As a blue belt, you are starting to open up your alignment.
Blue is the Belt of piking
Your mission is now to achieve all three aspects of the Handstand Equation:
Consistency - making sure your average hold can be achieved 70% or more
Duration - making sure your average hold is 15 seconds or more
Alignment - being able to hold your default positions, but also open position and transition in and out of both.
Between the end of the green belt (you’re able to kick-up and stick your default line almost every time for 10+ seconds) and the end of the blue belt (you’re able to do the same in at least three pike positions, without any need to reshape or sculpt (meaning, you don’t have to stabilise your handstand first, move into a pike second but can instead kick-up and stick your pike), we’ll have a few landmarks, as usual.
Step 1: getting acquainted with piked positions.
→ Seeing what your shoulders can allow.
→ Developing the body awareness related to pikes
→ Picking the pike shape(s) that you perform best with.
Point B
If your default line is point A on the map, then this new pike of yours will be Point B. First, we want to choose the pike that suits us most, by testing frog-diamond, straddle, straight pike and tuck. You'll do that by assessing soft kick-ups against the wall, ease of balance B2W, ease of take-off C2W. Stick to this one for the first half of the curriculum until you become really fluent with it. A lot of Kick-up & balance at the wall in point B.
If your default line is point A on the map, then this new pike of yours will be Point B. First, we want to choose the pike that suits us most, by testing frog-diamond, straddle, straight pike and tuck. You'll do that by assessing soft kick-ups against the wall, ease of balance B2W, ease of take-off C2W. Stick to this one for the first half of the curriculum until you become really fluent with it. A lot of Kick-up & balance at the wall in point B.
Step 2: Travelling from your default line to the piked positions of choice
→ Sculpting your line
Point A → Point B
The more familiar you become with point B, the better able you will be to move into towards it freestanding. This journey from your default strong line to this new pike is essential and will be the main part of your freestanding practice for a while.
→ Knowing how to program your sessions efficiently (alignment days vs consistency days)
Know when to not bother with alignment
You have a strong handstand, but the sensations of piking will be so new it may throw you off some days. Know when to keep working on what you do best and when to venture into this new territory
Step 3: Showing fluency in selected piked shapes
→ Reducing the sculpting time
Straight into B
The more you practice B in isolation and travel from A to B, at the wall and FS, the more you will be able to kick-up into B already.
→ Expanding your pike repertoire
Step 4: Showing mastery in all piked shapes
→ Being able to kick-up straight into open and piked
→ Expanding your pike repertoire
Points C, D, E
Don't leave this belt before giving the other pikes some love. If you have fully understood your pike, most of the others, if not all, should come quite quickly to you.
How to train
The Blue Belt requires so decision-making at first.
We need to find the winner in the different piked shapes. That's step 1.
Then, we need to practice our journey from point A to point B.
That's steps 2 and 3 of your curriculum.
While there will be a lot of demonstrations there, select the ones that are relevant to your lines.
Once you get to step 4, revisit the other lines.
We want you to be able to kick-up into them all freestanding.
Do not neglect wall practice - pikes are quite a different beast from your usual handstand.
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