If you're tucking your head and rolling onto your back, that's a forward roll... just saying. :-)
As for straight arms, yeah, DON'T let your elbows bend when kicking up. The circus perspective is that the fewer moving parts, the simpler the whole thing is ultimately going to be. Handstand balance ideally comes from the shoulders and the fingers/hands/wrists -- everything else is locked -- you never adjust from the hips or the elbows.
It's worth repeating here that I am learning circus-style stuff. Circus wants the handstand to be stacked so well that I can hold for 60 seconds, and so it's all about bone stacking and less tolerant of having the control be going through too many muscles (not that you don't have to be strong -- but staying up on bent elbows bring a LOT more arm muscle into the picture than you'd otherwise need, if that makes sense).
I can walk sideways on my hands on the wall or with a spot, but not alone. Still working static holds. I don't mind waiting for the walking-type stuff until I have a really stable 2-arm stand.
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As for straight arms, yeah, DON'T let your elbows bend when kicking up. The circus perspective is that the fewer moving parts, the simpler the whole thing is ultimately going to be. Handstand balance ideally comes from the shoulders and the fingers/hands/wrists -- everything else is locked -- you never adjust from the hips or the elbows.
It's worth repeating here that I am learning circus-style stuff. Circus wants the handstand to be stacked so well that I can hold for 60 seconds, and so it's all about bone stacking and less tolerant of having the control be going through too many muscles (not that you don't have to be strong -- but staying up on bent elbows bring a LOT more arm muscle into the picture than you'd otherwise need, if that makes sense).
I can walk sideways on my hands on the wall or with a spot, but not alone. Still working static holds. I don't mind waiting for the walking-type stuff until I have a really stable 2-arm stand.