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Handstand Rolls

By admin on April 29, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

How does tumbling and hand balancing go together?

Here’s your answer in the simplest form. Combining the normal handstand with basic forward and backward rolls.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6msSyaXU_J4]

Of course, there are many other ways to combine them. Here’s just two examples. Back Handspring to Hand Balance and Dive to Hand Balance, Chest Roll Down. There are tons of ways to get into and out of a handstand. Use your imagination.

These are great because it will really work your balance coming into the handstand from all these moves. Especially since you’re going to have to stop your momentum most of the time.

One more caveat. As much as possible don’t do hand balancing in sand. It’s a lot harder and throws off your balance. Much better to find a surface that won’t give.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you missed it, the new countdown page to the Tumbling Course is up. The date and time have been set. It’s only a matter of time now.

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Acrobatic Conditioning Report is coming…

By admin on April 19, 2008 in Handstands, Tumbling

I’m hard at work finishing up a Special Report I’ll be releasing next week. I was almost done but then your questions from the survey came in and I realized there was a lot more ground to cover.

So if you want your questions answered head on over to the survey.

It’s real short. And I know it asks for two questions but if you only got one that’s good enough.

This report is on what I call Acrobatic Conditioning. Its going to cover ways to train to improve your tumbling skills even if you’ve never worked on them before. How you can get started and where to train.

I’m about to go write more but I just want to take the time to answer at least one question here.

“Which skills should I attempt to learn first? and Should one master the handstand before attempting skills like cartwheel, round-off, and handsprings?”

Hand Balancing and Tumbling skills are related but definitely separate skill groups. You don’t really need to be good in one to do the other. That being said many tumbling moves move through the handstand position.

It can help to work both hand balancing and tumbling at the same time though you certainly don‘t need to be a master the handstand first.

As for which skills to work on that is easy. Start with what you can do and move on from there. If this is just basic rolls than start with that. Any moves where some part of you stays in contact with the ground would be next on the chain like cartwheels, roundoffs, and handsprings.

Of course the aerial moves like flips take a bit more work and are something you have to be careful with. More on that later.

But the idea is like with any other training. You work tumbling progressively.

Alright back to the report. Oh, and there’ll be new videos soon too.

Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Seriously hit up the survey if you haven’t already.

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Secrets of the Handstand Comments

By admin 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.

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Comment on the Hand Balancing Blog

By admin on April 8, 2008 in Handstands

I wanted to share with you an interesting debate I had with one of my subscriber’s and than I want to encourage you to add your own comments.

So here is part of Nathan’s comments:
“I take issue with some of the things you say on this site, also I do not believe you should be creating videos and tutorials that teach people handstands when you yourself use the technique deemed improper by Gymnasts and Circus Artists alike.

“Handstands should not be taught over the internet as it is an incredibly precise discipline that requires constant feedback and personalized training, something which with this medium you cannot deliver.”

And my response:
Deemed improper? Perhaps the straight body style is better but its not easier to learn. Having an arch is natural which is why it ‘use’ to be the only way up until about the 70’s. All the gymnasts (don’t actually know any circus artists myself) I’ve talked to say its just a matter of style anyway. In the end you should be able to take any position and balance right. After all look at many contortionists. Are they doing straight handstands?

I agree with you partially here. Yes personalized instruction would be best but its not really feasible. But isn’t some instruction better than nothing? Not all the people that come to my site are looking at this as a career, just something they’d like to be able to do.

And his comments back:
“Just to add to the perfect handstand discussion that’s going on. I believe the straight bodied handstand came around when people were trying to emulate the standing up normally position on their hands to create a more stable position. Hands below shoulders below hips below feet, in essence standing up but reversed.

“The arched position handstand is the beginners preference as the body naturally falls into that position and requires less core strength. The scorpion handstand common among contortionists is an entirely different type as this is a handstand trick rather than a base handstand. As you said earlier both work and are fine, but the more solid and versatile handstand in my opinion is the straight body one.

“Just my two cents, was an interesting little debate to read.”

And now here is your chance to weigh in on the situation. You know blogs are made to be two-way communication tools. But I haven’t ever encouraged this in the past. Well now I am.

