Get Upside Down
Supported Shoulder Stand
Instructions
Supported Shoulder Stand
| Flyer | Base | Spotter |
|---|---|---|
| Start from free bird, reaches for bases ankles | Starting from Free Bird pose, waits untill flyer safely holds your ankles | Stand in a stable goddess stand and spots the flyers hip from the side |
| Whole body is engaged and straight, try to keep shape and not “help” the base by bending forward, slightly round the shoulders | Start bending your knees, keeping feet as horizontal as possible, straighten your arm and reache for flyers shoulders | As flyer moves up from bird to shoulderstand, move around the flyer to spot hips from the back |
| Once base has reached for shoulders and placed hands on your shoulders, engage and straighten arms to get up into supported shoulder stand | Places all fingers on the “back side” of the flyers shoulders, stay close to the neck, thereby stretching the flyers skin for more grip, index fingers pointing towards each other | Be ready to catch the Ffyer around the hips and lift him/her off bases arms if necessary and let the flyer cartwheel out to stand on their feet. |
| Keep arms straight tightly holding onto the bases ankles. Arms are engaged. | The weight of the flyer should be pressing evenly on your knuckles and fingers (instead of having all the weight on the bottom root of the palm with wrists collapsed), fingers are active and wrists as vertical as possible | Follow the movement to guide flyer down |
| Keep hips over shoulders, find a straight line and engage your core. Tuck the tail bone (make lower back long) and pull the belly slightly in. Point the toes, legs are engaged. | Once you have found a good grip, tilt the flyer into a vertical position by straightening the legs | |
| In order to help balance, straddle the legs (move them apart) when in shoulderstand | Keeps legs up and hold the flyer in a 90 degree vertical line, keep your arms straight | |
| To go down, wait for base to touch your hips with the toes or then tilt whole body into the horizontal by pulling the bases feet towards your hips (bend arms) to eventually come back into bird or free bird pose | To go back down, touch the flyers hips with your toes and slowly bends legs, bringing the flyer back to bird or free bird pose |