(If the fear of falling forward in a handstand is stopping you from practicing let me help you)
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GOOOOOD MORNING STEEMIANS!
At the beginning of this year I decided that before it ended I was going to be able to perform a solid handstand for at least 30 seconds, and to make sure it happened I started practicing handstands every day, I had already tried doing some handstands in the past but the frequency and the quality of my practice wasn’t sufficient to actually make any significant progress. But for the first time this year I started to actually improve… A LOT! So much so that I can already hold a 20 plus second handstand with more consistency every week!
(as you can see, unlike the first picture my center of mass is now on my fingertips so I can actually balance, I will learn how to upload videos to DTube but for now just look at this picture for 20 seconds)
So today I wanted to share with you the single greatest tip that helped me improve the quality of my practice and that is learning how to fall out of my handstand (safely)
Although it is painfully obvious for me now, when I first started I didn’t realize how much the fear of falling was hurting my practice, not because I was hurting myself every time I attempted a handstand but because I didn’t realize I was not kicking hard enough to actually reach a vertical line where my center of mass was actually on my fingertips and I could start practicing my balance.
(in other words if you are not kicking high enough it won’t matter how many times you kick)
(looking at this picture will help you better understand what I mean)
Another very important aspect that you need to know is that once you learn how to fall you can now rebalance better while you are in a handstand because you now have more range of motion to play around with while still feeling safe and have to worry about entering “exit handstand” mode.
Now let’s talk about my favorite way to exit the handstand, ladies and gentlemen I present to you the forward roll, most people think they know how to do it but from personal experience I can tell you that your forward roll will change after watching this short video. After watching it I would advise you to work exclusively on it until you have mastered it before starting to practice freestanding handstands, if you can’t practice on grass then use a yoga mat (especially in the beginning when your forward rolls won’t be as smooth) 5 to 15 minutes is plenty and depending on your level it might take you 3 days or 10 to get the hang of it and really have that movement pattern stored in your brain so it becomes almost a reflex.
A few progressions I used to close the gap between the regular roll and the handstand to forward roll consisted of starting the forward roll with my feet on a higher surface and work my way up to the wall
(start your forward roll with your feet on the stairs)
(start in a wall twerk position)
(And as the final progression start in a wall handstand position)