All you have to do to post your comment is register here:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/wp-login.php

And then go to the post itself to leave your comments:
https://lostartofhandbalancing.com/blog/comment-on-the-hand-balancing-blog

Think you can do that? I’d be happy if you took the time to give it a shot, so you can let me know what you think.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. It really sounds harder than it is. I’ve resisted this blog stuff in the past but once I got into it, its actually a lot of fun.

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Handstand Positions, One Hand Balancing and more

By admin on April 5, 2008 in Handstands, One Hand, Planche

Dipping into the mailbag today to answer a few questions. If you’ve got something on your mind, send it my way. You can easily click here to ask away.Here’s a good one from Rose talking about the new 10 Handstand Mistakes report.

“I really love the guide, but some things, to me, are a little confusing. Like where exactly should you bend your back, and what will it feel like when you hit that perfect thing? Is that just something that should be experienced simply by experience? And also, on my hands, I have a hard time really keeping the balance depending on the position of my hands…if I’m leaning forward slightly, or if my fingers are even the slightest moved…Is there anything you can write in there about your experiences with hand positions? Other than that, I can’t really think of anything. Thanks! :D”

Where you bend your back will be dependent on you. Yes you have to experience it but you can learn a lot from looking at pictures and of course watching video.

Most of the bend is in the low back, and personally I feel like I get ‘locked in’ to the right position whenever I do a handstand. Keep at it and you’ll get the feel.

As for the hands, there is much you can do with them. Honestly any position you take with your hands is doable for the handstand, whether its on the fists, hands backwards, or just the thumbs.

But the standard position is hands flat on the ground with either the middle or index fingers pointing forward. Work on this position first and foremost until you have build up your balancing ability.

Once you have a decent handstand feel free to mix up your hand positions. Professor Orlick gives you 25 different hand positions and 10 different finger positions to work on it Hand Balancing Made Easy. Many of these I had never even though about trying.And here’s one from Aldy.

“I can do straddle planche well enough, but I cant do one handstand balance. what is d secret of one hand handstand and one hand planche. for notes, I am not learning gymnastic, because in my country gymnast is not popular. Thank You!!!”

The secret? Alright you asked so I am going to give it to you. The secret is…You have to work up to it progressively.

First off, congratulations on doing the planche. That is a move few can do. But there is a big difference in the planche and the one hand handstand. One requires more strength while the other requires much more balance. And you have to be progressive in your balance training.

Jim Bathurst and I talked at length about this in the interview for the Hand Balancing Mastery Course. Basically you are going to have to train a bit differently for each. Just like you would train the free standing handstand and handstand pushups against the wall differently you should do the same here.

And like the normal handstand, the way I teach it, you have to work on a series of lead up stunts that will give you the ability to balance on one hand. There are many helpful variations that lead up to the one hand handstand. Professor Orlick lays them all out in as easy to use manner in How to do the One Hand Handstand.

I am working on my own plan, exactly what is working for me, but details on that another time.

Since this is already running long I’ll have to save more for next time.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you want to get all of Professor Orlick’s works plus the interview with Jim and more than click here.

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What is the Perfect Handstand?

By admin on April 3, 2008 in Handstands

There are two new articles up. But first a question from Larry in Hawaii.

“I am a little confused on the perfect handstand? which from what Ive read leads up to the one-handed handstand…Is it maintaining a perfectly straight body shown on page 92 or is it what is pictured on page 78 of “the true art and science of hand balancing” in fig.4 showing correct body position?? My goal is to balance on one hand. I have drawn out the diagram pictured on 16 of ‘how to do a one handed handstand’…hands seem kinda close…but above all what kind of body position am I striving for??”

Are you confused too? The first article answers this question in detail. If you‘ve ever thought you had to have a straight bodied handstand to do a one hand handstand the answer might surprise you.

Either way thought there are a few drills revisited that can help you alter your position.

Check it out: The Perfect Handstand

The second article is actually a small download. This one is for beginners.

The Ten Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning the Handstand

And a small housekeeping note. The first Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide packages will be mailed out tomorrow. If you want yours to go out with them order today.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. If you’re having any trouble with the download just go to Hand Balancing Articles page and you’ll see it there.

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How to Kick-up into a Handstand

By admin on March 22, 2008 in Handstands

The kick-up is one of the most important skills you have to learn if you want to do a handstand, next to balancing with your hands and keeping your body tight.The question is, how consistent is your kick-up?I didn’t figure this out right away when I started, but if you can kick up the exact same each time then getting into and holding a handstand is easy.

