cast to handstand

[Janetgym]

Hi!

I was wondering if coaches could suggest some fun conditioning or drills to do at home (no bar available) to help with cast to handstand.

Thank you very much!

[jes.the.gymnast]

hold a 3/4 handstand with legs on a chair the kick up to handstand get your legs together as fast as you can then bring them back down to the chair (make sure your legs are together when bringing your legs down).

hold a rope in both your hands pulled tight so it is like a bar. practice the arm movemt need for cast handstands. so keeps you arm stright swing them up to ear hold for afew seconds and then bring them down.

hope they help

[Valentin]

3/4 Plache presses (I am sure there is better name for this)
Start as in the photo below. Then let yourself planche as far as you can can and then push back to starting position. Its like doing plache lever ups. Its not quite the same thing, but its a good easy drill to do at home, and trains similar muscles and movement. Alternatively get someone to spot you from planche lever ups.

You can do heel drives
Rock to handstand.
If you are doing straddle casts to HS. Start in a front support, then from a small tight arch pop up, and drive your butt over your hands as you straddle your legs ending up in a straddle handstand. This is a good drill for home.

Hope that helps

[BlairBob]

For home:

dips, handstand pushup variants, planche work. Basically a lot of upper body work. If you can't do dips or handstandpushups, mastering a pushup to the deck with elbows by the sides is a must. However, if you cannot do these well, cast to handstand is far off probably. Chair dips and angled pushups at 3/4 handstand or piked on a height handstand pushups.

You can start by holding a pushup position and then leaning forward into the planche and holding for say 5 seconds at a time and progressing to 30 eventually.

Tuck or ball planche. Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning: A Bodyweight Strength Training article from Dragon Door Publications

Doing a lot of superman rocks or reverse back extensions ( hug a twinkie " reverse leg lifts ) should be done as well. Lay down on something at your stomach so your legs will hang vertically, lift to higher than your butt. You've probably done these before.

Planche walks. Get into a pushup position and lean into the planche until you collapse onto your chest or you can pike your hips like Valentin was talking about to recover ( so you don't faceplant or land on your chest ).

[Janetgym]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am close to getting a straddle cast to handstand but the straight leg one is far away. I am tall, my arms are sooooo loooong!!!

[Valentin]

Don't worry to much about the straight body cast. That will come with consistent progressive overload of casting (in straight body). Being a tall gymnast does make things hard on bars with those casts, but the straddle cast is the ideal option.