Tag Archives | Diving

Straightening Handstand, Wrist Strength & More

By on January 26, 2009 in Bridging, Flexibility & Contortion, Handstands

Diving into a few questions and comments today.

“In the hand stand, and especially in the bridge, the main persisting difficulty is an inherent wrist weakness. In fact I observe steady improvement in back and shoulder flexibility, but the wrist is always setting me back!”
Joseph

I know your pain Joseph, having my own share of wrist problems. But I’ve come a long way in part thanks to handstands.

Here’s a few things you can try out. Always stretch before hand balancing or bridging. Just open the wrist back as far as it will go. And afterwards its great to work it the other direction too.

Try working some of the positions of the fists as well. This is known to help strengthen the wrists.

Of course there is much else to do, including many mobility drills for the hands and fingers. Since this is a problem for many people I’ll be covering it in more detail in the future. But for now I hope that helps.

Onto another comment.

“I got it! Thanks a bunch. I’m pleased with the quality of the material and your service.

“The handstand is really one of the most difficult skill I’m trying to learn, I’m almost there. Been practising since august but I was doing it wrongly by starting to do the handstands and not the build up moves! now I know what I know I’m doing wrong.

“Unfortunately my online friend who is into handbalancing didn’t tell me about the build up moves so I ended up wasting a lot of time practising doing handstands immediately. And most of the resources over the internet failed to teach this important aspect in learning this skill. Out of desperation I even attended a gymnastics class once. After many months of practice (4months) out of 10 attempts 1 will get thru and I would consider that a lucky day if I could hold it for 3seconds! It got so frustrating that I was ready to give up.

“I’m not back to ground zero but I could feel its just a matter of time in learning this. I’ve already mastered the frogstand, headstand and now been practising the kick up. Next would be the forearm stand.

“Here in the philippines, there isn’t much interest in handbalancing. I could only see some B-boys doing a walking handstands but doing static holds? I’ve never seen one. Though when I saw the press to handstand I was blown away by some guy at the gymnastics class.

“Ok got to read the books and dvd! I can’t wait till I can master the handstand! Once I could balance for 30 seconds then on to the advance course.

“Handbalancing is truly a lost art. It’s great that you that you decided to open this resource site.”

Regards,
Gerald

Thanks for sending in the report Gerald. You are too right. Learning the handstand can be frustrating, especially if you take the long slow road of going right to it.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing
The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing on Amazon

That’s why I created the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide to give you the lead-up stunts you mentioned and plan to attack the handstand in an easier way.

Once you have that its just a matter of time and practice. You’ll be holding a handstand for 30 seconds in no time.

“How do you correct the arch of the back in a handstand?”
Martha

Let me start off by saying that arching in a handstand is not wrong to do as many people believe. But if you want to straighten out here’s what to do.

Go back to the wall.

Walls are flat so kick up into a handstand and straighten out to the point where all the points on your body are in contact with it.

Of course, you’ll also bring your head down in between your arms and this alone will help to eliminate the arch.

But don’t expect this to go away overnight, and especially be able to balance in the position. You’ll have to work at it to re-configure the body to do as you please since an arched handstand is not only easier but more natural.

That’s it for today. Going to have some new stuff for you this week so stay tuned.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Frustrated with the difficulty of the handstand? Don’t know the best place to begin? Find the proper path with the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide

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Tumbling Workbook and Dive Rolls

By 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.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick
ow to do the One Hand Handstand on Amazon

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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