Back Handspring/Flic Flac & Macaco: How to Learn and Fix Sideways One

I was performing some simple gymnastic and parkour tricks here and there for a while, training martial arts, etc. I have even learned backflip but back handspring felt completely different to me and the scary feeling of jumping straight backwards with my head facing down felt impossible to overcome. I did try 8 years ago when I found a pile of straw, but I did not continue this training. There are many tutorials on the Internet like "How to learn back handspring in a day" or even "in five minutes". Well, I think some people might have actually learned it that quickly, but most of us, like me, need many days, weeks, or even months to nail it (Or maybe I am the only noob here! :D). So don't get discouraged! It will take a while, it will not happen right away, but it is possible when one doesn't give up! It took me 119 days!!! As a result I can perform kind of froggy and not very gymnastic backhandspring and I still have a lot to improve. If you're afraid, it doesn't mean you're not brave. Bravery is when you can find a way despite fear! Everyone has different physical dispositions and mindsets. I am not a professional gymnastics trainer, so please take this article as a description of my own way and, if you can, visit a professional course.

But seriously, have you too watched the tutorials where they do a back roll as the first step, then touch the ground with one hand and jump around the body and then miraculously jump a completely straight back handspring?

So how to train without a gym, a person to help, and a safe environment? Many tutorials are very technical explaining how to move the body, but what about the fear of breaking one's neck? How to actually get into the state where one can actually jump and think about all those details? How to even start? My back is not flexible enough to just lean back, touch the ground, and kick my body over like some gymnasts do. This tutorial showed me the way. It looks really safe and easy, right? Well, it is, but it is not :D. Down below is the video of my progression and I will comment it with the timestamps, writing down some tips that helped me the most! Oh by the way, don't make any fast conclusions and read till the very end. I've made several mistakes during the process!

0:17

Had to warm up, especially the back and hands. The neck too! You have probably heard it many times, but it is really important. Once I didn't do it and started practicing the move after the whole day sitting in front of my PC and guess what...yea I blocked my back right in the beginning and that was the end of the session. It is also great to find a relatively safe place. Sand is a great option or a heap of straw.

0:32

And here we go, this is the classic progression of the Macaco or one-hand-spring or how to even call it. First, I started by twisting around the hand. Then, added more force to the jump, kicking the opposite leg to gain more momentum. Then, focusing on the free hand, pushing it backwards and under my body. I had to remember to follow my hand with my eyes because the body will move in the direction that one looks.

0:47

When I felt confident, I tried to start the move with my hand above the ground. After that, I tried to do the same thing, but from a standing position, adding more velocity and momentum.

0:54

Now this was one of the two most difficult obstacles during the process! How to transition from the one-hand-spring to the jump without one hand prepared on the ground? The fear! I wanted to do it in my mind, but the body just didn't cope! This is actually a good thing! This fear helps us to survive, and the body sometimes has just amazing reactions that can really save one's life! So, the way is not to beat fear but to accept it and gently adjust it. The body is not our enemy, but our best and closest friend. We have to teach it the way. So I overcame this obstacle by simply doing the preliminary moves over and over until I reached the point where I felt like "Aaaah man! I've been doing this forever! Screw it, just jump!" and I did it. Sideways as hell, but when I jumped first I got an amazing boost of confidence! I really wanted to get there right at the beginning, but it is important not to worry about this and not to rush! If it is not working, go one step back and keep practicing until the body gets used to it. Uhm...and right after that, I got stuck again. :D This was even a worse obstacle! How to make the move straight?

1:04

I felt like I was jumping straight! Until I saw the video....:D "Terrible!!!", I thought. Anyway, I have tried to somehow compensate the rotation, have also tried to relearn the whole move on the other side. Do you know the feeling of trying a move the other side instead of your dominant one? Dexterity on level zero feeling! Then I found a nice comment on YouTube where one guy recommended trying the move from roundoff. At first I didn't believe it cause it felt even more scary, but after several attempts I got into it! This was the first step that made a change in my progress! This added more momentum to the move, making it easier, and also helped me mentally get more into the flow! At first it was like roundoff, stopping, and jumping to the back handspring, but later I started feeling the connection between the moves as if performing one continuous technique.

1:28

Another boost of confidence! The move is still crooked though! (My whole body was in pain after these sessions :D.) Then I noticed when I saw the footprints and palmprints in the sand. My hands were shifted a lot to one side. They should be right behind the legs! So I remembered some karate principles about the hips. The hips lead the technique. So I tried to focus on two things: first, moving my left hip (the one at the crooked side) a bit further to twist my body a bit and keep my back more straight, and second, trying to land my left hand more on the left side. I showed the feeling at 1:37. Weird, right? Why didn't I focus on the right side, like twisting there to compensate for the crookedness? I have realized that forcing the body the other way than it wants never helps me! So I kept jumping sideways, but just slowly adjusting the details. I gave up on the fixing and theories and decided to jump sideways, since it was the best I could do at that time, and give it even more energy. Like really leaning into the sideways move. This additional power actually made the move look better as the body automatically straightened itself a bit. And then I noticed! The palmprints are a few milimeters to the left!!! And this went on and on until they actually got almost right behind the footprints!

