Exercise – Handstand Kick Entry to Press Negative

Once you’re comfortable in kicking into a handstand, you’re ready to play with shapes and work on new strength progressions. The Kick Entry to Press Negative is a great drill to continue working on your handstand kick-up entry while prepping you for the elusive press.

Negatives are performing the eccentric or lowering-phase of an exercise. They’re often used for pull-ups and dips. In handbalancing, negatives are an effective progression to help us gain the strength, coordination, and proprioceptive awareness in our shapes and stacking.

To get started, while you should be back to wall, attempt to avoid touching the wall on the kick entry. It will happen and that’s alright. Your aim is to work towards kicking into free balance with the support of the wall. Once you’re up, slowly fold at the hip and bring one leg down for the press negative. Attempt to go as far through that range of motion as you can. Remember that the shoulders will come forward on the negative – keep them as tight and engaged as possible.

If you’re feeling like you have a good sense of control on the press negative, here’s a couple of ways to challenge yourself:

• When you land on your piked leg, use the floating leg to kick back up immediately
• Try a straddle press negative
• See how slow you can make your negative press