![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Handbalancing: it gets better
Oct. 14th, 2013 11:24 pmThis weekend was intense, and acro was not the whole of it, but acro is what I'm going to talk about: Det Rijven & Jim Klinkhamer in NYC, Saturday and Sunday, 10 hours of workshops. Psychological insights aside, my only "firsts" from Divine Play happened in their class a week before, and this weekend there were more.
Most notably, you know that Dutch acro drill where you tuck up to a handstand on the base's bent knees, while they stabilize your shoulders? Of course you do. Everyone does that. Which is why I can't find a picture of it anywhere online. :P Anyway, I jumped up to the Ant's knees with only a light spot, and onto another base's knees totally unassisted for the first time ever. The trick for me is to think about rolling over onto a high surface at the level of my shoulders. Just thinking about a hollow body doesn't do it -- I can be super tight in my core, and feel like I'm doing all the work of hollowing, when in fact I'm just frozen in some totally wrong position because the antagonists are working just as hard. So I think about rolling, and it relaxes my back and (sometimes) up I go.
I also got or almost got the "walk in and tempo" entrance to low hand-to-hand again (there was always a touch-spot, so who knows.) And that annoying, high overhead long-arm shoulderstand thing they always teach? It came way easier this time. It was quiet enough that we were able to transition me from that, to hand-to-hand on another base, to back plank (and gently down) on the first base again.
Good handstands tonight too. I got a free semiprivate because only two of us showed up to class, and I was (sometimes) really feeling the way I could pull my ribcage in. My line is improving.
As a note, it's always fascinating to work with the other girl who showed up tonight. She's an ex-gymnast, and her first handstand is always amazing -- she'll kick up, hold for 30 seconds like a rock and come down, no problem. But then she gets tired quickly, while I'm still hitting my stride, and by the end of the class I'm usually doing better than she is. Thanks, endurance, you're useful.
The third of three acro weekends in a row hits me this weekend. I'm so off my usual workout schedule. Think I'll survive?
Most notably, you know that Dutch acro drill where you tuck up to a handstand on the base's bent knees, while they stabilize your shoulders? Of course you do. Everyone does that. Which is why I can't find a picture of it anywhere online. :P Anyway, I jumped up to the Ant's knees with only a light spot, and onto another base's knees totally unassisted for the first time ever. The trick for me is to think about rolling over onto a high surface at the level of my shoulders. Just thinking about a hollow body doesn't do it -- I can be super tight in my core, and feel like I'm doing all the work of hollowing, when in fact I'm just frozen in some totally wrong position because the antagonists are working just as hard. So I think about rolling, and it relaxes my back and (sometimes) up I go.
I also got or almost got the "walk in and tempo" entrance to low hand-to-hand again (there was always a touch-spot, so who knows.) And that annoying, high overhead long-arm shoulderstand thing they always teach? It came way easier this time. It was quiet enough that we were able to transition me from that, to hand-to-hand on another base, to back plank (and gently down) on the first base again.
Good handstands tonight too. I got a free semiprivate because only two of us showed up to class, and I was (sometimes) really feeling the way I could pull my ribcage in. My line is improving.
As a note, it's always fascinating to work with the other girl who showed up tonight. She's an ex-gymnast, and her first handstand is always amazing -- she'll kick up, hold for 30 seconds like a rock and come down, no problem. But then she gets tired quickly, while I'm still hitting my stride, and by the end of the class I'm usually doing better than she is. Thanks, endurance, you're useful.
The third of three acro weekends in a row hits me this weekend. I'm so off my usual workout schedule. Think I'll survive?