If your kick-up is all over the place, then there’s no wonder why you have a hard time getting into a hand balance.

Of course, there are several different ways to kick-up. I cover all the basic ways for the beginner and even more advanced variation in the April issue of the newsletter.

My favorite regular kick-up I learned from Bob Jones in The True Art and Science of Hand Balancing. That one is shown here.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTC0oXqXtI]

There are a bunch of fine details that make a kick-up work. I am not gonna lie and say that I never miss a single one, but after concentrating on this for some time I no longer hit only one handstand out of ten like I use to.

If you’re having trouble with yours, start practicing. Better yet get the newsletter and learn all about how to get it done, the best method of practicing, and how far you can take it.

I wish it was ready to go right now, but I’m just putting the finishing touches and final edits on it before it the newsletter and DVD’s go to press.

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy these video clips.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. You can learn more about Bob Jones’ 4-step method of kicking-up into a handstand here.

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Revitalizing Handstands

By admin on January 19, 2008 in Handstands

Traveling down to Los Angeles this weekend. Just a quick 6 hour drive for me.

It got me thinking about one of the uses for handstands. And that is ‘clearing the cobwebs’.

Anytime you aren’t thinking straight or feel like your brain needs to be revitalized, after a long drive for example, there is nothing better than getting inverted.

And you don’t need to be a master hand balancer in order to do it.

Just kick up into a handstand against the wall and hold for time. Once you tire of this, whether its 30 seconds or 3 minutes, drop down into a headstand and continue.

Even better is doing a couple of deep breathing exercises while your upside down. You’re sure to get a recharge from this. Add in some bridging and you’re golden.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. I just received an email you’re going to have to read to believe concerning the Hand Balancing Mastery Course. I’ll get it up on the web soon.

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Finger Handstand

By admin on January 10, 2008 in Handstands

Two Finger Handstand by Shaolin Monk

Fingertip training is one of the less common forms of hand balancing today. In fact you hardly see it at all.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice it.

First some words of caution. The fingers are small and fragile. If you move into this realm too fast, you may end up breaking them, snapping tendons or any number of bad things so be careful.

Starting with a fingertip handstand is probably too much for most people. Even this most basic move must be worked up to. And fingertip pushups are the best way to do that.

Even without practicing finger balancing you hand and finger strength will improve. Just from the practice of balancing on your hands you can’t help but gain some strength in your digits.

But for true fingertip stunts you need to do them in one form or another.

If you are ready for the fingertip handstand then I suggest using a wall on your first go. Holding your bodyweight on your fingers is one thing. Balancing is another.

Not only do you have a smaller base of support but you must add pressure in order to stay balanced. This makes your fingers support your weight and then some.

Once you can hold the fingertip stand it’s a matter of progressing until you reach your goal.

That goal may be the Thumb Stand made famous by Bob Jones. Doing it on top of Indian clubs is up to you.Or maybe you want to hold an index finger stand.

In Shaolin: Wheel of Life one of the stunts performed is a handstand held on the two index fingers. He has his feet supported but it’s still one of the most impressive feats possible.

How to do the One Hand Handstand by Professor Orlick

If you don’t have a copy of this video yet get one now. It’s one of the most motivational, inspirational, and awe-inspiring videos in existence.

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Which Handstand Style should you do?

By admin on January 8, 2008 in Handstands

Another article has been added to the site. If you have ever wondered what style of handstand you should do, whether arched or straight, this one is for you – Different Styles of Handstands.

Be sure to check it out but before you do I wanted to mention something that might be on your mind.

I have received a number of questions about the monthly newsletter that’s one of the bonuses with the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.

For one, if you have ordered a course and not received it its because the first issue has not yet shipped. But don’t worry yours will go out when its ready.

Most people are visual learners so I figured sending a monthly DVD, along with the newsletter, would be the best way to teach hand balancing and related arts.

The camera I had for the job just wasn’t going to cut it so I just got a brand new camcorder which arrived today. As soon as it stops raining I will be shooting film outside.

Depending on the learning curve and how fast I edit will determine how soon it’s finished and ready to go.

If you’re interested in getting on board, but haven’t bought the course yet, no worries because you’ll be able to sign up in other ways soon. More details to come on that when its ready.

Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher

P.S. Don’t forget about that new handstand article. Feel free to send any feedback you have.

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