 Welcome to the School of Caste. It's Tim and Jacque and we have Sam with us. He's not come to us. We've come out of the school to learn from British Olympic gymnast Sam Oldham. He's five best handstanders. We can't wait to learn something ourselves. And most importantly, help you guys with that handstand. So it's all in preparation for the Handstand World Record Attempt on the 23rd of June in Nottingham. Now we've got a lot of people, we've put out some information, but we reckon we've got some knowledge, some gems to get people handstand in nice and stable for 15 seconds. Yeah, definitely. I've got some of my five best tips today. Some of them are not even in a handstand position. They're on the floor, they're hanging on the edge of a box and the others are going to help you improve your handstand so you can hold it for longer. So you might be kicking off holding for one or two seconds, but this is really going to improve your shape in that handstand and make sure that you're going to be able to hold it for essentially those 15 seconds when that day comes around for the World Record. It's going to become Guinness World Record Holders. I'm going to have a pint of Guinness. Apart from the valuable tips it sounds about to share, you may well just see me and Jacka get humbled entirely by this. Alright, tip number one then, Sam, what is it? Tip number one, it's all about body shape. So this is trying to get you in the correct body shape so you're going to have that perfect straight line, it's going to make you more efficient and you're going to be able to balance and hold the position for longer. It's going to stay perfectly straight. Well, we're going to try, are we going to try? This is gymnastics, banana back in here. Right, first exercise. So what you're going to do is you're going to get out in this stretch position here. You're going to flex your toes and you're going to suck in the lower back into here, almost like a plank position. You're going to squeeze your bum down and you're literally going to hold this exercise. Hold this position for as long as possible. That's it. That's it. That hollow rock position. Yeah, upside down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an awesome pressure through the shoulders. Yeah, exactly, yeah. There's a little bit of like thoracic spine, lat length over the sac. I was looking at that going. When we first started doing calisthenics, I first started doing jacko. Like you couldn't do a hollow body, so I think you should go first. That's a great jacko. Let's do it. That should be an improvement for you. Yeah, so you just want to get your arms out. As if you're almost being in a hands up position where you put your hands. You're going to flex your feet and then you're going to squeeze. That's it. So you squeeze that back. I'm free. You're going to put that. You're going to squeeze your glutes in. Lift your chest as if you're going to be in that. That's it. That's a good position. I think he's able to push up. I mean a little bit. You want to try and lift your back a little bit more. Try and dish your back in a little bit. There you go. That's better. So you're going to try and hold this for as long as possible. It's hard, right? All day. That was easy. It's not easy, right? Essentially all you're going to do with this exercise is just try and hold it for longer and longer. Pressure on your hands. Yeah, so you want to put pressure on your hands. Yeah, so then if we're going to try and lift you up, which like I might need jackos help here. Your body should stay in that position as long as you're in that tight position. It should stay there. Squeeze. I've seen this before. Nice. That's really impressive, man. So yeah, that's kind of like the ultimate test of whether you're in. That's the ultimate test of whether you're in that right position. So tip number two, Sam, what have we got? So this exercise is all about that shoulder strength in that end range. So when I was giving myself, I was very weak in this position. So I started doing this exercise. It made a huge difference in my handstand. So yeah, we're going to crack on with it. Yeah. Jacko, if you're going to hold my legs, if you're at home, you can use like the bottom of the sofa. You just basically need some weight on the back of your legs. So you're going to get... Yeah, you want to get up to kind of where your hips are in line there. And then you're going to try and get into that nice position we've been practicing on the floor. And you're just going to lift that end range there, then shoulders. So Sam, this is a big one about keeping that straight line because you can get your shoulders or your hands higher so more vertical positions so you don't end up in that banana back position, right? Exactly. So all you're going to do here is transfer that position we were working towards on the floor. So here it's not as hard as being in a handstand because you've got that kind of balance of someone supporting your legs. Yeah. So it is harder and you're concentrating