The most important 10 minutes of your handstand life

Stop Scrolling.
Start Handstanding.
 
If you can’t hold a 10-second handstand in the middle of the room yet, stop the endless core drills, stop bookmarking random IG tips, get a cup of coffee, a pen and some paper and get ready: Here’s everything nobody tells you about handstands.

🤹 Handstands = Plural

There isn’t “one” handstand.
There are hundreds of shapes.
That “perfect straight line” (Instagram’s holy grail)?
It’s beautiful, but it’s unforgiving at first.
 
👉 Stop obsessing over it. You’re making your life harder.
Instead, pick the shape that gives you the best results.
 
Often, that means asymmetrical legs:
  • V shape
  • T-pot
  • Stag, etc.

🧱 Your First Test: Back-to-wall Kick-Ups

When you kick up against the wall, 3 things happen:
  • Airball (miss completely)
  • Touch (graze the wall, then fall back)
  • Land (arrive on the wall)
 
💡 Always aim to land.
Ignoring the wall when you can reach it is like throwing away your crutches while still limping: it doesn’t make you heal faster.
 
PS. If you can’t reach the wall yet, I got something for you. Head here.

🎯 How to Choose Your Shape

 
 
  • If you can’t land yet → pick the shape that gets you closest.
  • If you can touch → pick the one that keeps you on the wall longest (without leaning head/shoulders).
  • If you can land → pick the shape that lets you land softer and softer.
Every week:
  • Track 10 attempts → count airballs, touches, lands.
  • Goal: 10/10 landings.
  • Then → grade softness (elephant 🐘 / medium 🤷 / feather 🪶).
  • Goal: improve the soft-landing ratio over time.

⚠️ Before Balance Comes the Kick-Up

Everyone makes the same mistake: obsessing over balance and ignoring the kick-up.
Balance is the cherry.
The kick-up is the cake.
Work the 4 Kick-Up Layers to develop the perfect kick-up so that balance becomes possible.
  1. Momentum
  1. Alignment
  1. Tension
  1. Fingers

🏛 The Five Pillars (No, don’t engage your core)

The kick-up and alignment are just 2 of the five pillars of handstands.
Notice what’s NOT in there:
  • ❌ Engage your core
  • ❌ Squeeze glutes
  • ❌ Elevate scapula
  • ❌ Point toes
 
Indeed, you can hold a handstand without these.
Spending time fixing that is wasting time not working on what actually matters.

🧍 Alignment Test

The alignment you discover from your wall kick-ups needs to be replicated it chest-to-wall (C2W).
⚠️ Don’t make the rookie mistake: Practicing a “perfect” C2W line that doesn’t match your free-standing balance line.
And yes, you need both C2W (chest to wall) and back-to-wall (B2W) to progress.
Yes, no one likes C2W.

💪 Strength Check

Not sure if you’re strong enough?
Test it:
  • Hold 15s upside down without dying → ✅ you’re fine.
  • Under 15s → build that baseline first. More on this here.
🎯 Goal: 60s hold over the next few months.

🧭 Spatial Awareness = The Real Foundation

 
Before balance comes awareness.
This is where you learn to tell your elbow from your… other end… upside down.
Spend time just being inverted:
  • Map sensations
  • Feel where your body is
  • Learn to “see” in the upside-down world
 
No awareness = blindfolded walking → guaranteed falls.

⚖️ Finally: Balance

If your kick-up is solid → you can balance ~5s consistently.
If your kick-up sucks → no amount of balance skill will save you.
 
Balance = fingers first:
  • Push → body shifts backward
  • Relax → body shifts forward
 
Ideal balance = micro forward/backward cycles, just like toes do when you stand.

🐘 Fear: The Elephant in the Room

The wall feels safe. The room feels terrifying.
Fear shows up differently for everyone:
  • Fear of kicking up
  • Fear of C2W
  • Fear of falling mid-room
 

Conquer it with 3 tools:

  1. Time upside down → safe, repeated exposure
  1. Overshot scenarios → spotter, corridor, or hand placement drills
  1. Bailing → cartwheel out of overshot
 
This creates a virtuous cycle:
  • More awareness → more control → less fear.
Video preview

✅ Quick Recap

  • Pick forgiving shapes first (stag, V, T-pot)
  • Train wall kick-ups → track airball / touch / land
  • Focus on softness → aim for feather landings
  • Build the 4 kick-up layers → momentum, alignment, tension, fingers
  • Practice both B2W + C2W
  • Strength baseline = 15–60s hold
  • Awareness before balance
  • Balance = fingers first
  • Work through fear with exposure + bailing drills
 

🚀 Next Step

If you’re serious about training (you can dedicate 3 hours per week spread in small sessions to watch lectures and feedback videos and study the art and science of handbalancing), if you’re not chasing the latest “quick hack”(handstand do not come in one month), and you really want to level up your handstands → I offer 1:1 online coaching.
This isn’t a cookie-cutter program. It’s ultra-personalized, ultra-flexible, and I’m there for you the whole way — not just dropping you one PDF with 20 videos and wishing you good luck.
We’ll work deeply on your technique, awareness, corrections, and long-term progress… everything you need to turn your training into a joyful, mindful, result-yielding habit.
 
👉 If you feel you’re ready, head here. We’ll see if it’s a good fit and makes sense for you.