Lost Art of Hand Balancing - Page 31 of 65 - Hand Balancing and Acrobatics Training for the Everyday Man and Woman

Ball Rhythmic Gymnastics

By admin on June 16, 2012 in Flexibility & Contortion

This video showcases an amazing acrobat doing a ball rhythmic gymnastics routine.

If you’ve never heard of this style of gymnastics here is the details from Wikipedia.

The Ball is a piece of apparatus used in rhythmic gymnastics. It is made of either rubber or synthetic material (pliable plastic) provided it possesses the same elasticity as rubber. It is from 18 to 20 cm in diameter and must have a minimum weight of 400g. The ball can be of any colour. The ball should rest in the gymnast’s hand and not rest against the wrist or be able to be grasped.

Fundamental elements of a ball routine include throwing, bouncing or rolling. The gymnast must use both hands and work on the whole floor area whilst showing continuous flowing movement.

The ball is sometimes placed on their back while the gymnast does a skill such as a walk-over. From wikipedia

It’s an amazing display of flexibility and control to do ball rhythmic gymnastics as well as the other styles including rope, clubs, hoop, ribbon and freestyle.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing

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Edward Upcott Video

By admin on June 15, 2012 in One Hand, Presses & Pushup, Tumbling

This video was sent to me from Ben and displays an amazing acrobat by the name of Edward Upcott.

This video starts off with a number of simple exercises a lot of people can do, but after the minute mark there’s a lot of one arm balancing and some amazing moves on the trampoline.

Amazing video worth watching.

If you want to see more from Edward Upcott check out his website here.

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Handstand Scorpion

By Bac on June 14, 2012 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands, Yoga

The handstand scorpion is a minor contortion exercise where you go into a big back bend and bend the knees, usually touching them to the top of the head. Sometimes it’s taken even further and the feet come beneath the head.

Here’s a really good video that shows the handstand scorpion and more.

She is also doing a movement she calls the Tic Toc which is going into the bridge and back. There may be a different use of that name for a move in gymnastics.

I’ve seen the handstand fall into a bridge before and done it myself. However getting back into the handstand from that position is much harder. Give it a try yourself. It’s helpful to have a great base in bridging movements before trying any of this.

This Scorpion pose is also known as Vrschikasana in yoga, although that may refer to the version where it’s a forearm stand rather then on the hands. And an interesting little philosophy on this move.

The head, which is the seat of knowledge and power, is also the seat of pride, anger, hatred, jealousy, intolerance and malice. These emotions are more deadly than the poison which the scorpion carries in its sting. The yogi, by stamping on his head with his feet, attempts to eradicate these self-destroying emotions and passions. By kicking his head he seeks to develop humility, calmness and tolerance and thus to be free of ego. The subjugation of the ego leads to harmony and happiness. Read more here.

Work on your handstand scorpion and you’ll not only build balancing ability, but great back flexibility and it can lead up to the other movements shown here. Plus it may help you free yourself from your ego 🙂

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Crazy BBoy Video

By admin on June 13, 2012 in Bboy

Ralph sent me this compilation video of bboying and I was amazed. Lots of purely awesome moves.

I’m not sure what makes something a power move in the bboy world as opposed to something else. Anyone care to fill me in on the comments below?

Be sure to check out the other crazy bboy videos in the related posts links below.

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Handstand Backbend

By Bac on June 12, 2012 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands

There are people that believe you should have no backbend in your handstand at all. That only the straight handstand is how to do a handstand.

But I don’t believe that. Just look at how many contortionists balance using excessive back bend.

When we’re talking about handstand backbend we can be talking about two things.

1) How much backbend you have in your handstand.
2) Going from a handstand into a backbend or a bridge. You might also call this a handstand to bridge.

This video shows you both.

Handstand Backbend

If you’re trying to do this, you don’t need as much back bend as this fellow has but it certainly helps. I would highly recommend improving your gymnast bridge before trying this exercise out.

