Informative article about One Arm HS development

[gymgreg]

Just read "One Arm Handstand Lessons from a Chinese Acrobat" on Beast Skills and thought it's worth sharing.

[Brendan Coad]

Thanks for posting.

[Philip Chubb]

Awesome post. Thanks!

[Cole Dano]

Good information there.

[Newguy]

That is sweet, I thought I had learned just about everything there was to know about the two armed HS, but the part about curling my fingers really surprised me. Just with that one tip today my freestanding HS is feeling stronger, a couple more second holds and I am able to find my balance more often when I kick up WOW!!! This is rather exciting, .....And now my fingers are tired from working them too much in this new position...I should rest now, but its rather exciting...

[yuri marmerstein]

Not really a one arm handstand article but some interesting points are made. I always wondered about the chinese perspective of hand balance as their form and technique differs a lot from the russian style which is primarily where a lot of my methodology comes from

I remember asking a romanian guy a while ago about whether to put the hands flat or curl the fingers, and he said it doesn't matter.

I tend to use a mix in between of super curled and flat. I will try out this method and see if it makes a difference on my one arm holds. The theory behind it is interesting, so it's worth giving it a shot.

The canes work was interesting too, as I always just kind of winged it with my grip. A lot of the time I ended up squeezing too hard and hurting my fingers. I will mess around with the super curled finger grip as well next time I get a chance to play on the canes.

[Philip Chubb]

Yuri,

Could you give a little explanation of how the Russian system is different from the Chinese please? I am training in more the Russian side as well because that is how my coach learned but I wonder what is the differences between the French, Russian, and Chinese.

[acegerter]

I took a lesson from Lu Yi in San Francisco, and he actually talked a bit about the "tiger claw" finger position doing HS. Yuval explained that the french system attempts to find the perfect balance so that you can simply remain in the balanced position with minimum effort. The chinese system emphasizes heavy strength to maintain balance, aka incredible shoulder/forearm strength to force the HS. I don't really know the russian technique.

The french system seems more my style because it focuses on technique rather than conditioning. After my session with Lu Yi, which consisted of 5+ sets of 30-45sec spotted OAHS followed by 3x5 presses, I was exhausted. After a lesson with Yuval I felt like I found balance positions and I was fairly energized afterwards.

The chinese HS is definitely a great method, but feels very different. It may be better for those looking into HS as a conditioning exercise?

[Philip Chubb]

acegerter, Thank you for that! I can see the difference in French and Chinese systems then. A mix seems like it could be really potent.

[yuri marmerstein]

Ha, I wish i knew more about the styles as well. I get a lot of my knowledge from a guy I work with who was a gymnast on the soviet olympic team in 1972. Even though he is not technically a hand balancer he's been around the block and knows his business

Therefore, most of the information I have is based on assumptions and gathered from his many stories. I know mikael has a russian coach so he will be able to tell us more

Anyway, the russian style is very strict in terms of body and head position, amount of lean, etc. A lot of focus is emphasized on body tension and "locking the shoulder" with the ear covered. I asked Valentin about the tiger claw hand position and he agreed with it saying almost exactly the same thing as Jim did in the article, stating that you can see it the best with hand on head balance, the marks the flyer leaves behind on the base's head.

Valentin would say that the hand balance coaches in his gym would shake their students in one arm handstands to see how tense they are. He mentioned that a good benchmark for holding one arm handstand is a minute.

The chinese seem to not care about their form or position as much but rely on heavy strength and flexibility. Watching a lot of chinese hand balancers they seem to not really care where their heads or legs are, most of them also having very active oversplits.

[Cole Dano]

I was waiting for you or Mikeal to rep first, but Yuri, that's pretty much what i've heard from Mikeal.

In fact he tells that his Coach is so strict with the alignment that even the distance between the hands is set no individual tailoring, its exactly Xcm no more no less for everyone. (Sorry i don't recall the exact number.)

[Bozo Jonic]

33 centimeters! 8)

[Cole Dano]

That's what i remember as well i just didn't trust myself.

[Mats Trane]

How is that measured? From thumb to thumb?

[Cole Dano]

On center, as you would for canes.

[Razz]

33 centimeters! 8)

Damn...Can't compete with that!

[Mikael Kristiansen]

As for the finger part, this surprised me a little actually. A flat hand is basically an inactive hand the way I experience it. Balancing on 1 arm without clawing into the floor is very difficult as you will either topple over or balance on the heel of the palm which requre you to bend the arm and makes you balance from the hips a lot. For me this curling effect of the fingers is just what happens when i squeeze the floor to balance. Most people I see who balance well do this, though there are people who have very different grips and are amazing(check out Sergei Timofeev on youtube, he is a mutant)

I thought it was strange that he holds 3 fingers in front and the pinky out on the side when balancing on the bench. Whenever i do on a ledge i have all 4 in front and teh thumb on the side.

