 Welcome back to the school cast, then it's Tim and Jacko and we are here at the location for the handstand world record and Tim, you might have noticed, but there's some grass. So the fact that we're going to do the world record on grass has changed it a little bit. It's soft and it's a little bit bumpy so you do need to practice. So it's a nice thing about it is it's got to get you to get grass, you've got to get outside. So get yourselves outside, get used to being on the grass and we'll go through a few little tips for you now. So when you change the environment or use a different surface when you're doing a handstand or anything like that, at first because you haven't done it before maybe on grass or on parallel bars, but in this scenario grass, just because you haven't done it before it feels more difficult, it doesn't feel comfortable, you're just not used to it. And all it is is it's not necessarily harder, it's just different. So here's some tips for you to get started with. Important, even though the frog stand might be dead easy, that you just go back right to the basics just to get your hands used to feeling the floor and then we'll build it up from there. So first thing is find a nice bit so you see Tim is searching around for the flattest sort of part that you can find and then the same principles apply. So it's happy, confident with that, that nice stable base, fingers wide and wide, fingertips gripping and just get used to the difference in how you can sort of claw on the grass. And I actually, when you get used to working with the grass, it gives you a little bit more texture on your fingers and on your hands to actually find that balance. So getting that extra little texture gives you some more control because you can actually find you'll get a better grip than on just a flat floor surface. So now you've spent some time getting confident and comfortable using the grass in contact with your hands. Now we need to look at a few variations of how you're going to get up into that handstand and hold it for that handstand world record. So we'll start almost with the hardest in terms of strength and then we'll build it back from there. So we've got three variations. The first being the tuck up, which Tim is the master of. So he's starting with those hands straight and he's just getting used to rotating and putting those hips on top of the shoulders. And that position there is key where he can then straighten his legs afterwards when he's comfortable in his own time. But what that does is it gives us that nice space of support under here and putting his central mass on top of it. So the second option that you've got to get into your handstand is the kick up. This one takes a little bit less strength in the tuck up position, but it's great because you get to get your hands on the ground and you can find a stable base before you then start to try and take those feet over your head. So Jaco goes hands on the floor, finds his nice comfortable position, gets his grip set and then it's just like the wall handstand. So if he's going to kick that leg up behind his top legs of pendulum, the back leg is a driver. He brings it up until he finds that base of support or the distribution weight over the base support brings the feet together. And there we have the handstand, which is easily good enough for a world record. So the third option to get into handstand is the stepping. Now this one gives you a little bit more momentum to help you get the feet up if you find that kick up a little bit more difficult, but you just got to be able to nail that balance position when you get up there. So Jaco gives a demo. So we start standing, he's going to take one foot forward, which is going to be the one he's going to drive up onto. Hands hit the ground, he kicks up, brings the feet to meet them and he goes in and holds that handstand position. So those are three tips of how to get into the handstand. If you've got any other options or methods that we haven't included, then we're very excited to see those on the day. One of the big things about the actually breaking the world record is holding it for 15 seconds. So we're going to look at some endurance work of how to stay up there for longer and we're going to do that inside. Here we are, we're inside. So now time to get a little bit more specific with the practice of how we're going to increase the capacity of your handstand. So whichever one of those three you're going to use, or maybe you've got one of your own special ways of getting up there, what is actually important is once you get there, how are we going to hold that position and we're going to maintain that position for longer and long enough to break this world record? The important thing about being able to hold that alignment is it makes it a really efficient movement to do. So you don't need to be as strong. As soon as we lose some of that control and the alignment, we have to fight that and make up with a bit of strength and that's going to mean you're tired faster. So the more efficient you can be, the longer you're going to hold it and the easier it is going to be for you to hold it. So we're going to use a wall to revisit some key coaching points and also show you how to practice for a longer duration hold. So to get up to the wall, Jaco is going to use a kick up his hands on the floor, just nice, he's a progressive way to get in, but you can do that walking move and all that stepping position if you want to as well. So you can see up against the wall, what often happens when we kick in is we find the wall with the feet, which leads into this banana back position. Now, if we're going to be efficient and we're going to have an opportunity to increase the time we can hold the hand sample, we've got to tie to this shape up a little bit. So this is where the practice comes in. Can you tie to this shape up and hold it for longer? So the first thing Jaco is going to do is going to lock this midsection down nice and tight and as he does that, you're going to push the floor down hard. He's trying to make himself nice and long. If you do that, it brings his shoulders in with the core. It starts to link those two things together and that's creating a really nice stable foundation for us, which is a super efficient. Locking that midsection as well is going to bring the toes a little bit higher. Because we're using the wall, we're always going to find this little bit of an arch. So your progression for practice is actually to try and take the hands closer to the wall, but you can start to build some confidence here as Jaco is seeking to see pulling the feet off. With the security of the wall, you need to start to aim for longer periods of time on this whole position. He always knows who feels like he's losing that position that he can just dab his foot back against the wall to make the correction. But if we're going for a 15-second hold, we want to be looking for 30 seconds up against the wall. This little security blanket makes life a ton easier and it gives you the opportunity to build up that time. The last point on this one is where you're going to find that most people go wrong with the handstand when you're going for time is you forget to use this upward shrug movement. We forget to keep pushing the floor down. And when you get tired, you start to sink. When the shoulder sinks, the core sinks and then we're going to lose our center of balance. So you spend some time back against the wall getting a bit more endurance in there to hold that alignment and get that better body position to make your hands a little more efficient. The last little piece together that can actually work nicely from just kicking up in open space on your own is getting a partner. So I'm going to support Tim. I'm going to be a bit like the wall for him, but I can do a little bit more than just be a flat position on the wall. I'm going to work my way down his body so that he's got to do more of the balance and I'm going to do less. So Tim's going to use one of his three ways of getting in. He's going to do this time the step in. He's going to step in, kick his legs up and I can help him get into that position. Then he's got to create that long straight alignment where he's pushing his feet towards the ceiling. You see that little bit of lift, a little bit of a shrug there here, nice. And then gradually as he gets his balance, I can work down his body towards his hips until he feels like he's got control of his legs. I've got a little bit of support on his hips and eventually, if he gets there, you'll be able to feel like your partner's got it and then you can let go. And he's ready for the handstand world record. Hopefully that's given you some ways to take some of your handstand training back a step, to build it back up and just build up some confidence with a different surface, as well as building up some endurance as part of that, keeping that nice, efficient handstand alignment, getting yourself ready with us, the handstand world record. You should have all those things locked down if you've got to freestyle your handstand. So it's just sometimes you've got to go back and rebuild it to add those actually a little bit of components. The key thing I want you to take away from this though is as you get closer to the event, you're going to want to practice more, but we're doing longer periods of time, upside down, loading the wrists and elbows more. They need time to recover. So our recommendation is short amounts of practice on a regular basis. Don't do 45 minutes a day in a big rush to try and be ready for the big day. Give yourself time to recover and plenty of mobilization, particularly around the wrists. If you need any more specific help, you can get in contact with us. We've also got a follow along tutorials in the beginner's handstand guide, which is designed specifically to get you up into that handstand and hold it quickly. So if you need that, check that out. The link is in the description below, but... So happy practicing. Until next time. Class dismissed.