By Robert L. Jones
YOU will notice that the illustrations are numbered in this chapter, beginning with number twelve. In the last chapter, they were numbered from one to eleven, inclusive. We shall refer to illustrations by number, beginning with the last chapter, so as to make it easier to refer back to those positions.
Suppose we "loosen up" by doing an ordinary hand balance, as in Figure 4 (last chapter, remember!) Now, while remaining balanced, allow the feet to shift ahead, and the shoulders back, until you are in the half-moon position, Figure 9. Remain balanced, press the fingers a little harder and start your feet coming back toward Figure 4; as they come back reach forward with the shoulders and return to original position, 4. Do not stop here, but ease the feet farther back, and the shoulders farther forward, until you get to a position--still balanced--as far backward as in 3-wrong as you have the strength to hold your weight. Keep the arms straight. Then pause a moment, ease up the fingers, reach farther out with the shoulders and start yourself forward again; let the feet over, and pull the shoulders back, until you reach center, Figure 4, once more. Practice this frequently for control and development of strength as well; also make certain that you can tell when in correct position, 4, by the "feel" of the balance. When you get this far, you are ready to go to town.
Our first new trick this time is the simple planche on two elbows. It is easiest when done on a fairly thick bar, such as one bar of a pair of parallel bars. Or the edge of a table (a solid, heavy one) will do, or the foot of a bed. It is easier on such an object for two reasons--you have something to grip to aid in balancing, and by gripping the support with the palms forward you get the best leverage and position of the arms. On the floor, as illustrated in Figure 12, you can point the fingers well to the rear, but it is better to point them out at the sides, so that the arms are in the same position as if you were working on two parallel bars. It takes a very flexible wrist to permit one to do this balance on the floor with fingers dead ahead, as in a regular balance, as a glance at the photo will demonstrate--the wrist would be bent back upon itself well over a right angle, almost 60 degrees, or so. If our fingers are tough, you can do the planche with fingers pointed forward, by getting up on the tips of thumbs and fingers. The secret of the trick is to get the elbows as low down the body, toward the hips, as you can-shoulders pulled far down,
as if you were dead lifting a very heavy weight. The head is thrust far forward. And get the elbows well under the body, so that the support is directly upon them and not merely a matter of friction between arms and sides of body, which is pretty much what Figure 12 portrays. (The more backward the fingers are turned, the farther under the body the elbows can be brought.) Keep the back arched, heels and back of head about level (my feet are a little too high in the illustration).
The easiest way, perhaps, to try the trick is to stand before a bar or table about three feet high, or less. Place the hands firmly gripping the edge, twist the elbows well under the body, stretch up with the head and down with the elbows, then tip forward into position. If you get stuck and can't get your feet up, reach farther out with the head by STRAIGHTENING the elbows slightly, to a position pretty much as shown. But if your head bobs down too much, bend the elbows a little more. It makes no difference whether the elbows are over the wrists--you can stay balanced as long, and only as long, as the center of your weight is over the wrists or palms of the hands.
You can do a very nice trick by doing a balance, 4; keeping arched and reaching far out as in 6 (only keep arms straight as long as you can) then finally bend the elbows a little and bring the hips against them, at about the position shown
in 11; check your position, then lower the feet until correct--a little lower than in 12. Turn the hands out as in 12, rather than straight ahead as in 11. Hold the position a moment, muster your pep, stretch out with the head (bend the knees and spread them, pretty much as in Fig. 3, only with hips NOT flexed forward, to shorten the leverage, if you have to) and press back to Fig. 4. Or you can, later on after learning the other wrinkles, rotate to one side to either Fig. 13 or Fig. 14, then press back up. But getting up from 14 to 4 is a good bit tougher than from 12 to 4. From 13 to 4 is easiest of the three, while a still easier way is to shift your body forward and to the left from 13 enough to let you place the right (bottom) knee on the right elbow, exactly as Fig. 1; then pressing up is easy enough to be a pleasure.
Suppose now we tackle the lying-down hand balance, Figure 13. It is one Prof. Paulinetti taught me several years ago, to use in my act as a resting trick between a couple of tough numbers.
Not much explanation is necessary; just look at the picture. Try it
difficult. The weight of the body is supported on the right elbow, well low toward the hip, and under the side rather than the stomach. The left knee rests on the left elbow; the right one is held snugly against it. The balance is easy, because you are compact and close to the floor, and no strength is required to maintain the position, since the bodyweight is carried on the two vertical forearms. The one "kink" is that mentioned about the two elbows planche, Fig. 12--if your head goes down, bend the elbows (especially right one) more.
To get into this position you drop down from the balance, 4, to about a position as in 3; then pull the knees down as in 2, at the same time twisting slightly to one side (the left, if you are going to do the balance on the right elbow, as in the pose, Fig. 13) and bend the elbows, not quite so much as 2-Wrong; let the side come to rest on the right elbow, and the left knee on the left elbow. Keep the hips low so that the top side (left, in the photo) is about horizontal.
