THE WHAT:
A fundamental drill for developing handstand balance experience in a back-to-wall context. Be mindful – as B2W contexts & "splitting" the legs are prone to elicit undesirable extension (i.e. leading to the ribs "flaring" up and arching in the lower-back), an even stronger effort to keep the "ribs down!" must be maintained throughout. Further, although the legs are moving, we still want to feel them balancing ATOP and intrinsically CONNECTED to the upper-body, so that any corrective force generated from the hands or shoulders can transmit as "purely" as possible. Essentially, this means that, although the legs are moving, do not forget to keep your abdominals TIGHT!

You should experiment with the distance of your hands from the wall, both in order to find the optimal position for both your structure & preferences, but also as a matter of developing more lateral experience within the context (i.e. closer to the wall = finer balance correction with LESS movement from the legs, and further = more gross balance correction with MORE movement of the legs). Keep in mind that, if too close, there is not enough space to perform the "scissors". Too far, and you will be "overstretched" and unable to bring the leg/s away from the wall without falling back toward it.

Whilst fundamentally a supported-balance development context, with added movement of the legs it also develops proprioception of where they are in space relative to your body. This is particularly valuable during this stage of practice in which the practitioner is likely calibrating their handstand kick-up and working with free-balance contexts, both of which will benefit from experience developed in the sagittal 'split' position.

GENERAL PRESCRIPTION:
This drill should feature in your 'main body' of handstand practice and pairs well will mobility-development drills focusing on front-splits, which can be performed during rest periods. Working in the same session with a wall-FACING supported-balance drill is also valuable so that there is equal attention to developing experience in both contexts.

In the early stages of practice, 'supported-balance drills' will be more fatiguing for the hands, wrists, and forearms than more static 'supported-alignment' drills, and as over-fatigue is entirely detrimental to balance-development it may be wise to drop sets of work down to 20" to keep them optimally productive. From here, build capacity toward 30" of work with NO loss in quality, and if you want to increase volume go with 2x 20" of work with a short break between (simply recover) and then building toward 2x 30" holds per set. If performing single 'reps' per set (e.g. 1x 30"), go with 4-8 sets in a session with 1 or 2 other supported-balance contexts. If performing 2x 'reps', go for 3-4 sets per drill.

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