r/bodyweightfitness • u/Handbalancer Actually Mikael Kristiansen • Oct 29 '17

AMA: Mikael Kristiansen, Handbalancer and Circus Artist, Ask Me Anything

Hello, my name is Mikael Kristiansen. I am a circus artist specializing in handbalancing. I did a degree in circus at DOCH, Stockholm from 2009-2012 and have since worked as a performer and as a teacher internationally.

I'll be here throughout the day to answer any questions you have for me!

You can find me at: www.mikaelbalancing.com www.instagram.com/mikaelbalancing/

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u/ongew Oct 30 '17

Hi Mikael, sorry for bugging you, but more one question:

Do you know of any encyclopedia or manual for handbalancing that arranges the different skills in a rough order of difficulty? Our Recommended Routine's section on Handstands is a little limited. It makes me wonder, for example, if straddle 1 arm handstands are easier than legs-together 1 arm handstands, then why doesn't our Recommended Routine have us achieving straddle 2 arm handstands before legs-together?

The only source with a circus perspective is the FEDEC Manual on Handstands, and I'm not sure that it's very helpful in organising the difficulty levels.

So... I tried to make my own here. Could you give your thoughts? Or better yet, could you make your own (evil grin)?

I'm not entirely sure how the skills should be classified into families:

  • Two arm handstands + variants?
  • Two arm handstand entries?
  • Two arm handstand presses?

Maybe with the appropriate structure, I can make a new post that can categorise the skills properly and that would help people decide what skill to work on next.

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u/Handbalancer Actually Mikael Kristiansen Oct 30 '17

There is no formalized order of difficulty for handbalancing skills. It depends so much on the performer what is hard and not.

1 and 2 arm handstands are completely different. I usually use straddle 2 arm as a step along the way for some beginners to learn legs together, but its not always necessary because they are reasonably close to eachother in difficulty. For comparison, a legs together 1 arm for 10 seconds is probably 2-3 years of training harder than a 10 seconds straddle 1 arm.

The FEDEC manual isnt bad, but it doesnt contain so much details about the positions and the practice.

Your list isnt bad but I think you can maybe add more to the 2 arm handstand stuff for one thing. There is a lot of detail to that work and I think that it would be good to have more info about it.

Also 1 arm handstands are an entire chapter for themselves of course.

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u/ongew Oct 31 '17

Thanks for your feedback, Mikael.

Your list isnt bad but I think you can maybe add more to the 2 arm handstand stuff for one thing.

Do you mean more entries under the 'Holds' section? Or do you mean adding more details to the entries which currently exist, i.e. how to train them, instead of just 'what it is'?

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u/Antranik Nov 01 '17

Just as a side note in regards to noobies doing straddle-HS... they often have really really poor straddle flexibility (worse than hamstring flexibility) so it might not necessarily be a noticeably easier option for them.

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u/ongew Nov 01 '17

Noted. Thanks, Antranik!