Meet Damien Walters, one of the very best acrobats in the world. Combining tricking, parkour, trampolining, free running, and all manner of acrobatics along with a big dose of creativity.
This guy knows how to practice and get good.
If you want to get started tumbling like Damien Walters can you got lots of practice ahead of you. But let me recommend something to set you in the right direction – Tumbling Illustrated and the Parkour Tutorial DVD.
I receive tons of questions and today I’ll get to a couple of them. You can always submit your question here.
Just know that I can’t respond to everyone individually but I’ll try to tackle them in these emails.
“I’ve got my position for my handstand right but I just can’t seem to hold it much longer than five or so seconds. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Please help!!”
Cheers,
Emma Shepard
I’m sure there are many people that share where you’re at Emma. A lot of people get frustrated that when they start trying out handstands they can’t hold one with ease after just a couple days.
Above all else, you need patience and commitment. Keep working on holding that position and you will get better in time. Its also good to re-visit some of the lead-up skills I outline in the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide like the frogstand and others.
Besides, without seeing you do the handstand its hard to give specific advice. If you want to send in a video I’ll offer some additional suggestions. Just post something on youtube and send me the link. This goes for anyone.
Hey Logan
So I’ve been getting better at my handstand but I have a super flexible back so I have been focusing on spinal stability exercises. Mostly planks held for up to a minute, feet on a swiss ball, forearm planks, side planks, etc. You got any other suggestions? Also, would push up bars be helpful? For some reason I have been real curious about those.
Thanks man,
Casey
Having a super flexible back can be a boon depending on how you look at it. Bob Jones recommends that a beginner use all of his back bend when starting out in order to make the balancing easier.
But if your goal is to straighten out, the moves you listed could certainly help establish strength in the abs and low back needed to hold a straighter handstand.
The most useful exercise though is a handstand against the wall. Kick-up and straighten the back out. When you do this you’ll feel your core working quite hard. The key point is to lengthen the body as much as possible. Try to get as tall as you possibly can.
And the next time you do freestanding handstands you can emulate this same movement.
As for pushup bars they are useful tools, but not specifically for what you‘re trying to achieve here. Besides with handstand most of the time your hands are flat on the ground so you want to train in that position.
That wraps up this email. Just remember the most important thing is always to keep working forward. Hand balancing takes time but in the end its worth the effort.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. The Parkour Tutorial DVD is selling like crazy. Plus I’ve been getting tons of messages of people who’ve been practicing for years. If you want to see what all the buzz is about click here.
One of the moves that got me into hand balancing in the first place was the freestanding handstand pushup. I had built up to doing handstand pushups against the wall and I always wanted to do them balancing on my own.
Well, having the strength to press yourself up and the balance to maintain the handstand are two completely different things. And to do the free handstand pushup you need both.
I hadn’t practiced this move much, at least not in recent times. But, just over a month ago I decided to really go after it. In my training I used three different methods to work on the move. Below you can watch one of those three.
Freestanding Handstand Pushups
This clip is from the December issue of Acrobat Accelerator. On top of the three primary methods of training you’ll learn about little shifts you can do in your position to make this move much easier or harder to suit your level.
I wouldn’t say I completely mastered the move yet, but that’s just a matter of more work. Stay tuned for next time when I’ll be sharing a story of someone who has.
Plus in this month’s Acrobat Accelerator, I share a warm-up routine I’ve been using everyday before hand balancing. Plus some startling studies on stretching that may have you re-thinking what you’ve been doing.
If you’re not already a member you can get this month’s issue for free with any of the following products:
Hand Balancing Mastery Course
Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide
Tumbling Course
Or just by itself here – Acrobat Accelerator
But there’s only a few copies left and when its gone its gone. If you want to master the freestanding handstand this is the one to get.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
A few things to cover today. First a questions from Brian.