on that but you're still working on that and being in that right position. You know a lot of people miss that end of range. I think that's the hardest part, yeah. And then to make up for that, to get the hand above the head. Yeah, they're going to ask you. I imagine this is going to hurt me absolutely. That's a little bit. Am I going to go first? I'll be the guinea pig. You hold my leg. He's a nice size, Jacko. Thanks. You've got to push down out. So you're going to go right to the end where your hips are, mate. Right to the end. So a little bit further. There you go. And obviously like if it's too hard going right to the end just go a little bit further back. It's like this. Yeah. Right. So that's it. You're going to squeeze your glute, squeeze your back and then lift just your shoulders and try and isolate your shoulders and you're going to keep here. There you go. Yeah, so that's the exercise. Cracking a wall nut to him. Yeah, exactly. So it's setting your shoulders back, pulling into that position. Yeah, that's really good, man. And then you can add, once you get better at this exercise, you can add weight to it. Do it with a heavier bar. Oh, that's nice. So tip number three, Sam, what have you got? Tip number three is doing handstand against a bar. So what you're going to be looking for here is essentially this lower part of the back which everyone struggles with. Now you've got that position, like the shape you need to be in from the floor exercise, the lift in your shoulders. You're strong enough there. You're going to move on to this exercise, providing you can already obviously do a handstand. So it's like doing handstand against a wall. But the main important part of this is that your lower back is touching the bar. So if one of you guys... They want to be... If they're going to try it, they want to be confident. Yeah, confident. They can kick up against the wall. So, you know, they should hopefully be able to do that. So, Jacko, if you can... I'm going to get up there, then I will leave the hole in my back. Yeah. And I'll ask you if you can kind of put your hand in there. And I'll try and squeeze your hand almost. Like a dead bulk against him. Oh, I can see me. Oh, and the mic's gone. It's all right, Mike. It's all right. It's okay. So, yeah. So you want to get your hands as close in as possible. And you see right now, my bum's touching and my shoulder's touching. There's a gap. Oh, it is. And you want to squeeze that. Yeah, he's... Look at this foot position as well. That's useful to me. Oh, yeah. Kind of pinch the bar. Yeah, so you want to keep your head in as well. Really, you don't want your head to be out. You can have your head against the bar. It's just squeezing that position. All I'm doing is applying that same position we were doing on the floor to this exercise and pushing through my shoulders. So, yeah, that's exercise number three. Looking forward to seeing Tim try this one right other than me. So, yeah. Get your hands in. You took your head in. There you go. There you go, then. Nice. Ah. So, there you go. So, you're in the right position and you've just got to try and squeeze. Come on, let me get out. Yeah, there we go. There you go. There you go. That's perfect. So, you see how hard that is. So, you want to just increase the time you're holding that floor. So, you can go up from 10 seconds, 20, 30 seconds. And, yeah, that's just going to, that's incorporating all three of the exercises we've done so far. So, I get the feeling that we're building the complexity. Number four. What have we got? So, number four is handstand against the wall, facing the wall, and we're going to use everything we've learned so far. So, that position on the floor, where we've got your toes flexed, you're in that squeezed position. We're going to take, again, the shoulder range of movement with the stick, then the squeezing your back in against the bar, and we're going to do that, all of those, and put it against the wall this time. Cool. Jacko. What are you doing? Oh, all right. Jacko, you can go for it. Okay, yeah. Let's do it, man. Yeah. That's it for me. So, it's this sort of stuff for the handstand, Sam, right, where getting all of these things in together, which is going to keep you alive. Yeah. One of them is not good enough. You've got to start to be able to actually get all of them at the same time. Yeah, you've got to squeeze that, that's the perfect position there. Nice. I'd try and focus your eyes on your hands, Jacko, without putting your head out too much. So, put your head in a little bit and that's it. Perfect. And so, again, we're in that position. He's got that squeezed, his glutes are squeezed, his shoulders are in a strong position, and what you're going to do here is, you've got the advantage of being able to build up the capacity in your body and holding it for a long period of time before then you go and move on to just doing it on the floor. So, someone's going to do a 15-second handstand. I don't directly need to do this. You want