For 2024, we’ve made some big changes to the Handstand Press, and we are excited to finally share the next chapter with you.

Each issue has a main theme that directs the content. Aside from the main feature, we’ll offer a variety of segments, each showcasing special insights and stories relevant to the discipline of handbalancing:

Spotlight – a chapter diving into the world of handbalance as a performing art. In issue 01, this segment will dive into the personal stories about the struggles and opportunities professional handbalance performers have seen during the global pandemic.

Weight Shift – a chapter showcasing handbalancers who transition from amateur to professional, from performer to coach., …

The Wall – this segment goes into depth about different ways of training, practicing, teaching and coaching. Issue 01 will showcase the results of our big survey about different ways of training in the handstand community!

Nerd Corner – a chapter about all things research, including biomechanics, physics, neuroscience and practice based research approaches, all in the context of handbalance.

Musings – a chapter showcasing beautiful visual handstand art in the form of photography, sketches, drawings – and all the other handstand- inspired art out there!

Comic – every issue gets its own dedicated handstand comic strip from the series “Badly Drawn Handstands” by Kirsty Grosart aka Garage Gym Girl.

Quizzes and Games – crossword puzzles, games and personality tests. All about handstands, and just for fun!

Common Ground – Because the list of disciplines that use handstands one way or another is so long, the theme common ground will continue as a subsection in the following issues of the Handstand Press. For the next issues, we already have articles on hand-to-hand handstands, vaulting, contemporary and break dancing, high diving, pole dancing and more!

The final magazine is over 100 pages, enough to be savoured with a good cup of coffee, or to leaf through in between handstand training sets!

From the first ideas for the content to your doorstep, this is how the Handstand Press magazine comes to life:

1. It all starts with you: based on the chosen theme for the issue we collect ideas and material for content that goes well with the main feature. We rely on your submissions in written form, art work and photography. At this stage we’re in full research mode, making interviews, contacting people and appreciating everyone who takes initiative and gets in touch with us with their own ideas – it’s like playing ping pong with the global handstand community and discovering new players and their stories along the way!
2. Then we go through a selection process aimed at curating a cohesive issue that dives deep into aspects of the theme. This is mainly a ping-pong within the editing team, Elise and Sonja, Ireland and Austria.
3. Once we’ve collected and worked out the content together with our collaborators, the ball goes to our copy-editor Jake. He makes sure the content is clear, concise and without errors.
4. Now that we have our content, it travels to Portland, Oregon where our art director Katie puts it into beautiful design. The ping-pong game goes on between USA, Ireland, Austria and Canada (Canada is where Emma, our social media manager lives. She’s been playing the game with us all along).
5. After design is finalised the ping pong ball (or the unborn magazine) goes to Medialis in Berlin, where the Handstand Press is printed on recycled paper using only green energy for the production process and petroleum-free, natural inks. The Handstand Press is born!
6. Now it’s ready to be distributed. Baby Handstand Press is stored in Berlin in OML’s warehouse until it is shipped out to you!
7. It all ends with you: you savor the magazine in between sets and on rest days with a cup of coffee in your hand. This is Handstand Press’ happy place. And who knows, maybe in ten years from now, your kids will pick up teenage Handstand Press and ask you: do you really know how to do a handstand?

When it comes to print magazines, it’s as much about the feel and look of the final product as it is about the content. It’s also about reliably getting the magazine in front of the hungry handbalancers’ eyes. So of course we went on a mission to find the best partner for printing and fulfillment, and we are incredibly happy to be working together with Heftwerk, based out of Berlin, to bring the Handstand Press to life. Heftwerk works with a number of respected indie publications, and we are proud to count ourselves among them.

Offset Printing. If there’s one thing we want to ensure, it is that the quality of the magazine lives up to your expectations. A big part of this is choosing offset printing to produce a mag that you’ll love to see on your coffee table, that is suitable as a thoughtful gift for your handstand friends and that you’ll keep and leaf through again and again.The printing branch of Heftwerk, Medialis, is our trusted partner for printing. They print the Handstand Press magazine on their offset presses and also supply additional print jobs through their digital printing facilities.

Fulfillment. A big part of reliable publishing comes down to making sure the magazine arrives at your doorstep exactly when we told you it would. Heftwerk’s fulfillment side OML will ensure that no handbalancer is without their community mag once they’ve ordered it. They promise a timely fulfillment of all subscriptions.

We are an international team from five different countries, and we met through our mutual passion of handbalancing. Aside from our personal practice, all of us already work in handbalancing on separate projects. We have different backgrounds and talents that complement each other perfectly for the creation of this magazine. Together, we are the ideal team to publish a magazine that aims to be the meeting point of this growing community.

The Handstand Press magazine is published by Motion Impulse.

Director & Editor
Elise Missall

Managing Editor & In-House Writer
Meret Meier

Creative Director
Lily Schlinker

Editorial Adviser & Proofreader
Marie O’Shea

Marketing & Social Media
Lily Schlinker & Meret Meier

Digital & WebDev
Charles St. John