Learning to Handstand ? Avoid the Biggest Mistake
Sep 19, 2019
Avoid The Biggest Handstand Mistake
The Handstand is one of those skills that seems to find itself on many a bucket list. It often has heritage back in childhood where it was so much fun to jump around on grass or sand with friends doing cartwheels, half handstands somersault without giving a second thought about the fall or getting hurt. It didn’t matter. It had a wonderful playfulness to it.
As an adult, the handstand can connect you back to those childhood times. It can feel great to be upside again, it's amazingly energizing and feels playful. It's common unfortunately some adults to have trouble connecting to that sense of playfulness and the carefree movement and it's replaced by two f words. For some only, one f word will apply, for others, both.
The first one is “fuck” I used to be able to do this and now I can't. The second one is “fear”
Fear is the big one. Being upside down is foreign territory for most people so there is fear of the unknown and of course, what if I fall? Overcoming these fears will be one of the greatest challenges you face with a handstand practice as an adult.
The biggest mistake is to go to the wall. It may well give you the confidence to kick up at first but you will bypass an essential stage. Learning how to fall. Falling is an essential part of any handstand practice. You won't learn it without falling many times. The wall takes away the chance to learn this skill. It’s a fear-avoidance tool and will seriously delay if not halt altogether your handstand practice
When practicing kicking up into a handstand you will experience three different outcomes.
- A kick-up that’s not enough. You didn’t get up high enough. (call this too short)
- A perfect kick up, you're in the handstand. ( call this the middle )
- Kicked up too much. You have gone past the balance point. (This is too long )
Your attempts to kick up should have a good balance between not enough and too much. It's common for kick-ups to be dominated by not enough. (outcome 1) Fear us holding it back. It's when you kick up and it's too much (outcome 3) that you get a chance to practice your falling out technique.
When you can fall out confidently and the fear of falling is gone youre the handstand highway. You can now practice anywhere anytime and you can now focus on the really important parts. Finding the middle and staying up.
