Tag Archives | Acrobatic Moves

Swiss Ball Acrobatics

There’s a series featuring two of the best athletes in the world, Damien Walters and Tim Shieff, who I’ve featured a whole bunch on this site. In this series they do a bunch of random acrobatic things together, along with some of their other friends.

To start with they work on a slack line, and they aren’t very good. This goes to show that just because you’re excellent at one thing it doesn’t mean you’ll be good at everything. Still the manage a couple near handstand that are probably beyond the ability of many slackliners. And if they stuck with it I’m sure they’d pick up skills very fast with their acrobatic base.

Then they move onto using a physio ball, also known as a swiss ball to try out new acrobatic moves. Some are awesome, but they also miss a whole bunch.

It’s great to watch a video like this where you see people just playing around with their skills, and how often they miss and make them. While your skills may not be at this level, the training could look much the same. Of course, it goes without saying that it’s not recommended to try any of these moves without a proper facility to train in, coaching, and making sure you only work at things within your skill range.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick
ow to do the One Hand Handstand on Amazon
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Videotape Your Handstands and Acrobatics

“Whoa, that’s what I’m doing? No wonder I‘m not pulling it off”

It wasn’t the first time I said that phrase and it wouldn’t be the last.

Back in gymnastics I liked to bring in a digital camera to take video of myself performing moves. I’d leap upwards to do a back flip and land it real low.

After seeing the film I knew my takeoff was too far back and not straight up where it needed to be. Even though I THOUGHT I was jumping straight up.

Especially when you are starting out it can be difficult to tell what you are doing. You are concentrated on just completing a move without hurting yourself that you can’t tell exactly where you are in space.

But when you watch yourself from the outside you can see it with ease. You can see the little details of what you’re doing. And this makes it easy to correct most of the time.

I’ve used it a lot for acrobatic moves but it’s equally helpful for hand balancing.

Even just a picture can help. Because you can compare your position to a picture of someone who is much better and find out what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong.

Most of the time what you think you’re doing is not what is actually happening. And that can be the difference between pulling off a move and failing miserably.

Even if you don’t personally own a camera, you probably know someone who does. If you want to get better and do it faster using a camera is a must-use tool.

The tip for today is to start recording yourself.

Walking and Jumping On Your HandsWalking and Jumping On Your Hands on Amazon

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you need a video to compare your handstand to, not to mention a step-by-step plan to get there, check out the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide.

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Combining Kettlebell Juggling with Acrobatics

The other day I went to a park that’s only a couple blocks away to do a little bit of training.

Nothing scheduled, just to work on some skills and have a little fun.

Various acrobatic moves. I’m always working on the backflip in order to get better. Plus walking around on the hands and the like.

On top of that I brought along a kettlebell. Not a heavy one, only 35 lbs., to do some kettlebell juggling.

Trampoline Handbook
Trampoline Handbook on Amazon

I always enjoy this combo. Acrobatic work along with the kettlebell juggling.

Besides them both being fun I find that the juggling tends to work the body in ways hand balancing and tumbling doesn’t.

Toss the weight around. Do a few backflips. Toss it around some more. Work on a one hand handstand. And so on and so forth.

Thirty minutes will blow by so quick and in that time you’ll achieved much. Get a decent workout without trying hard at all. But most importantly you’ll quickly improve your skills. Especially if you string a few practices like this together on a consistent basis.

Now I know that kettlebell juggling isn’t for everyone, nor is hand balancing for that matter. But if you like one I think you should at least give the other a spin.

Over the years I’ve gotten quite good with the kettlebell juggling. And now I can teach you all my moves.

I just released a two DVD set covering everything I know about kettlebell juggling.

I like to keep the various sites I have separate because I know some people are only interested in certain aspects of training. Which is fine and why in general I do just that.

But I just wanted to put out this one notice in case anyone who would be interested missed my other websites.

Like I said before I think they go well together. So give it a shot, you’ll be glad you did. Click here for The Definitve Guide to Kettlebell Juggling

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Of course you need a kettlebell to get started and if you don’t have one you can get the best here.

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