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How to do a No Handed Cartwheel

By Bac on June 11, 2012 in Flexibility & Contortion, Tumbling

This video will show you how to do a no handed cartwheel which is also known as an aerial.

This is a difficult skill to get to, especially for men, who tend to have less hip flexibility. But with dedicated training I think just about everybody can do it.

The basics of this movement are to first master your cartwheel then your one handed cartwheel. When you can do these easily you can start working towards the aerial.

Be forewarned, that the more hip flexibility you have the easier it will be.

When you’re starting out you’ll need to launch off hard from both the rear leg then front leg. Running into the movement can help.

It’s also helpful to think of your point of rotation at the shoulders.

At one time I was finally able to do the no handed cartwheel after a lot of time spent trying. Unfortunately I can’t currently do it, but am working back up to the skill. You can see it’s not the most graceful aerial but I did pull it off.

If you enjoyed this article on how to do a no handed cartwheel please leave a comment below.

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Handstand Blood Rush

By Bac on June 9, 2012 in Handstands

How do you deal with a handstand blood rush? I’m referring to when blood rushes into your head while doing any handstand movements.

This happens because of gravity. In an inversion you’re reversing the flow. While some people suffer more from this effect then others, there are a number of things you can do.

#1
Make sure you aren’t holding your breath. This is a natural tendency when people first start doing handstands. This will contribute to the problem and you can even burst some blood vessels in your face if you do it. Learn to breathe naturally.

#2
Use headstands for longer periods of time to get use to it. The headstand is the same as far as inversion and gravity flow is with the handstand but is much easier to hold. You can use to position especially to get use to being upside down. Another option would be hanging from the yoga trapeze.

#3
Build up the amount of handstand practice you do over time to acclimate to it. As your body becomes use to being upside down you won’t feel the same pressure inside your head. Be patient with it. Some people certainly get it worse then others, but everyone can get over it in time.

Get use to the position and there is no handstand blood rush!

This isn’t a harmful thing (with the exception of possibly bursting some blood vessels, but that won’t even cause permanent damage). Just follow these steps and you won’t even remember the handstand blood rush in no time.

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One Arm Handstand Pushup?

By Bac on June 8, 2012 in One Hand, Presses & Pushup

We continue the stories from Jonathan today. This story is about a true one arm handstand pushup!

The other story is from an other friend of mine, who’s Chinese and who’s dream is to be a performer, either an acrobat, or a singer. Today, she was back from China, where she spent 10 months training in one of their national circus schools. She was showing me various photos and videos from the circus school and the place she was living in, and we were talking about acrobatics. I mentioned my intention to one day go to Kiev and train with Yvan Zubkevych and to China to train with their acrobats, specifying that one of my main goals was to one day be able to do a full range one arm handstand push-up (on a pole, so I can go down to touch my chest or my shoulder), as I’ve never seen anyone doing it, and there’s no videos of any of the people who claims to have been able to do something like that.

She said: “Oh, but the kids there, they do that like it’s nothing!” Shocked, I was like: “Uh, are you sure you’re not mistaking? Like, they actually hold a one arm handstand, keep their body straight, bend their arm and shoulder, and they press up again, while staying in a vertical position?” And she said: “Yeah, they were going until the top of their heads touched the ground, then they were pressing back up.” Needless to say, I was pissed that she filmed lots of cool performances, but omitted to film such an incredible strength feat. It’s not her fault, she’s not really interested in strength, and I can understand that acts are flashier than conditioning, but damn… A one arm handstand push-up? It almost made me cry like a baby!

I told her that the next time she’d go there, she’d be damn obligated to film it for me. And, actually, I might go there myself, as they are open to skills exchange and seem to need better strength training (Obviously not for those few kids doing one arm handstand push-ups, but their conditioning is strictly limited to what they’re practicing, which make them really specialized and not well groomed on an overall perspective. Plus, they got weights and the kids are using them, but nobody shows them proper form either, and most of them would simply need more strength.), but it might take a couple of years, because I’ll perform for a good two years and save my money to wander around the world and train crazy hard without having to worry about food or stuff.

