Tag Archives | Sweet Spot

How to Hold a Handstand Longer

By on May 26, 2014 in Hand Balancing, Handstands

When it comes to holding a handstand, there are many factors to consider. Here you can see the most important ones explained by a very skilled guy named Chris Silcox.

To start practicing, do a handstand against the wall and slowly take one leg off at a time while finding a balance. When you find your “sweet spot”, pay particular attention to your fingers which pretty much act as feet while you are upside down. Much like toes, fingers are engaging and releasing in order to keep us in balance. Another good tip is to learn to manipulate your shoulders and elbows to prevent going off balance.

You may also want to start the other way around, with your face facing the wall without arching your back. Try to get your fingers as close as possible to the wall and start balancing. Go for one leg at a time like before and make sure to use your fingers to prevent falling to the other side. You can also move your shoulders to the wall to avoid the same problem. If you don’t have a spotter, the best way to come out of this position is to walk your feet down slowly.

Have fun!

P.S. Check out Hand Balancing Made Easy for all information you’ll need to learn how to balance on your hands.

Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days
Learn How to Back Flip in 31 Days on Amazon
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Handstand Evolution

By on May 17, 2014 in Hand Balancing, Handstands

An interesting video by Dave Durante where he explains his take on a proper handstand form.

Dave begins the handstand with slightly bent arms and knees bent at 90 degrees, which should represent the worst handstand form.

Instead, the feet should be together with arms and knees locked out, which really is a classic curved handstand. It’s worth mentioning that Dave consider this form to be less stable than a straight handstand, which is debatable and depends on other factors. To go from the curved to the straight handstand, press your toes up, open up the shoulders and find your “sweet spot” for balancing.

Going from the first handstand position, to the curved handstand and finally to the straight handstand does require a lot of practice, so it’s definitely not for beginners.

If you are looking for a way to perform your first handstand as fast as possible, check this out.

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

By on August 14, 2008 in Handstands

I’ve received quite a few questions lately, so today I’m going to dive into the proverbially mail bag. Remember you can submit your hand balancing questions here.

Here’s a few different questions from Cheryl.

“Which part of my body to focus for balancing when i hold a handstand. Do I use my backbend to balance? Do I inner or outer rotate my thighs to balance? Do I grip my fingers to balance? thank you very much.”

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

“How to lift to handstand as each time i kick up I will either past centre or cant reach the centre. Which part of my body should I engage and how? Thank you very much.”

These are good questions Cheryl and they actually overlap a bit.

You want your entire body to stay tight, from you toes through your back all the way to your fingers. At no point (except when doing certain tricks) should you be balancing by using your legs or back.

The balance should be maintained with pressure of the fingertips. You can maintain balance with your arms and shoulders but for a beginner you should get these just as locked out as the rest of the body and use only the fingers.

The kick-up is a skill in and of itself that must be specifically practiced like the handstand. Improve your kick-up and getting into the handstand becomes easy.

It’s really a matter of kicking up with the same amount of force each time so that you hit the sweet spot, not overbalancing, not underbalancing.

And like stated earlier when you are in position your whole body engages.

These are the basics of the handstand. Get them down and you’ll be holding handstands effortlessly.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you want more help on how to do maintain the proper position, how to train the kick-up and extra exercises check out The Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide.

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Secrets of the Handstand Comments

By on April 12, 2008 in Handstands

The first comments have come in as Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart packages have arrived. Here’s a great one:

I really liked your quick start guide. I have been hand balancing for a while now and can perform a half dozen variations of the head stand as well as hold a gymnastics style hand stand. I am currently working the start and stop method to learn how to walk on my hands.

But one thing that seemed to always elude me was the tiger stand. I practiced this move a lot against the wall but after weeks of practice I could never consistently find that “sweet spot.” After seeing you do a tiger stand in the video, that same day, when I went to the gym it took me 2 tries and now I can easily and consistently find the “sweet spot” hold the tiger stand. I must of unconsciously picked up something when I watched you kick up and hold the tiger stand.

Another thing I learned from the video is that the kick up is way more important than I originally thought. I was basically muscling the handstand back from my kick up (which was way to hard). I could do it but it took a lot of energy. For the past few days I just worked my kick up over and over again. After only 2 days of working my kick up I am hitting my “sweet spot” 8 times out of 10 when before I was only hitting it 1 or 2 times out of 10 and the other hand stand attempts I was muscling back from an over anxious kick up.

So, your videos were helpful to even someone like myself who has been practicing handstands successfully for several weeks. Just seeing someone else do the move and step me through the process, which is something I have read about and knew all ready, helped me greatly.

Thanks a lot,
Ricky
aka “Nifty”

I’m glad to see you got a lot out of it ‘Nifty’ and you aren’t the only one.

If you haven’t checked it out, you might’ve been under the impression that it was only for beginner’s.

And you’d be right…partially.

That guide is to get beginner’s up into a free standing handstand as soon as possible. I’ve spent much time and effort helping the beginner’s because, well there are more of them, and its harder than anything to get started.

But its just the start. The launching pad for a program that will help out all but the very best in this art.

And of course that is the Acrobat Accelerator program. In the monthly DVD and newsletter I will delve into various hand balancing topics in more depth.

This month the first issue covered everything you could possibly want to know about kicking-up into a handstand. I share my story of holding a handstand for 30 seconds for the first time ever but then relate the fact that I was able to hold only about one out of every ten handstands.

The kick-up is of utmost importance to really dial in if you want consistency in your handstand ability. Even if you don’t get this DVD you need to understand this concept.

But once again that’s just the beginning.

From there I cover advanced variations that will make you even better. When you learn to control your body from any angle that it comes up in your hand balancing ability shoots through the roof.

The variations I cover in detail are opposite leg kick-ups, two leg kick-ups, raised kick-ups, and the cartwheel stall. Are you able to do all of them?

There’s about 30 issues left. If you want in on a trial membership just get your free order (except shipping) to try it out.

If you miss out, it’ll be your last chance to get the April issue.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Next week I’ll post some new videos up on the blog on some moves closely related but outside of hand balancing which I am putting together right now. Stay tuned.

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