Achieving Planche Before Handstand

It was interesting to see that some folks achieved planche before achieving handstand, as reported in this Reddit discussion.

I had assumed that handstand needed to be achieved before one could work on planche but this assumption is obviously not true. My takeaway from the discussion is that it doesn't matter which goal one chooses to pursue first. Handstand requires a certain level of strength and poses a greater balance challenge than planche. Planche requires a higher level of strength than handstand and is not as challenging to balance.

One of long-term goals is to achieve not only the planche, but also the planche pushup. This goal was originally inspired by Scott Sonnon, who posted this video to the old Rmax forum. Before I saw this video, I had no idea what a planche pushup was, or that it was even possible for a human to perform one. Of course, not just any human can do it - only those who have trained appropriately for it.

I would like to eventually achieve a handstand, but I've always been more interested in achieving planche pushup first.

I've seen various ideas for achieving a planche pushup. Some are based on bodyweight-only exercises. Others incorporate band-assisted planche pushups. Others incorporate weighted dips or push ups. Yet others incorporate a combination of bodyweight-only training, weighted calisthenics, and band-assisted planche pushups.

My path will not be as direct, due to my current preference for kettlebell training to build strength and muscle and overcoming isometrics for building strength. The double kettlebell clean + press has become my favorite upper-body muscle building exercise over any equivalent calisthenic exercise, because of the lower body power training aspect, and the way it works the core. I will continue practicing the double KB C+P until I've done it with double 32kg KBs. 64kg is close to my full bodyweight. I've found that doing an overcoming isometric training block with the IsoMax, after adding muscle mass, results in strength gains of 20% or even greater.

I do believe training specific to the planche pushup is required to achieve a planche pushup - that is practicing movements specific to the planche pushup. However, based on what others have reported, people who start planche pushup training with a higher strength base will progress through plamche pushup specific training faster than people who start the same traihing with a lower strenght base.