art of hand balance

It all started with Ashtanga yoga. These kids have a special move, the "jump" from downward dog into forward bend, which has become almost universal throughout vinyasa flow practice. The trick of it is to make it graceful, prolonged, and fluid. Downward dog, for those of you unfamiliar with yoga, is simply placing your body in a pyramid position, with your feet back, your ass high, and your head low, your arms straight, your hands on the floor in front of you. Spine maximum straight, and legs straight. The proper form is a perfect triangle with the ground as the base.

Forward bend is simply "stand and touch your hands to your toes."

So the transition from dog to forward can be done with a simple walking of the feet, or more gracefully, by shifting the balance to the hands, flying the feet up into the air, and softly landing the feet back down between the hands.

Practicing this, one experiences a profound shift of both weight and balance, from the feet to the hands.

Another place I found this was in an AcroYoga warm-up that Becca put us through, the "donkey kick". In this, you start in forward bend, and kick your legs up high over your head. The point is to get as forward as possible, and hold the elevated (inverted) donkey kick pose as long as possible, without falling over forward.

And then there is the reverse bridge, and contortion videos.

Finally, there is the handstand.

It becomes clear, rather soon, that in acrobatics, and yoga, the hands and feet become interchangeable grounding mechanisms. Once you gain the flexibility to bend your body over and place equal weight on the hands and feet, and once you gain the strength in your wrists, forearms and fingers to maintain balance, and once you gain the overall kinaethetic awareness and body balance in order to shift from feet to hands and vice versa, well, thats the grok of the hand balance.

Then its just a world of creative movement possibilities. :)