61 year old Paul Scott often hangs out at the Santa Monica Rings where he can be seen performing the human flag and holding it for quite some time. In this very cool video he gives instructions on the human flag using parallel bars to a random guy who just happened to be there and wanted to learn.
I’ve never seen this technique before. It relies on using legs to get upside down and then slowly laying your body out using parallel bars.
More in-depth tutorial on how to do the human flag on regular poles can be found here.
The human flag is usually performed on a pole or some sturdy structure and it’s a tough move even for those in great shape. But when you try to do it with a partner instead of a pole, it adds whole another level of difficulty. Or two.
In this video Al Kavadlo and his brother Danny gave it a try. Al went for Danny’s ankle and forearm for support and he actually managed to hold it for several seconds in this position. It certainly requires an immense amount of strength, coordination and balance to perform such a feat.
Been having lots of fun in my recent park workouts. Here is a video on me doing a Clutch Flag.
Clutch Flag
To be honest, I had never seen nor heard of this version of the human flag, until I read Convict Conditioning 2.
Anyone with a good level of strength should be capable of doing the clutch flag with a small amount of work. It is recommended to master this movement before you even move into the human flag (called press flag in that book). I think this is very sound advice.
The basics of it are to wedge one elbow (the lower arm) into the hip. This helps support the body. The other arm wraps around the bar and pulls back, while you lever out your body.
Because you’re wrapped around the bar, and don’t have your arms extended, the leverage of this movement is way easier. Yet you still need to control your body in this side levering movement, and you can even get use to your body wanting to turn or sway in the air.
My friend and I plan on building up the time in this movement to at least 20 seconds before we really get started on the human flag. That’s of course for both sides. I feel a little stronger on the side shown in the video (I guess I’ll call that the right side) but not too far behind with the other.
It should go without saying that to practice this move, be sure you’re on a steady bar that can support your weight and will not topple over. Sign posts, swings sets, basketball poles and much more will work.
And this move is uncomfortable in the beginning. It can hurt a little to grab the bar as you tense up completely against it. Yet after a few days working on this, while I wouldn’t call it comfortable, it is manageable at this point.
The clutch flag is also a very different movement from the shoulder flag which I learned from the Tapp Brothers in their course. When I use to think of the human flag as one movement, its clear there are many routes and similar, yet easier, movements to work on.
Then today is your lucky day. My friend, Thomas Tapp, and his brother have just put together a detailed course, on how to achieve this one amazing move.
I’ve been working on the human flag on and off over the past year, seeing some success. But after watching their videos last night, I’ve learned new progressions and tricks to use to make this even easier. And I’m excited to work on it more.
You can spend a lot of time on Youtube looking around at videos on many cool things. Parkour and Free running are two such things.
But instead of you looking I’ll highlight a few of the best in the coming weeks here on the blog. This first one is long but has tons of great tricks as it s a compilation of the best.
You’ll find all kinds of acrobatics as well as a little bit of hand balancing and strength moves, like the human flag, thrown in.
And if you want to get started learning Parkour and many of these skills yourself I recommend you check out the Parkour Crash Course.
This is put out by the Tapp Brothers of which I recommended their Backflip program and it was hugely popular.
Good Luck and Good Free Running,
Logan Christopher
P.S. If you know of any great videos I should check out either enter them in the comments below or shoot me an email. Thanks!
The human flag involves supporting your body on a pole or some rigid structure and making your body shoot straight out from it, like a flag on a pole, hence the name. This require complete body control and strength especially in the abdominals to support the legs at the disadvantaged leverage.
As seen in this picture it can also be done with a partner. Due to the position it looks slightly easier in this version than without a partner.
