Article on Pistols - Good/Bad/Mixed?

[biasedbulldog]

First, let me say that, no, I don't have Pavel's Naked Warrior and I probably won't get it anytime soon. My address being temporary and the unlikelihood of finding it in a German bookstore rule that out for now.

As I posted elsewhere, I'm forced into BW-only lifting for at least a month, probably longer. So I'm building a SL-like program but without any gym equipment, using this article as a guide but with different organization.

But my real question for this thread is about this other article on pistols. It seems like the best one I've found online, but then what do I know? Answer: not much. The only thing that I'd change is going all the way till hamstring touches calves. Whenever I would do that with normal squatting, I could feel a loss of tension and a slackening of form. Not good. So I'd probably pause with a little space between... good idea? Bad?

Other than that, the article seems to me to be a good guide to starting and perfecting (I hope) pistols. Thoughts? Suggestions?

[holvoetn]

Also on dragondoor, there is an article teaching you to do pistols from the ground up.
You might want to check it out

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/532/

[ricepower]

Smitty from diesel crew says they are bad.

I personally have tried them many times over the past few months but I can never do them. They seem to place way to much stress on my knee, it just doesnt work for me.

[JasonLB]

I've been doing them quite a bit recently. They aren't too hard to learn -- it just takes some time getting the balance down -- but I still fall backwards in the bottom position from time to time. It helped when I first starting out to do them on something elevated, even something as low as a curb. Doing so makes it easier to keep the front leg off the ground and learning how to sit down on one leg while maintaining balance is a bit easier. As far as stopping with a little space between your hams and calves, it certainly makes things a bit easier in terms of strength, but I find it harder to balance, and I don't notice any difference in terms of losing tension. I would go all the way down if I were you, but I doubt it matters much either way. My only other piece of advice is to practice often. It's as much a matter of skill as it is a matter of strength and flexibility. I do them throughout the day, at work, while watching tv -- pretty much whenever I get a chance I'll knock out a couple. Good luck!

[biasedbulldog]

Thanks all. One question: is it a bad idea to do pistols in Chuck Taylor's rather the barefoot? The reason is my carpet here is like sandpaper. It doesn't hurt for pistols, particularly, but for dynamic stretching, push-ups, prone bridges, anything where there's any friction...

[holvoetn]

No, no problem. Not more then squatting with them (which is not a problem at all either )

[biasedbulldog]

So basically I have no balance or stability. I messed up my ankles pretty regularly in high school basketball. I worked on strengthening them my last rugby season with decent results, and they've also gotten better since I've been doing dynamic stretching with SL. But they are still awful. When I stand on one foot, it's like a see-saw. Weight in/out/in/out/in/out with my ankle refusing to stay steady. So trying to learn the pistol feels pretty much impossible. Also, I have terrible flexibility, even though that also has gotten at least three million times better on SL with dynamics. Ugh.

So the question is (no really), for those of you who can do pistols, how long did it take you. I'm having trouble staying in the bottom position on both feet with a counterweight for more than five seconds.

[JasonLB]

If you count the time between the first time I ever tried and the first time I actually completed one, it took me about three years to learn

But when I actually decided to set a goal and learn them for real, it only took a couple weeks. I actually have very poor ankle mobility, especially in the right ankle (childhood injury), so that was an issue for me too. Working on increasing mobility definitely helped. Did you try doing pistols on something elevated? (the first time I ever did one was on a big rock up in the mountains) Or, failing that, try doing them in shoes with a heel (I find dress shoes work fine if you don't have o-lifting shoes). Part of the battle is just getting used to the feel of dropping into the hole on one leg... once you get used to that, even if it's off something elevated or in a heeled shoe, it becomes much easier to do them flatfooted on the ground.

[wapoti]

I actually found this to be a pretty helpful article for getting to a full-pistol. The top of page two shows an "easier" version that helped me build up the strength/balance to work my way up to a full-pistol.
http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/a_better_body_without_weights