In almost every gym

Hi All,

I’m going to talk about press handstands today. Like I said in the title, they’re a staple in almost every gym. Lots of people have different progressions and doing them in different places (parallettes, beams, the floor, off panel mats, against a wall etc). They require a total body strength, and can be a very good technical progression for skills.

JAOVideos (Jason Mortimer) came out with a lovely video of press handstand progressions a few days ago. This video is by all means not exhaustive. But as his videos always are it’s a very good set of progressions that can be modified or added on to to make them work for your gymnasts.

This second video can be a nice drill for your lower level/pre-team kids (I am of course referring to end result of the stalder forward roll). It requires less strength since they are elevated, and can be a good way of making sure their backs stay round as they are gaining the strength to press all the way up. Oh, it also gets their shoulders over thier hands.

Train hard!