From what I see on the pictures, the most obvious thing that restricts Jim on the 1 arm is his shoulder flexibility. he needs to arch his back which makes the hips twist VERY easily. interestingly enough, the "easiest" way to get a 1 arm with stiff shoulders is to do like the bboys do, leaning far over, bending the arm, and balancing more on shoulder and oblique strenght.

As for the different styles of balancing, I think it is more viewpoints than anything else really. It is noticable though that many of the chinese balance in a different fashion than the rest. Unlike everywhere else, ALL of them are extremely flexible, and they are usually have a much much better strenght to weight ratio. They are also taught since they were small. Often you see them stand with a less shrugged shoulder, which makes their hips go more to the side. They balance extremely well off their fingers as you rarely see them do corrections from the hip if the dont want to. That being said, they are also by FAR the best in the world. No one even comes close to what they are doing. If you want to know why, search for 'chinese circus school' in youtube..it is nuts.

As for the russian and french, Im not sure what the real differences are. We have a french teacher in school as well, and i notice his students keep a their chest more open that what the russian allows. However, I have little experience with french teachers, and it seems like the difference is quite small.

A lot of people think that you are looking for dead balance in 1 arm handstands, which is not completely correct. You are looking for as small corrections as possible, but you always need to balance, which in turn, is making corrections. Which position oyu are in changes a LOT too. Flags requre a lot of strength through the entire upper body, while a straight, 1 arm hs is more about scapular strength and alignment.

Haha, yes sascha, my coach insists on always having 33 cm between the center of the blocks or canes. A lot of people have too wide handplacement(at least from a handbalancing perspective) as it is hard to transfer to 1 arm if your arms are wide.

[gymgreg]

Thanks for the insights Handbalancer.

Is that the video you mean?

Just watched the whole thing... all I can say is... HOLY CRAP!

uH-jQN3Ln60

[Ryan Verma]

Holy crap...

[Newguy]

Interesting video

[Mats Trane]

33 centimeters! 8)

Does this measurement go for all handstandwork, press to handstand, Hs on rings etc?

[yuri marmerstein]

33 centimeters! 8)

Does this measurement go for all handstandwork, press to handstand, Hs on rings etc?

your presses shouldn't be any wider than your regular HS unless you are specifically doing wide arm

handstand on rings isn't technically "hand balancing" in the classic sense. Because the rings are mobile they don't necessarily follow the same set of rules

[Dillon Kolacz]

Um... I wonder what part of China they are from.. They are not speaking Mandarin... really interesting video though

[jutajata]

This tip about the hand position, or the "tiger claw", really help me a lot to maintain the balance on one arm, especially if you are doing on soft surfaces like mats, etc.

Ive never done one arm on canes and started to use this hand positioning instinctively to prevent falling when i lost balance on one arm, was a surprise that these feature is a fundamental technique of the chinese school.

It really helps.

[kephsherin]

There is actually a video on youtube that mocks how relentless the chinese training style is--specifically directed toward that documentary: http://www.youtube.com/user/nicocom#p/u/4/2G0RcjrUtos. I think its unfortunate how in this particular school they seem to use negativity to drive their young students to the max.

As far as block or canes go, when I first started training with them it would feel strange when I tried to go back to floor handbalancing--like getting off a trampoline and trying to jump. However, I do notice that blocks and canes 'force' your body into better alignment. Just like "handbalancer" said: If one balances too far into the heel of the hand or the fingers they end up in a banana or piked shape--using unwanted lower back or hips to counter-balance as opposed to smaller desired adjustments. When you are on the canes or the blocks you are easily thrown off unless you are gripping properly and distributing the pressure into the index and middle knuckle-regions of your hand. WIth the proper gripping technique you can extend straight up toward the ceiling as opposed to pushing forward or pulling back and your body almost naturally stacks itself up into a nice handstand line.

Since I like to incorporate a bboy style into my handbalancing routines I like dancing on the floor. Many handbalancers I trained with agree with me that it is akward to create a "dance" that revolves around the canes or blocks and it feels more natural to be able to flow in and out of handbalancing moves on the floor. Nevertheless, I have seen some unbelievable cane-routines, I think it just takes a lot of creativity to dance with a prop like that. Often in cirque shows they do not want a handbalancing act that takes up too much space too--hence the canes.