“my handstand stays in air for less than 3 seconds. at times i do better and most times i do worse. i tried the wall to gain back strength but i never seem to get better. Its been 3 months that way. im not quiting so any suggestions will be appreciated.”
There’s a new article up on the site complete with a video that covers the most basic techniques on how to do a handstand.
Hopefully something on that page will help you. But without seeing your handstand or having a more descriptive question I can’t do much more.
If you want and have the means you can post a video on youtube or somewhere else on the internet. If you provide me a link I’ll take a look and give you feedback. Just send me a link to the video and any specific questions you have.
Lastly, you’ve got less that one day to get any of the new Prof. Orlick ebooks or the Hand Balancing Mastery Course for the current price. Tomorrow morning the price will go up. Get them now.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
It looks like the last email unleashed a fury of new questions. Because of the volume of them I might not get back to you personally, but I’ll try to answer the good one’s here.
Hi Logan,
I’ve been making tremendous progress with my handstands. I can also do a lot of those presses that I’ve seen on your site and on youtube. I did have a question though. Will hand balancing improve things like backflips and other aerial tumbling moves? Will it help me build more nerve when it comes to flips and things like that? I’m very athletic and I can do a backflip, but I was just wondering if hand balance training would make it even better.
Thanks for your tips,
Nelson
Thanks for the question, Nelson. It’s an interesting one that I have given some thought to before. Here’s my take on it.
Any move you work on will only improve your skill in that exact move. There is some carryover between related skills, like doing a frogstand will help somewhat with doing a handstand because of the similar balancing aspect.
But when you have skills that are far apart like hand balancing and a backflip, there is very little relation and therefore carryover. The skills of one will not help the other.
Just because someone is a master of hand balancing doesn’t mean necessarily they can do high flying aerial moves. Or vice versa.
That being said, here’s the flip side (no pun intended). This sort of training helps you to learn control over your own body. To really know it and be able to make it do what you want.
I believe someone with your skills should be able to pick up various other physical skills easier than someone with no experience hand balancing.
No amount of hand balancing will give you the ability to do backflips, you have to work specifically on the skills you want. But learning to control your body one way or another will speed your learning curve.
Plus the strength you build from hand balancing is likely to make many other moves easier as well.
Since this email is already getting long and most of the questions are in depth I’ll have to save them til next time.
But before I go I want to let you know about my other site. Just recently re-launched it and have some awesome things in store.
I like to keep this site well targeted on hand balancing and acrobatics, but that is only one aspect of the much larger world of physical culture.
If you want to learn more of my thoughts on strength training, bodyweight exercise, kettlebells, hand strength, old-time feats of strength, and much more you’ve got to check it out here.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Go to Legendary Strength and be sure to sign up for the email tips there too to regularly get all the up to date information.
The frog stand makes it easier to learn the handstand by training your hand balancing skills in an easier manner.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp86vFUlV84]
They call it hand balancing for a reason after all. The frogstand lowers your center of gravity and makes this learning the skills of manipulating your balance with your hands easier.
If you can’t hold the frog stand for at least a minute you have no reason to go after a free standing handstand. That’s my stance and I’m sticking to it.
But it’s not the only move. In fact there’s four. Master these and the handstand becomes much easier to learn.
You want to know what the four are?
Okay, it’s the frogstand, headstand, forearm stand, and handstand against the wall. But make sure you do them right.
The Secrets of the Handstand Quick Start DVD covers all four lead-up stunts and much more.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Just thought I would put up a short video for fun.
Anyway, this is a backflip I did last night at my gymnastics class. I am doing it on level ground and getting to my feet so it is not too bad. But it still has a couple spots for improvement. And of course consistency is a big key.
Being able to do backflips has been a goal of mine since I was a young kid. Seeing as previously I couldn’t even go backwards on a trampoline, it has been a long journey.
I’d tell you how you could get there but you really need proper instructions and equipment to get started. So I must say do not try this at home.
Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher
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