on Sunday, February 13, 2011







Handstands are found in floor routines, beam routines, and both mens and womens bar routines.  The handstand, one of the basic moves of gymnastics is a fun and relatively easy move to learn in its basic form.  Heres a fun link for "how to" instructions. Also below was a pretty good video on how to learn a handstand.   It is challenging however to learn how to hold a handstand for long periods of time, and to learn to walk on your hands.  Trust me I've fallen over many of times attempting to!

One of the reasons it is a difficult position to maintain is because there is a small base of support and a high center of gravity as well as requiring some arm and shoulder strength.  When in the handstand the center of gravity should be centered over the fingers.  Doing this makes the handstand slightly over balanced, and equilibrium is achieved by the downward pressure exerted by the body as well as the overall body position.
Another important part of this trick is when your upside down to pretend like you're a puppet and that there are strings pulling your body straight up from your fingertips to your toes.

Bending your legs can help lower the center of gravity but tends to cause other issues with the body position making it more harder to hold.