1:36

That was a big breakthrough! After that, I just kept trying the same move, focusing mainly on placing my hands right behind my feet and trying to keep my head straight. I sometimes had doubts about getting there because after many weeks of trying, it was still not good enough! However, after watching the videos I realized that the move was always slightly better. There was a small step forward...backward in my case :D....after every training session. Sometimes very small, like a few centimeters more straight, but it was there! Sometimes it is also important to take a break for a day or two. I used that time to visualize the movement and put myself in the crooked position and kept correcting it.

1:49

You might think that it's a lot of attempts in the video. Well, there were even more, just not recorded or used in there! I felt quite stuck sometimes. There was no miraculous advice that suddenly made the whole move good! Just repeating over and over again. Summing up below some tips that kinda helped me at this stage. Maybe they were not necessary and maybe I even complicated the progress more but this is what I tried: ol>

2:34

Had to take a break and reconsider! My entire body was aching and I was out of options!

2:52

So I clearly saw on the video that the most crucial thing was the jump! The legs need to be straight and going together. It was, of course, caused by the learning process where during the early stages I used the right leg to kick myself over the hand and I went too quickly to the next stage without perfecting the first one. The mind knew this as the only safe way to do it. The rest of the move was pretty good. So what now? Seems like I can't just overcome this mental block by any minor adjustments. Well, I need to start all over again! -_-" Forget jumping and get back on the ground! Found this amazing Macaco tutorial that helped me a lot. Two main exercises:

1. Relearning the first stages with one hand on the ground without the kicking leg but by jumping with both legs at the same time and leaning more over the head
2. Leaning into bridge from squatting position, both directly and over the shoulder like for Macaco

3:44

The key point in Macaco progression was the jump, where the hips must be pushed up as if pulled by a rope that hangs from the sky. But not just the hips, the feet must focus on the jump. As if jumping over an obstacle. I had to focus on jumping as high as possible, also the important feeling of the legs not just staying in an arc, but kind of pulling the knees to the body right after the jump. That helped me move the center of mass above my hands. And also trying to jump from both feet at the same time, which is not sometimes possible due to the initial position leaning more on one leg, but still the intention must be there.

3:53

I also tried to do it with my legs elevated so that I could safely lean back and get the right feeling. And then just drills, again and again. Also, focused on shifting the weight back from the squatting position and using the momentum to lift my body up a and over the shoulder while leaning back and looking behind me as much as possible. I couldn't combine this before, the momentum and the hip upward motion. Fixed it by practicing without momentum at first and then trying to start with my ground hand lifted up when I felt ready. Also, added power by swinging the free hand back and also twisting the wrist on the ground as much as possible into the expected position. As additional exercises, I trained bridges and related things to help me lean back more. Opening the shoulders as in 4:28 and later exercises helped me a lot to improve my bridge.

When I placed the ground hand too close to me, my body twisted a lot. When it was too far, I couldn't get my body over. The best position for me was to place the hand so that I could lift my hips without having to raise my feet to my toes. Most of the time, I failed because I was too close to my hand. That was also the reason why my backhandspring was crooked. I was trying to touch the ground as soon as possible, which caused me to twist. Important thing in both Macaco and backhandspring is to fly into the move, not to bend into it. Jumping and reaching a bit further. Not aiming to place the hands to the same spot as the feet. It was not the fear of leaning back, but fear of flight :D. Huge thanks to the r/capoeira community that helped me a lot with their advice. Literally, every body is different, so there is no exactly right position. I found out that the best hand position for me was just the one that felt most natural. Not outside, not in the center of the hips, but somewhere behind the shoulder. I felt like reaching with my free hand right behind me. That was not true! Watching myself on the video helped me a lot to see such mistakes. I have achieved the best results when focusing on the free hand to be as straight as possible, reaching back without bending. To make the hand be in line with the body, I focused on touching the side of my head with the elbow. Throwing the hand too outside always led to a twist.

4:55

I added the circular motion of the ground hand to get more into the flow of the movement. It also helped me to place the hand to the final position much easier since the body was already lifting up and the wrist was not in the unnatural position as when the hand was prepared on the ground before the move. Opening of the hips and shoulders is crucial! I always did it like touching the ground, then leaning back, reaching with the free hand, lifting the hips, and jumping. I tried to do it with the intention of lifting the hips up even before the ground hand lands. This was the last piece I needed for a perfect Macaco! When lifting the hips earlier, the initial position of the body helps the movement to be more effortless and natural. I felt like I didn't need as much force as before. So, hips up as soon as possible! Once I made a mistake of having the back hand too straight, which hurt my elbow. It's good to have it naturally bent a bit. Alright, Macaco looks straight enough, let's practice a bit the backwards motion and go back to the jumping part.

