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Tip from gymnast Sanjuan Jones on how to do a handstand
By Administrator
 At the age of eight, friends saw Sanjuan Jones jumping and tumbling in the yard and urged his family to place him in gymnastics. Seventeen years later, Jones will be heading to the U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Aug. 7 for a chance at a national championship. On June 30, Jones finished fourth in the all-around competition at the 2002 Men's National Qualifying Competition behind five-time national champion, Blaine Wilson, and 2001 World silver medalists Guard Young and Brett McClure.
How to do a handstand
Tip #1 - Use your entire body
You really have to use every part of your body. You need strong wrist because you're pushing straight up with your arms and shoulders, sucking in your stomach, squeezing your butt, really rolling your butt under it and just everything is extended and pushing straight up with your toes as tight as you can possibly be.
Tip #2 - Be the broomstick
I think about being a board or like a broomstick. It's easy for you to balance a broomstick, something that's tight, rather than something that's loose. I think about being as stiff as possible, push up as straight as I can, keeping everything in one line, being a stick, just tight as possible because if you're slightly off, it's easy to bring it back. And I remember just to keep my toes over my hands.
Tip #3 - The perils of being loose
The tighter you are, the easier it is to maintain your balance. If you're loose, you're bound to take a step, take a walk, or fall out every time. I just try to be stiff as possible. 
Tip #4 - Keep those points
The thing about a handstand, is that it's not a good deduction to take because you're in the still position. When you're in a handstand, you will likely have to hold it, so that's two seconds that a judge is going to be able to look at you and make sure that your legs are or aren't bending. When you're going through different skills and you're moving, it's going to be hard to see. But a handstand, or any hold part, is easy to see a deduction so you need to try to be as tight and stiff as possible, basically try and show it off. It's really to get a deduction so you don't want to give points away.
Tip #5 - Hands and feet
Moving during a handstand is like walking with gymnasts. Our hands become our feet, so you have to think about it in the mechanics of the way you walk on your feet. If you take one step, most likely your weight will be moving with that foot, so you want to keep everything balanced. If you're leaning the wrong or opposite way; for example, if I'm trying to pirouette with my left hand, I want my body to go with it and you want to keep everything on top. Your hands are actually what balances you and keeps everything going. You want to try to keep everything on top of your hands.
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