You can also make a nice combination by rolling into this pose from the half-arm planche, Fig. 14. Simply return the left hand to the original position on the floor, twist the body a bit more to the right and bend the knees forward toward the chest, bringing them around to position at the left elbow, as in Fig. 13. To get back up to the hand balance, try first by the method already mentioned of rising enough to get the right elbow on the right knee, then pressing up. Later you can go through the same press-up, without having to
"catch your breath" by putting right knee to right elbow. It is not very difficult.
Now for a fairly tough one--the half-arm, or one elbow, planche, Figure 14. It is easiest when done on a horizontal bar, or the edge of a table, with the elbow in the middle of the stomach, fingers pointed straight back, and body bent double like wet dishrag on a clothesline. But that is far and wide from being a decent planche, so suppose we forget all the foolishness and go right after THE half-arm planche from scratch, in the right direction.
Practice both the two elbows planche and the lying down hand balance awhile, especially the latter, for in it most of the weight is handled by the right arm, and you will get accustomed to the sensation. Now, to try the new position itself, take a position on the floor about right for the two elbows planche. Turn the right hand well out to the side;
shrug the right shoulder as far toward the hip as you can, to bring the elbow down as close as possible to the center of gravity of the body. This will require less straightening of the elbow (and less physical exertion) than if the elbow be held higher toward the shoulder. Now, notice where that elbow is parked--NOT in the middle of the stomach, but
well around to the side, right next door to the hip bone itself. Note that the body is arched backward, as in Fig. 12, and that in addition it is arched toward the right, making the curve not straight back, but back and to the right. You see, we have to do enough bending to get the end-to-end center of weight over the hand, and ALSO the side-to-side center of weight over it.
So here we go; get your side against your elbow, the left hand on the floor or perhaps holding a solid object or heavy weight for support and aid in balancing. Stretch out with the head, and if the feet don't come up, STRAIGHTEN the elbow a little. If they fly up too fast, bend it a little. Use the left hand only as a little helper; try to do all the balancing with the right alone, and you will soon get the trick in good style.
It can be done from a hand balance, following the motion from Fig. 4 to 6, bend the elbows only as much as absolutely necessary, rotate the body slightly to the right about this point and also carry the feet well to the right, and stretch far, far our with the head. Bring the side to rest on the right elbow, get your balance, and take up the left hand.
You can aid in balancing by reaching this way and that with the left hand, but soon you will be able to balance independently of it, and place it at the hip or across the back, which makes a far prettier pose than with the hand stuck out trying to hypnotize gravity into letting you balance. To get back up to the balanced position, the easiest way is to shift to Figure 13, then Fig. 1, then up. But you can also press up exactly the opposite of the way you came down--body straight and arched--which is a very pretty performance (and for a chap with a stiff upper back, fairly difficult number as well).
Figure 15 "brings on more talk." It is Prof. Paulinetti's jack-knife balance, and consists of pressing up from the straight-arm-straight-leg position, Fig. 7, to the point shown and holding it, or in flexing the hips from Fig. 4, the hand balance, and lowering that much. In the latter case you reach forward with the head and shoulders as you lower the feet, exactly as in Fig. 8, the only difference being that in Fig. 15 the two legs are together, not separated as in 8.
The planche on two hands is the acme of two hands balancing. I have known of but one man to do it with the body absolutely straight and horizontal, and but few have done it in any style, even with much arch. In Figure 16 we have Prof. Paulinetti at about 63 years of age doing the correct form, excepting only that his feet are perhaps four to six inches too high. Now within a few days of 73, he discontinued practicing-and doing-this
planche only about three years ago. He would drop into it from a hand balance, then lever back to position without flexing anything but the shoulders.
Figure 16-Wrong shows the usual attempt--back arched, and upper arms locked against the sides. This is not too difficult for a fellow with a very limber back, big triceps and latissimus muscles--and a little resin in the right places to aid in locking the arms against the sides. Such a balance is little if any more difficult than that shown in Fig. 12-- a very flexible upper back makes all the difference in the world.
The straight hand balance, or straight stand, shown in Figure 17, is as hard as it looks--maybe more so. The troubles are two: with the head dropped to a truly upside-down position, the balancing organs in the ears go on a turn-around strike, and it becomes absolutely necessary to balance according to sense of touch in the hands. Again it is difficult to get the hips right--from Fig. 1 the tendency is to leave the back arched and to bring the legs forward by flexing the hips, as in dropping from 4 to 15 or 7, making a jack-knife effect, and throwing the buttocks into prominence and making a question mark of the body. Nix--in Fig. 4 the hips are fully straight, and the back is arched. All right, LEAVE them that way, and just take the kink out of the small of the back, and there you are. Figure 17 is in very good form, yet I am a little afraid (note the curve in the white line on the side of my trunks) that I was broken forward ever so slightly in the hips in the picture. Also, while the entire body is quite straight, I let myself lean just slightly forward instead of keeping a perfectly perpendicular attitude.