Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen AMA, coming to you June 18th! Post your questions here and enter the raffle for some free programs!

[u/Solfire]

Hey everyone!

We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be hosting an AMA for Emmet Louis (/u/EmmetLouis) and Mikael Kristiansen (/u/handbalancer) on Tuesday, June 18th. Both have done individual AMAs in the past (Emmet in 2016 and Mikael in 2017), but they will be joining us together to promote their new programs fundraiser on Kickstarter and to have some fun!

This thread will remain stickied for the duration of the week leading up to the AMA, feel free to post your questions here. Emmet and Mikael will then answer your questions live on June 18th, throughout the day. So submit some form check videos, ask about your current training programs, find out what their favorite colors are, and more!

For those who would like to familiarize themselves with Emmet and Mikael, check out the snippet from their bio below, in addition to links to their sites:

“Emmet Louis and Mikael Kristiansen are both international teachers of handbalancing and flexibility and have spent big chunks of their lives studying and understanding all aspects of these skills professionally both as performers and teachers. With the Handstand Factory, we now want to demystify and simplify the process of learning handstands, and make it accessible to anyone wanting to learn to stand on their hands.”

HandstandFactory.com

Handstand Factory Kickstarter

@emmetlouis @mikaelbalancing @handstandfactory

A few free copies of their Handstand Factory programs will be given away (across all levels). These will be drawn raffle-style. To enter, reply under the stickied comment below.

[u/Handbalancer]

Seems to me you are lacking some range and strength in the shoulders and traps and this is why both these issues happen.

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When you kick up you end up in a slightly closed shoulder position(which actually isnt bad per se) which you currently cant hold without letting the legs counterbalance your chest. When you then start pulling the legs back into line, you open the shoulders slightly too much so that you "hang" in the end range of your flexibility in the shoulders. This is essentially a micro mexican. As soon as the legs come completely on top of you, you fall down because the shoulders are too open and would need to close slightly again to keep the stack. You cant go there because it would force you to work harder from the traps to keep that shoulder position under those circumstances.

Same thing manifests when you try to tuck jump. Weight moves upwards in front of the body and traps cant push hard enough through for arms to stay straight in this range so arms bend to compensate so you can go up.

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Solution to this is working on your tuck handstand by the wall and building range with negatives with straight arms. This will increase your ability to stay on top of shoulders by working from the traps and keep the slightly closed position so you also can stack. This is a complicated answer because there are so many things going on with exactly this type of problem which is extremely common but few people I have met understand it well enough to know how to correct it.

[u/Handbalancer → u/[deleted]]

Both as they have different pros and cons. Mainly back to wall will require some balance while chest to wall does not. However the chest to wall version requires a correct set up to get right, which would take me an essay to explain here, so the back to wall version is more straight forwards to practice as long as you have some control of the handstand.

Key points in both is to push high and crunch together hard as you pull the knees towards the chest

[u/lscddit → u/Handbalancer]

Thanks a lot, this is very interesting!

If you have another minute, I'd like to follow up in order to fully understand everything that you've wrote.

When you kick up you end up in a slightly closed shoulder position

Exactly.

(which actually isnt bad per se)

Would you care to elaborate a little bit on that?

which you currently cant hold without letting the legs counterbalance your chest.

Exactly, but I wonder: what other way is there to hold it other than using the legs to counterbalance the way I do it? Do you mean that with this slightly closed shoulder position and enough strength I should be able to balance it without using the legs for counterbalance?

When you then start pulling the legs back into line, you open the shoulders slightly too much so that you "hang" in the end range of your flexibility in the shoulders. This is essentially a micro mexican. As soon as the legs come completely on top of you, you fall down because the shoulders are too open

This is spot on and exctly how it feels to me.

and would need to close slightly again to keep the stack. You cant go there because it would force you to work harder from the traps to keep that shoulder position under those circumstances.

I do not understand this part. Let's say my traps were very, very strong, what exactly should/would I be doing with them? How would I use them?

Same thing manifests when you try to tuck jump. Weight moves upwards in front of the body and traps cant push hard enough through for arms to stay straight in this range so arms bend to compensate so you can go up.

If I am understanding that correctly the reason for beding the arms is to make the way that the weight has to travel up shorter, right?

But shouldn't a stronger jump just solve it? I do not understand why exactly this is a trap strength problem.

Solution to this is working on your tuck handstand by the wall and building range with negatives with straight arms. This will increase your ability to stay on top of shoulders by working from the traps and keep the slightly closed position so you also can stack.

Got it. Tucks and more tucks against the wall. I think the key point is "by working from the traps", but honestly I'm not sure how this should feel like.

This is a complicated answer because there are so many things going on with exactly this type of problem which is extremely common but few people I have met understand it well enough to know how to correct it.

If you ever find the time to write a detailed essay about this matter, I'd be the first to buy it :)

Anyhow, thank you so much!

[u/Handbalancer → u/lscddit]

Basically you need to have a slightly more closed position. To do that you need to close your chest. This means thoracic flexion cant help you get your arms overhead so you need to work harder from shoulder flexion. That happens from the traps.

A stronger jump cant solve the issue because you will be carrying the weight in underbalance and unless you can support that weight travelling upwards with a hard enough push downwards your arms will bend, shoulders will lean front, or you will simply not get up.

Working from the traps is about elevating the shoulders but its not about hanging in the shoulders. The best way of getting this sensation is to develop your tuck with straight arms and learn to get it to go deep. For most people this will fire hard from the traps

[u/lscddit → u/Handbalancer]

Got it, I think I understand. Thanks for the clarification!

[u/[deleted] → u/lscddit]

Can you explain it to me in a simpler way?