Don't forget to breath. Your body will get used to being inverted as you practice more.

Yeah, you really must remember to breathe. 

This "reddening of the head" from not breathing will even revisit you when you move from regular handstands into handstand pushups as you will be exerting a lot of force with blood rushing to your head from a heightened heart rate.

Establishing good breathing techniques is necessary for all new skills -- for some reason, our bodies forget to breathe when we are learning a new form of exertion...i don't know 100% why, but it probably has to do with your cerebral function of focusing on the new movement overriding the involuntary function of the brain stem (breathing functions)

LJ i am really glad that your handstands are coming along and i am really glad that I could help you.  Don't mention the accountability   you're progress as a traceuse is my progress as a teacher, of sorts....so its selfish in the end really

As promised, here are some updated pics.  Looking from where I started, I'd say there's noticable improvement!   

In the issue of full disclosure, there are also some shots of some of my epic fails... 
(Oh, and the knee pads are because I just came inside from rollerblading.)







(I think it's funny that I'm SOOO white, you can barely tell the difference between my stomach in this shot, and the white undershirt in the first shot...)





(Going up? ...or going down?)


(So, all those door frame pull ups come in handy here.  Is this right for the hands?  It sure feels right.  Sooo much more control!)




As always, I'm totally open to continuing critique and suggestions.  I've done my best to implement all y'alls awesome advice so far, and it's definitely working!  I love you guys!  I hope someday to show these off in person!

Hmm, you should be able to open up the hands even more than that. Basically, the 'technique' I use is basically like I'm going to start grabbing something so my whole hand is a dome and then just tighten the whole hand so that when I start pushing with a finger it's my wrist that is going to move hence good balance control. With your fingers up and then down like that (at least the middle and ring), you're losing a bit of distance that could make the handstand easier.

As for looking at hands, keeping them in peripheral vision is ok although not looking at them is fine too. Looking straight at them is poor *UNLESS* you have superior shoulder active flexibility in which you can make yourself straight even though your head is out.

get new parents

Trust me, I tryed but they just came back.

dont forget to pick me up some