8/21 Tips for Performance Tuesday

Pony tails will fly today!

Balance is one of the 10 physical skills we seek to develop in our CrossFit training. Most of us can balance perfectly well on two feet. But, what happens when we find ourselves upside down?
Many of us prefer to be right side up, but at any time in your life you might find your world turned about. What if you fall off of something like a ladder or roof. What if you have a car accident and your car flips? What if you have an epic ski fall and land upside down in the snow? Would you have the balance and proprioception to right yourself?
CrossFit encourages all of us to get upside down. We train this skill regularly in our gym. Everyone starts with downward dog and then progresses to a handstand against the wall. Eventually, we make our way into a freestanding handstand and then handstand walking. 
CrossFit extolls the value of handstand progressions because:

"Being upside down exposes the athlete to what is for many, a brand new world. Psychologically, physically, and physiologically, inversion is otherworldly. We spend roughly two thirds of our life upright and one third in repose. When upside down most of us lose our breath, orientation, and composure. What this portends for an athlete upended by opponent or accident is calamitous. The difference between tripping and landing on your feet versus knocking your teeth out is profound. 

Combat, nature, survival, and sport favor individuals who keep bodily and spatial awareness regardless of their orientation in three-space. The handstand is prerequisite to handsprings, walkovers, cartwheels, aerials, and flips, each of which will train for generally favorable outcomes to being tossed into space. The handstand is the first step to developing a catlike capacity for landing on your feet.

Standing on one's hands also dramatically alters the normal kinetic chain required for standing on one's feet. In the handstand, a much weaker base supports the body while simultaneously raising the body's center of gravity a foot or more in a world turned upside down. Things don't get more foreign."

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