstands and related movements. I have no desire to become a professional gymnast or acrobat, but I find that the type of training which you promote on your site improves my athleticism and strength tremendously.

Thanks for running a great and innovative site.

Rob Drucker

Thank you, Rob. Comments like these really make my day. It brings a smile to my face to read about the success of people like you.

Handstands have been proven over and over to strengthen the body. If you have to start against the wall, you’ll still get many of the benefits. The truth is going from handstands against the wall to free standing is the transition many people make, myself included.

As far as athleticism though, that is just the beginning. Can you imagine where you’ll be at if you add just a few of the following into the mix?

Forward Rolls, Backward Rolls, Diving, Head and Hand Balancing, Hand Balancing, Forearm Balancing, Cartwheels, Roundoffs, Head and Hand Springs, Hand Springs, Backward Hand Springs, Back Bends, Upstarts (Kips), Somersaults (Flips), Combination Rolls, Combination Hand Springs, Combination Hand Springs and Somersaults, Combination Hand Springs and Rolls, Combination Balancing and Rolls, Miscellaneous Combinations, and Novelties.

Those are the 21 chapters found in the soon to be released Tumbling Illustrated. As of writing this it’ll be available in 4 days, 23 hours, 57 minutes, 34 seconds. To find the updated time go to https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/tumbling.html

I wish it was ready now, especially since a few people have inquired about buying it already. But I’m still waiting on the printers for the main book. Plus I want to be able to ship it out the day you order it.

You don’t have to be a professional gymnast or acrobat to get the benefits of this training. (If you are though, more power to you.) Even if you work on just a few of the 248 different moves you’ll learn how to control your body to a extraordinary degree.

Tomorrow I’m going to reveal a few details on the companion workbook to Tumbling Illustrated and how you can use this workbook will increase your skills even faster.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I’ll try to get another video up showing some acrobatic conditioning in action before the launch. Maybe even a sneak peak of the workbook.

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Handstand Rolls

By admin on April 29, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

How does tumbling and hand balancing go together?

Here’s your answer in the simplest form. Combining the normal handstand with basic forward and backward rolls.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6msSyaXU_J4]

Of course, there are many other ways to combine them. Here’s just two examples. Back Handspring to Hand Balance and Dive to Hand Balance, Chest Roll Down. There are tons of ways to get into and out of a handstand. Use your imagination.

These are great because it will really work your balance coming into the handstand from all these moves. Especially since you’re going to have to stop your momentum most of the time.

One more caveat. As much as possible don’t do hand balancing in sand. It’s a lot harder and throws off your balance. Much better to find a surface that won’t give.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you missed it, the new countdown page to the Tumbling Course is up. The date and time have been set. It’s only a matter of time now.

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How to do the Headspring

By admin on April 21, 2008 in Tumbling

First off a big thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your questions and comments are extremely helpful.

The Acrobatic Conditioning report is shaping up nicely. I expect it’ll be done later this week.

In the mean time one question that came up more than once went something along these lines. I can do forward rolls no problem, but how to you do a front handspring?

I may be risking starting to sound like a broken record but the answer is to work on a few stunts that’ll lead-up to it. In this case work on the HEADspring first.

And the video will show you how.

As you progress forward in tumbling you will realize that almost all the moves are a variation of some basic movement. In this case that is a spring generated from the back through the legs.

This is the foundational movement of too many stunts to name but here are a few, front handspring, kips, headsprings, snap-downs, roundoffs, etc.

If you can do a good headspring the handspring is not far off. Just lock out your arms and do the same movement.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Acrobatic Conditioning Report is coming…

By admin on April 19, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

I’m hard at work finishing up a Special Report I’ll be releasing next week. I was almost done but then your questions from the survey came in and I realized there was a lot more ground to cover.

So if you want your questions answered head on over to the survey.

It’s real short. And I know it asks for two questions but if you only got one that’s good enough.

This report is on what I call Acrobatic Conditioning. Its going to cover ways to train to improve your tumbling skills even if you’ve never worked on them before. How you can get started and where to train.

I’m about to go write more but I just want to take the time to answer at least one question here.

“Which skills should I attempt to learn first? and Should one master the handstand before attempting skills like cartwheel, round-off, and handsprings?”

Hand Balancing and Tumbling skills are related but definitely separate skill groups. You don’t really need to be good in one to do the other. That being said many tumbling moves move through the handstand position.

It can help to work both hand balancing and tumbling at the same time though you certainly don‘t need to be a master the handstand first.

As for which skills to work on that is easy. Start with what you can do and move on from there. If this is just basic rolls than start with that. Any moves where some part of you stays in contact with the ground would be next on the chain like cartwheels, roundoffs, and handsprings.

Of course the aerial moves like flips take a bit more work and are something you have to be careful with. More on that later.

But the idea is like with any other training. You work tumbling progressively.

Alright back to the report. Oh, and there’ll be new videos soon too.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Seriously hit up the survey if you haven’t already.

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Foundational Rolling Skills

By admin on April 17, 2008 in Tumbling

How we got on the subject I can’t tell you at this point. I was at a birthday party and one of my friends told me they couldn’t do a somersault. Really!?! Maybe I was naïve but I thought EVERYONE could do this basic move.

But the truth is not everyone can. I’m sure you have no problem with this skill but the reason I am teaching it here in this video is to set up the idea of using and actually working on your tumbling skills. Everyone should be able to do the somersault. Not everyone necessarily has to do handsprings or front flips.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSUUFXhf5XU]

But if you want to it begs the question; how to you move up to the more difficult skills?

The easiest method is by taking the basics and adding twists to them. This will build your control and make you a better tumbler.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. But it should give you something to play with and start sparking your own creativity.

More on this subject later but if you haven’t already, be sure to take this really small survey. Only three questions total. Won’t take much time but it’ll really help me out. Take the Survey here. Thanks!

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

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Gymnastic Bridge Turn-Over

By admin on April 15, 2008 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion, Tumbling

Going to step away from hand balancing today and a bit more in the coming weeks to focus on related acrobatics and various tumbling moves. And I’ll be sharing many of them in video form like today!
First up is a bridging movement that I’ve been throwing in my routine the past few weeks.

This move involves going from a back bend or gymnastic bridge than turning face down. In order to do this you support yourself on one arm and turn to come on all fours. From here you continue the movement turning back into the bridge.

I’m calling it the Gymnastic Bridge Turn-over.

Just doing a single one of these moves is great. It requires great shoulder flexibility and strength. Can you say stability? In addition it will engage just about every other muscle in your body especially your abs, back and legs.

If one is no problem for you then do as I do in the video, stringing a bunch together to complete an entire circle. If you want a real challenge try to do five full circles each way.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t do this one. If this is a hard move for you it means one thing…you need to work on your gymnastic bridge. By improving your shoulder flexibility in this movement you can work up to doing the move shown here with ease.

So get on your back, press up, straighten the arms, and try to extend your chest over your hands.

You may also find that you can flip one way but not the other. Keep working at it until you can move seamlessly in and out of position in every way.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Got another video next time that covers the very basics and why they’re so important regardless of who you are. In this and all things the fundamentals are of highest importance.

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