After completing Level 1, you’ve gained a strong foundation in the art of teaching handstands. You’ve learnt how to assess your clients’ strength and flexibility, how to guide their straight-line handstand, and which exercises support their kick to handstand. You understand safe and effective spotting techniques, and you know how to teach through physical, verbal, and mental guidance.

Level 2 takes your teaching to the next level. In this course, you will learn how to teach jump to tuck, straddle, and pike entries and how to teach the transitions between these shapes.

We will explore questions such as:

• How do the hips shift in relation to the shoulders and feet when moving from tuck to straight?
• Which muscles control the transition from straight to straddle?
• What common errors arise when someone has too much shoulder flexibility?

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to see these patterns in your students and confidently identify what needs to be corrected, verbally, physically, and through targeted exercises.

This training is not about memorising drills. It’s about understanding them: the purpose behind each exercise, how to communicate that purpose, and how to adapt drills to meet your students exactly where they are.

You won’t just learn how to teach someone to jump into tuck. You will develop a comprehensive understanding of tuck, straddle and pike alignment, technique, balance, progressions, and teaching methodology.

You will also learn how to create class plans for varied real-world scenarios—for example:

• A class where most students lack shoulder stability.
• A class full of students with limited shoulder flexibility.
• A mixed-level class with 20 highly flexible students and 2 with tight shoulders.

How do you modify? Do you change the drills, or the intention behind them? How do you recognise what each student needs, and how do you adapt the class so everyone progresses?

Additionally, we will look at handstands in a yoga context, where entries come from many different positions. You’ll learn how these entry points affect technique and how to choose the right exercises whether the entry is from Downward Dog, Prasarita, or any other posture.

Sammy Dinneen

Sammy is one of Mission’s premier handstand teachers, teaching sold-out classes and courses. He is a professional handstand artist, and international circus performer who has helped thousands get comfortable going upside down no matter their age, ability, or background. He has trained circus performers and athletes, but specialises in helping total beginners release the fear of going upside down.