It's All In The Balance

A lot of handstands here, but also some fun after everyone else at gym club has gone home, and some professional performers at work.

 

That's heavyweight juggler and balancer Daniel Teplitski, having inherited the act from his father Oleg. Based in Birmingham UK, he was banned from performing as a boy once becuase his act was considered too dangerous. It's mainly strength work, and we'll feature that another time.

 

Slack line. Easier than it looks, provided you never let the legs start to oscillate sideways. I could do it with a flat line (once) after an Aussie boy showed me how: also you must step out firmly at the start.

The next two are not strictly balances but, if you lose your balance and can't catch on - disaster!

 We'll let Samuele, a young gymnast from Italy, introduce us to the art of 'lift to handstand'...

...while Yevgeny balances on the gymnastic rings and does push-ups for us...

Old-style gymnastics here - almost a balance:

 Professional acrobat, formerly world champion in acribatic gymnastics for Spelthorne (UK), offers us a choice of 'one hand or two?'...

Scary eyes presumably part of the 'costume' for his performances, currently in the Middle East.

A variety of balances here from British young Gymnast Riley S:

 

I think they look just as good in black and white. Two more one-handers now: first one a guy playing in the weights room, the second one an unidentified professional act...

...and then introducing young Danilo (possibly Phillipines) who is making soething of a name for himself as a street-workout dude on social media:

We can also admire the planche, which requires serious upper-body strength, especially if performed with the legs together: the straddle position makes it easier to hold because it moves the centre of mass nearer to the shoulders: Danilo does that too...

Riley again, on a basketball - just to be different:

...and it can be done on the slack wire too:

Last planches for today - a friendly competition between Riley and his US friend Jordan:

Don't forget that the divers do it (nah, not Tom or Matty today!):

Practice makes perfect - boys enjoying the great outdoors in The Netherlands:

Gymnasts need a handbalance on every piece of apparatus - often only needs to be held for two seconds [except in vault, when you pass through the position], but still a critical skill:

This includes floor and pommel circles, where balance must be kept while the legs rotate but also the skills often end on pommel with a handstand dismount.

 

Rings...

Riley and another friend, Josh, compete for the manna position (this should actually have horizontal legs, but they'll get there):

Finally, a parallel-bar planche held by Alexander Z from Ukraine:

I can reveal that he's not actually in the Olympics - that's a composite picture - but, one day, who knows?

If you are new to this blog, we feature gymnastics in special posts about once a week and there are 20 such posts here already (400 pics) - just explore 'Older Posts' and enjoy. There are also some specific handstand posts back there too.

Finally, do not despair. Anyone can learn to balance like these guys if they go about it the right way. The way you start training is very important though because if you don't get that right, your balances may work but they will look awful (the word 'banana-back' is in frequent use in acrobatic circles!). Find someone you trust to help you, remembering that the correct handstand (unless a special one such as Mexican or one-arm flag) is ramrod straight from the wrists through to the toes.