How to train for the flare ?

[Deins Drengers]

I want to learn how to do the flare. It is the move on ground, pommel horse and mushroom and also a well known breakdancing powermove.

 

It has always been my dream as a kid to be able to do flares, now i want to learn how to do it.

 

Do you guys know a guide or some tutorials/progression moves that will get me there ?

[Alessandro Mainente]

the progression i've followed is:

-high mushroom circles;

-spindles on high mushroom;

-low mushroom circles and spindles

-straddle spindles on low mushroom

-flare on low mushroom

-flare on floor

-flare with elevated mats behind you to increase the elevation on flare

 

it took to me 2 years and half to develop a decent circles (lack of mobility etc)..

[Mikael Kristiansen]

You can either go the gymnastics way more or less like alex87 wrote, following progressions from circles towards flares, or you can learn the bboy way through just practising on floor. Neither way is "better" as there are people in both gymnastics and breaking who do amazing flares. In gymnastics there is a "proper" way of doing it, and on pommel horse it needs to be extremely precise. The benefits of learning it the gymnastic way is that you will build towards the gymnastic form and you have a set progression.

 

The breaking way of learning it you can find a lot of tutorials for on youtube. Kaio does have a pretty decent tutorial and he has very good flares. Learning windmills before/at the same time as flares would probably be a good idea. The benefits of training the bboy way is that you might learn to do a couple of flares faster as you dont need to learn circles first, also you do not need equipment to train them. I learned flares this way and I do have pretty decent ones. They do definitely have the bboy look to them, but i can go to handstand and airflare from them.

 

Getting good flares on floor takes a long time regardless of which way you choose to go and you need to practice them often to get results. Also work a lot on your flexibility. Having a really good pancake together with all your splits speeds up the learning curve immensely. Be careful of your wrists as they take a beating until you have good technique