How To Do The Handstand Press

(The ever-elusive press to handstand, sought after by many, attained by few!)

The Quest for the Press:

The press is a widely desired skill across the globe. Pressing is the process whereby you lift the legs off the floor in a controlled and fluid manner rather than jumping or kicking into handstand. Perceived as easier than it is, this move is actually technically advanced and requires a lot of specific strength to achieve it.

We often see people training the press far too early. It’s essential to have some solid foundations before working on this move. Without good basics, not only are you likely to get frustrated, demotivated and disheartened but you also might get niggles and injuries, if the body is not yet prepared enough for a difficult move like this.

The problem with the press is that (like the handstand) there is a lot of misinformation out there online – ‘coaches’ claiming to get you there before doing or balancing a handstand, or in one day, or a few weeks. We’ve said it before but on behalf of all genuine handstand coaches out there, we are sorry but you have been lied to. We’re here to set the record straight and fill your minds with GOOD and CORRECT information that will ACTUALLY help you progress so you can achieve your handstand dreams! Of course, you won’t get there if you don’t put in any work yourself but it’s really hard for you to know what’s good and what’s bad and this can be so disheartening.

Good and correct preparation drills and progressions for this move are one of the biggest missing pieces in most people’s training. As we’ve said before, trying and failing over and over again MIGHT get you there EVENTUALLY, but it will literally take you years. And when you finally come across the right information, you’re going to wish you knew it earlier because it would have saved you a lot of time and frustration.

The problem with most of the progressions and drills we see floating around on the internet is that they are not particularly useful. What we mean by this is, a drill should be designed with a specific purpose in mind. It should be VERY RELEVANT to what you’re trying to achieve in the long term.

So, it’s really important to know what drills and progressions are actually going to help you get there (and without injuring yourself!)