At my last capoeira class, my mestre started showing me about headstands for the first time, my head hurts a lot. It got all bruised feeling from hitting the floor and putting weight on it repeatedly. Is this normal/will this go away with expirience?
Try headstands by themselves first, before throwing yourself head first at the floor. You need to get a feel for them and get your balance Make a triangle with your head and hands and then put yourself off balance but enough to regain it, keep doing this putting yourself more off balance over time and this will develop your balancing skill. Try that, I don't think going straight for the floor is a good idea, if you fail 1 to many times you'll damage your brain and skull.
Try taking more weight onto your arms. To begin with you should kneel down, make a triangle with your hands and head and then straighten your legs out and walk them towards you until your hips are above your head. THen simply try and kick your legs up. It is a lot easier if you have the triangular base and if you take most of the weight on your arms, because if not you can seriously damage your neck. Hope that makes some sense! Boneca