A friend recently asked me to teach her how to handstand. I didn’t want to overwhelm her with too many things at such an early stage, but it made me reflect on what helped me in my handstand journey.
So instead I decided to write them up and share them in a post for anyone starting out. Some of these I knew and followed religiously from the beginning, some I wish I knew earlier, and some I regret ignoring until later.
- Work with a teacher as early as possible in your journey. You cannot see what you don’t know. It will save you time and frustration!
- Learn how to bail out of a handstand safely. This will help eliminate the fear factor from the get go.
- Work on your entry and balance separately, as you won’t have a handstand to kick to in the early stages.
- Try practicing as much as possible on a hard surface, which provides better feedback from your corrections.
- Aim for locked elbows, which allows for a more efficient handstand. Also try to avoid walking to save balance. In the early days it is better to push more with your shoulders than not enough.
- The head-in position is cool and all, but at the beginning, you should keep your eyes on the floor for a visual reference.
- Learn how to balance freestanding against a wall (chest to wall). The static entry minimizes variables and allows you to easily control the weight shift. It’s like entering balance in slow mo!
- Worry about your handstand line once you have a decent balance. Don’t obsess over it either!
- Practice regularly! Short sessions count too, because it takes a lot of repetitions to build muscle memory.
- Learning handstands is not a one-size-fits-all thing. Some tips that might work for someone might not work for you because of anatomy, level, flexibility, goals, and etc.
- It’s okay to play around, but if you’re giving a skill or a progression your best effort and you’re still struggling, you are probably not ready for it yet.
- Build volume progressively to give your wrists and shoulders time to acclimate. Take prehab seriously to keep them both healthy.
- Work on your flexibility and compression early on and regularly! They take a long time to build, and they will both make things a lot easier down the road.
- Practice left and right equally for asymmetric skills.
- Finally, don’t ignore or run away from your weaknesses. Face them head on!
Recent Comments