Thanks for all the tips and video links. Am working my way through the videos.
I think I have the kickup under control and less pressure on glutes - I was failing most of my kickups a few days ago - and therefore doing a lot of attempts.
Today's Eureka Moment : I managed to convince myself that the wall and floor in front of me would still be there even if I couldn't see them ......... managed to keep my head between my arms and look at the wall behind me instead of the wall in front of me ................ This was probably arching my back ...... Suddenly the kickups required far less effort to get my legs up - and all kickups were now successful - quite astonishing the difference this made. Back was flat against the wall fingers quite close to wall.
Initially it was extremely difficult to get co-operation from the brain to do this, because some part of brain was insisting that it needed to see the base of the wall I was kicking onto at all times.
Lots of stretching before during and after the practice session.
While I didn’t usually tell people to look at the wall behind them, what you did essentially tricks the body into stacking weight appropriately in a HS. Most people (especially those who need better shoulder flexion) will support their weight using the upper chest and delts, because it allows them to look at the floor and
gives them a sense of “safety” (which is exactly what your brain was doing). Anyone around here who follows original strength knows that “the body follows the head which follows the eyes.” By craning your neck to look at the floor, the body will reflexively arch. This can make it harder to balance (though plenty of people make it work) and might fire up the posterior chain a lot more than a stacked, straight body. What I did was tell people to slightly tuck their chin and look at the floor “through their eyebrows.”
You can play with this: put your hands overhead like you are doing a handstand. Gently push upwards but don’t strain. Just let the shoulders do their thing, and then move your head by looking at the ceiling and then looking at the floor (chin up or chin down). What tends to happen is that people shrug higher and get a little more shoulder flexion when tucking the chin as opposed to looking at the ceiling. It also has the effect of drawing the front of the ribs down towards the pelvis, further aligning the body in a straighter line.
Edit: as I was reading through this to check it for errors, the image of Chinese Olympic lifters tucking their chin in the overhead lockout came to mind….
With lots of practice over time (once you can balance without the wall) you can learn to align the body in a handstand, balance fine,
and move your head around without falling out of the handstand.
Lastly, one big thing (don’t know if it’s covered in any of the videos people linked) that will help kicking up
tremendously is starting with you hands on the floor and
having your shoulders stacked above your hands. Some people will start like a sprinter: with their weight behind their hands. Then they have to accelerate their weight
forward as they kick up, which not only takes more energy but also accelerates your mass in the wrong direction. You want to go up, not forward. Think about stacking shoulders above hands, then hips above shoulders, and if your legs aren’t flying in crazy directions you should go right up.
Hope it helps! Happy training