5:22

The same two things as with Macaco helped me again. Trying to jump further, not right under my body, with the intention of lifting the hips up before the hands reach back. The hips are the most important thing. They initiate the move and are the key to jumping straight. Raising the hips at the very beginning of the jump makes the move nice and open (feeling like this), leading to a good jump that ends with the fingertips leaving the ground. Focusing on the fingertips leaving the ground together during the jump was the important step that helped me to fix the initial twist of the left leg. However, when I fixed the feet rotation, I was still twisting the hips. It is super important to get used to the move and focus on staying straight until the jump. Usually, I twisted right before the jump. By focusing on keeping the body facing forwards, I kept shortening the gap where the body had time to twist so I was able to keep it until the jump itself. It's good to focus on the jump and then lean back. When I tried to lean back too early it made the body twist a lot. It's also good to visualize the correct position in slow motion before the practice.

I fixed the upper body twist by focusing on the same thing as I did in the beginning of Macaco. The circular move over the head with the ground hand. The left hand always wanted to land on the ground too soon which made me twist. Focusing on wider trajectory helps avoid this. The main thing it does is not just the hand position but, more importantly, the hip and the left side of the back being pushed forward. The feeling was as if bending or stretching the left side of the body more than the right one. One more thing that I had to experiment with was the sitting position at the beginning. It's good to try jumping from various moments of the sitting motion. What worked best for me was trying to push my bottom behind me as much as possible, bending the back a bit rather than pushing the whole back backwards. Excuse me, but the best simile that came on my mind is to be like when constipated and sitting on the toilet trying hard to make a poop :D. Another small thing that helped was drawing lines all around me, marking the jumping spot to help me identify the crookedness and focus more on being straight according to the guidelines. I've heard an advice to watch the hands during the whole move. It didn't work for me because my eyes were looking for the ground too early. What helped me instead was looking up to the sky the moment my feet left the ground. This helped me to stay straight.

To sum it up, there were these most important steps that helped me transition from the crooked to the straight back handspring:

1. Lifting the hips up - most important thing! The hips lead the whole move!
2. Sitting back as much as possible with the bottom pushed as far as possible - as if falling into an armchair after a long day.
3. Jumping with the whole feet, feeling the toes as the last part leaving the ground. Put as much power as possible to a high jump.
4. Focusing on keeping the feet, hips and head straight until the very last moment before the jump. Trying not to look for the ground behind me or to look to the side the moment I jumped.
5. Trying to open the problematic side of the body - pushing the hip and that side of the stomach more forward and doing wider circle with the hand to avoid it reaching for the ground too early right after the jump.
6. Drawing guidelines on the ground

7:17

On the last day documented in the video I was focusing solely on two things. First, to jump as high as possible - this automatically helps to stay straight. And second, right after the jump, to lean back with the hands, followed by the head and chest.

What also helped me was taking a few deep breaths, putting aside all the worries, and just thinking "Now, the whole world is gone! It's just you and the move and you back straight!" Many of the mistakes were related to fear and deliberately focusing on them, gaining more body awareness helped a lot. At first, I felt like the whole move is super fast, but when I got used to it, I felt it more and more like in a slow motion so I could focus on the mistakes. And the most important thing is repetition. Even when I had no idea how to move on, I kept trying. Sometimes it was hard to take a break! My mind wanted to try again, but the body felt the opposite way. It was important to regenerate, and sometimes it helps to just put the problem aside for a few days and then the solution just appears when one gets back. Another thing that I tried a few times was stacking pillows in a pile on my bed and jumping backwards into them to get more comfortable in this motion. Similar thing was leaning back over a gymnastic ball and landing on the hands. One thing that caused me problems was also when I was jumping into the sand, the area where my feet were became a bit dug up, The jump felt much better when the ground was flat and even. I had to flatten it from time to time. To keep the legs together, I've heard an advice of putting something between them and holding it for the whole move. Sheet of paper or a soft ball which is a bit easier to hold. I did that at 6:36 and while I was not able to jump straight with it, it helped be to gain more leg awareness during the jump so it is definitely a good thing to try at the later stages of the training.

And that's it! Now I feel like I can easily improve the movement by further repetition. It is not perfect yet but I feel like the most crucial obstacles are gone! I really do hope that this article will help many people who struggled with the move like me. It was so hard to find good and helpful advice on this so I tried to write here all the main points that helped me most. Good luck!

Keywords: gymnastics,parkour,ninjutsu,martial arts,backhandspring,macaco,tutorial
#tricking #backhandspring #flicflac #macaco #capoeira #parkour #parkourtutorial