Tag Archives | kick-up

Six Ways to Get Into a Handstand

By on December 22, 2014 in Hand Balancing, Handstands, Head Balancing, Presses & Pushup

There are numerous ways to get into a handstand and in this fairly short video Al Kavadlo shows 6 of his favorite ones:

  • Kick-up with hands in the air
  • Kick-up with Hands on the floor
  • Frog Jump
  • Crow pose press-up
  • Headstand press-up
  • Straddle press-up

If you’re looking to get in the best shape of your life without a gym membership, Raising the Bar by Al Kavadlo is well worth the read.

The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing
The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing on Amazon
Comments { 0 }

How To Do a Kip Up

By on July 1, 2014 in Acrobatics, Gymnastics

In this in-depth tutorial by Ginger Ninja Trickster, you’ll learn everything you need to finally perform your first kip up.

Tumbling Illustrated
Tumbling Illustrated on Amazon

In case you’ve never tried to do it before, it’s best to start from the crouched position and roll back while keeping your lower back and hips up. After that you’ll need to kick your legs up in order to get used to idea that your legs need to go up first, before your body follows.

The third stage is to go from a kick-up to a bridge position, landing on the balls of your feet. Now you are ready to try and do a full kip-up. Ginger Ninja Trickster really goes deep into every little details in the video, so make sure you watch if from start to finish. Not everyone has the right amount of flexibility to perform this move, so if you are worried about that check out this resource to become flexible as fast as possible.

Comments { 2 }

Straddle Press Handstand Drill #7

By on June 17, 2014 in Hand Balancing, Handstands

Another lead-up drill for Straddle Press Handstand is One Leg Press Handstand, a drill #7.

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

As you can see, in this drill you’ll kick-up into a freestanding handstand while lowering only one leg and keeping the other one in the air. By staying in that balanced position, you’ll increase your dynamic flexibility. Initially, you’ll only be able to lower one of your legs just a bit before coming back up. After a certain amount of practice you’ll succeed in touching the ground with that leg and come back up without the kick-up.

As you can see in the video, that bottom range of motion is still a bit difficult for me and I had to use little momentum in order to come back up. Even though I only started practicing this drill recently, it’s a great one. By using only one leg, you’re basically learning to control your entire bodyweight in that dynamic manner, which is essential for performing the straddle press handstand.

Comments { 0 }