But when I’ll go, I’ll see for my own eyes if they can really do it. And I think they very probably can, since my friend isn’t interested in strength she wouldn’t have made that up. Plus, I believe it is possible to achieve, and I’ll be training hard to get it.

So there you have it. There has been lots of debate on if the one arm handstand pushup could ever actually be done in strict form as outlined in Convict Conditioning. Some people say yes, others say no. Unfortunately although there are stories like this, it has never been caught on video to my knowledge. I believe some day it will be done.

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Handstand Record Time

By admin on June 7, 2012 in Hand-to-Hand, Handstands, One Hand

This is a message I received from a professional acrobat named Jonathan Ferland-Valois I got awhile back. I intended to post it but then left it as a draft for too long. I’m frequently asked what is the handstand record time. There is no definite answer but this guy could be the one holding it!

Hi Logan! I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m the circus guy and ex-gymnast who sent you the story about the Chinese hand balancing master who was slapping a guy who went to see him while being in one arm handstand. I got two more cool examples of crazy Chinese acrobats excelling in the art of hand balancing. You don’t have to publish them, I just want to share them with you because I think they’re crazy.

Last week, I had a conversation with a guy I’m on a show with. He is a base for hand to hand, and he’ve been taught by a Chinese hand balancing expert. This expert is just badass. To teach him, he told him to hold him in his hands while he does a handstand, with his (the base’s) hands at shoulder height. My friend went in position to hold his teacher, and his teacher jumped into a handstand position. After a few seconds, my friend was getting tired. He told the Chinese master (he called him the greatest hand balancer ever, which is questionable, but is probably enough to say he’s a master) he couldn’t hold him anymore, and the master told him not to give up, and to hold him one more minute. My friend started panicking, saying he couldn’t do it, and tried to push the master off of him. Be he couldn’t. The master, still doing a handstand in my friend’s hands, started slapping him in the same time, while saying: “Keep holding it! Don’t stop!” My friend tried to make him get down during one full minute! And you know what? Once it made one minute, the master simply went down by himself, and said: “Rest a bit, we’ll do more sets.” My friend told me that to graduate from his school, his teacher had to succeed to do something nobody else ever did in the school. So, he chose to hold a handstand for a longer time than any other hand balancer from his school ever did. My friend isn’t sure anymore if it was two or four hours. But the fact is that he held it for more than an hour for sure!

So if you’re only holding a handstand for a few seconds or even minutes, you’ve got a long way to go. Come back tomorrow when we have what may be an even more amazing story for you.

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Handstand Blocks for Sale

By Bac on June 6, 2012 in Handstands

As far as I know this is the only site that has handstand blocks for sale.

Let me tell you about how these came about. A couple years after starting this site, an older hand balancer was enjoying it and sent me a pair of stands as a gift. I was very pleased and I also figured other people would be interested in them. When I asked they said YES! So my friend and I reverse engineered them and came up with the model I’ve been selling ever since.

If you want you can easily make them yourselves, assuming you have the tools, resources and the know-how. I don’t make much money off of these, and it’s a bit of a hassle getting them made, but I like being able to offer it to hand balancers around the world.

If you’d like to get a pair you can order the handstand blocks here.

Also if you’re looking for something custom let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

There are a number of other similar handstand blocks I’ve seen around.

These ones are on a solid base. Great if it’s custom made for you. Not if your shoulder span happens to be bigger or smaller then fits. You’ll also notice the sloped hand blocks as these may aid in making balancing easier.

Once again a set base. Also the hand blocks themselves are a bit too square for my tastes.

If you want to pay a ton of money for a professional setup you can over at Unicycle.fr. They have all manner of setups, but be forewarned it is going to cost you.

So if you’re looking for handstand blocks for sale you’ve come to the right place. You can buy them here, make your own, or try to find them anywhere else (not recommended).

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