Supporting your weight on your hands is easy: manipulating your body into the various positions (handstand, planche, one-arm etc) however needs a great deal of practice, with advice from those who have already achieved it... and it also needs good core strength to hold decent shapes, and reasonable shoulder and upper-body strength.  There is one 'core' principle: in any hand balance, your centre of gravity has to be directly above the supporting hand(s). You may well need help from your coaches or friends to get the 'feel' of that, and to keep it steady (that's where the core strength comes in). Expect many failed attempts. So: some examples to enthuse you. Some drills demonstrated by young gymnasts: (Moral: if at first you don't succeed... ... have another go!) Back with the young gymnasts:    ...and don't let the weather get in the way of your training... The crucial points for perfect handstand shape (on two hands) are 'open' shoulders, tight glut...

Strength and a good sense of balance are the critical factors in achieving good hand balancing. Most of the examples here are OK, but some shapes leave a little to be desired. The most usual issue we call 'banana back' - arching the back to compensate for a lack of shoulder flexibility - yes, you need that, too.    If the weight is supported on the hands - that's the first success. Pulling through to handstand follows:   ...and so, strengthening the shoulders for more great things to come! Yes, him again.  We could say the same about him - showing off with his mates. That's Archie Collier from the UK - very talented and currently on tour in a show (as we saw earlier in a rehearsal clip). OK. A couple more of Archie then we'll call it done for this post!    

As gymnastics/acrobatics coaches, we always say that the gymnasts can never spend enough time on their hands (i.e. supporting their weight on their hands). They need a good handstand for every piece of apparatus, actually. Today we can see some results - mostly excellent, some perhaps not (but making the effort). Including acrobatic groups pitching and catching, working together. Definitely an exhibition of physical fitness, of course. This post is quite heavy on videos, but in many cases it is the action which is important. Bear with us!   This guy goes for endurance... ...by the way, when we were training we had to do 8 minutes, but against a wall for occasional support   ...an unusual location, but you can't stop those circus performers even when they have free time!   ... and that last one is a good effort, but a typical 'banana back' caused by poor shoulder flexibility He's balancing OK though.  Some "easy steps" now, and then some games: Start young...  ...