to be trying to go as close to a minute as possible. Oh, really? Yeah. It's like a small dog down here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, the last tip. Sink go. Tip number five, the most important one for me to find that right position for your handstand is flexing your feet. So, that's going to sound strange, but I still use that today. I've been doing handstands to sell seven years old. I'm now 25. Every day I'll do this. And flexing your feet enables you to squeeze your glutes, squeeze your lower back and just find that position. So, correct that position because if you spend two minutes against the wall doing a handstand and you just do that repetition after repetition, you'll begin to kind of lose the feeling of the right position you need to be in. So, yeah, let's crack on with it. I'm going to show you. So, when I start off, I'm going to kick up and do a handstand with pointed toes. So, I do this every day. So, I can find that right position now because of my toes, but it's much easier when I flex my feet to then get that perfect position. And I'll point them again. So, demonstrate. Nice. So, yeah. It's all right. That's the... Yeah, that's the... So, Tim, we're going to give it a go. Yeah, that's good. So, now, Tim, if you come to the side, Harvey, so that's pointed toes. So, we're going to try to flex and squeeze your glutes as hard as you can and squeeze this... There you go. So, it's hard, right? It's hard work. So, another thing you can do to help your handstand actually, Tim, is tuck your head in. So, what a lot of people find really hard is, so, ideally, you want to look at your hands because you're balancing. So, you're going to see your hands and feel your fingers on the floor, but you can actually keep your head in because you don't want your head out because that's just going to pull your shoulders out. But you can keep your head in and still look at your hands. But it's something you need to practice. It's not something you can just do straight away. So, you can't just... If you keep your head in like this, yeah, that's the perfect position you want to be in, but it's very difficult to balance and hold that position. You're looking like right back. Yeah, of course. So, that's really hard. It's all that spatial awareness. You need to know where your feet are in the air, where you need to move, how hard you need to pull your fingers. So, being able to keep your head in and still look at your hands is a really important trick. So, that exercise, would you see that as a progression if someone's got a reasonable, free-standing handstand? Yeah. That's something which is going to put a bit of polish on them. Yeah. And it's just going to make that, essentially, you want to get the most stable position possible because it's going to make it more efficient. You're going to be able to hold that handstand for longer because you're going to be wasting less energy. And that's what you did. You could get someone to hold you in that position. If you've got a partner. Yeah. Actually, you throw them up on balance straight away. Yeah. So, you've got to almost find out where you are in the air, like I said, the spatial awareness. But you can practice that against the wall. Yeah. I was going to say you could even combine that with some of the versions against the wall where you're just getting used to changing the wall. Yeah, exactly. And what you can do against the wall is you can be in that flex position and then you can point your toes and take your feet off for a couple of seconds. Then go back onto the wall and do it like that. Yeah. I think the challenge is that is bringing the toes in and then still being able to do a bit of a transition. He just got me first learning like when you've got some options of making corrections at various different joints throughout the chain, it gives you better chance of maintaining there when you're like moving about. Like no one's there just never moving. It's like you're always slightly losing control and getting it back. Losing it and getting it back. Yeah. And the thing is like I still fall over in handstand sometimes. Like kicking up. Yeah, I still fall over. So it's practice, but I think the best tip of all the tips you can do for any exercise and strength when you want to hold a position you've just got to spend as much time in that position as possible. It sounds really basic but if you do you can do all the practice in the world, but if you're not practicing a crucifix you're never going to be able to hold it for a long period of time. Time and attention is specific to the thing you want to do. Awesome. There you have it. Thank you Sam for giving us those five tips and helping everyone out there that's working towards that handstand for the handstand challenge that world record attempt. We hope you've found that helpful. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and YouTube. His details for that are in the description below but there's nothing I say until next week. Class dismissed.