We love acrobatic gymnasts where guys work together to create amazing balances and other combinations. We also try to develop basic handstands in anyone who trains in our vicinity! Today we celebrate the art - everything from 'just give it a try' to really getting the body shape and line perfect for gymnastics competitions. So, in no particular order, here we go! The Ossolodkov brothers - potential world champions" More of them... Let's support the kids... A planche is still a hand balance... Shape training - grind mode Which is correct - left or right? Your answer should be - LEFT! Here's the perfect shoulder line: This next is not really a handstand, but we like it... It's good to practice handstand walking - especially backwards like that! And this guy needs to work on his leg control...

This is the second post today: don't overlook THE FIRST ONE on being 'fitter together. There are some partnerships in action here, too, as we admire acrobatic balance skills with both videos and still captures. That's |Christiano Rujana with his dad: and here is Chris showing us that he's good on one arm too:  ...and in the gymnastics training hall too: One of the best trainings for the shoulders to help handstanding is pushups in handstand: Anyway - a miscellany now: Never let a little rain get in the way of your balance training! Why not make the training fun even in the gym... You can also make the videos fun...   First steps to one-arm... Then improving it... A celebration of nature now from two of our balancers: A bit of climbing action from Jack (base) and Tiego (top):   Finally, for today, remember that you are never too young to start learning to balance!    

Another post all about hand/arm balancing, for which anything with 'feet off the ground' counts (e.g. 'planches'). The essential elements are balance (obviously), core and shoulder strength for maintaining a good and steady shape, and endurance for staying up... which seems to be a good place to start, since gymnast Seth has posted a three-minute video of his best handstand hold (he can do longer, but was not happy showing the less-good shape). OK, this is a bit like 'slow telly' where not much happens (reindeer wandering in the arctic comes to mind for one programme we watched!)... but Seth should be admired for his artistry as well as the hard work which goes into being able to make this happen, even if there is a slight bend in his shoulders: Actually his shape gets progressively bendier as time passes, but full marks for effort! 'Croc' (...odile) - a standard position in acrobati gymnastics That's the perfect shape for a twohanded balance. That...

As gymnastics and acrobatic coaches, we are always telling our gymnasts that the more time they spend on their hands, the happier we will be. You need a handstand for every piece of gymnastic apparatus, and for acrobatic gymnastics and performance we raise the bar to one-hand balance as well. In this post we offer a variety of very fit guys performing handstands in different situations: most are pretty cool, one or two are reasonable first efforts but mis-shapen! We leave you to sort those out.  Beau tries hard in his planche... ...maybe aiming for this... Interesting one from Yevgeny... And a shaping exercise for the basic gymnast's handstand: Training for swing to handstand on parallel bars: Ordinary pix to finish off the post - rather random hand balances: