# Help with improving my balance!



## KempoGuy06 (Aug 15, 2006)

Im am a new yellow belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate. I am still having trouble with balancing issues. I am left handed so if i get up in a crane stance on my left foot I can hold my balance well, it is not perfect and I know it will improve with time but it is far better than my right side. I know that everything will get smother with time but I was wondering if anyone can help me with this so i can improve faster. Thanks in advance

B


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## SFC JeffJ (Aug 15, 2006)

Try just standing on one foot a bunch.  Then when that gets easy, go back to the crane stance.  Also, focus on one point when up on one foot, and don't take your eyes off of it.

Jeff


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## Swordlady (Aug 15, 2006)

This is what I did while training in TKD years ago, and it may help you too.  Sink your weight into your back leg, and bend your knees a little.  Slowly lift your front leg a few inches.  If you're able to lift your leg without wobbling, your balance is good.  Lift your front leg higher, and for longer periods of time.  Try kicking with your front foot while it is off the ground.  Another fun exercise is moving across the floor rapidly with your front leg off the ground - and kicking with the front leg.

I hope this helps.


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## charyuop (Aug 15, 2006)

Try to go this site: www.gilmanstudio.com
It is a site where they give free Tai Chi lessons. In the first lessons they give you a couple of easy stances which are going to help with balance. I hope it'll help you.


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## lll000000lll (Aug 15, 2006)

just try balancing on one foot thru out the day when you find yourself standing. 

also try distributing your weight evenly on both feet. then work on maintaining balance on each foot one at a time. 

first start with your left foot see how long it takes you to develop balance then try throwing some strikes with your hand while you balance on the left foot.

then do the same with both feet down.make sure you distribute your weight evenly on both of your feet.

 then do it again , only use your right foot.

repeat the process again and instead of hand strike try some kicks or knees.

in time you will be fine.


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## Xue Sheng (Aug 15, 2006)

Pick a stance any stance and stand in it for a while, first 1 to 3 minutes and then build from there. Do both sides left and right stances. 

Also stand on one leg for a while too


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## Touch Of Death (Aug 15, 2006)

Practicly balance is a timming issue and having it during activity is what its all about. Start with posture.
Sean


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## pstarr (Aug 15, 2006)

Imagine that you're inhaling and exhaling through the soles of your feet as you practice reverse breathing.


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## Cirdan (Aug 16, 2006)

Always tie your shoelaces while standing on one foot.


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## KenpoSterre (Aug 18, 2006)

if you join a dance class your balance will improve greatly. It can be expensive but if its a problem it would be worth it. Rent a book or video on how to do ballter (floorwork only. Bar work won't work as well). also practice makes perfect so just balancing over and over again. In a shopping line? stand on one foot. Fixing your hair/shaving? stand on one foot. FIlling up your cup at the fridge or making sandwiches? stand on one foot. I think you might see the pattern(well I hope if you see the pattern. if not its stand on one foot).


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## ArmorOfGod (Aug 18, 2006)

Cover the floor with upturned thumbtacks, leaving a small strip to walk on.....

Just kidding  ;-)

Seriously, go buy a 6 foot or longer 4x4 at the lumber store.  Nail 2 small 2 foot boards on each end, so it is shaped like the letter "I."  That is a cheap way to make a balance beam.  You could even cover it with pieces of carpet remnants if you want it smooth for bare feet.  Work on your kicking routines up and down the length of the beam.  Work on punching while advancing on the beam.  Needless to say, you will only be able to work on linear footwork motions, but it should help your balance.

AoG


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## mantis (Aug 19, 2006)

write down a list of stances you have and start transitioning from one to the other VERY SLOWLY. go over your list many times then start mixing.  for stances that rely on one leg try doing hand motion (try your techniques) when you are doing that.  over time you will know exactly how your weight should be distributed and you will gain better balance


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## thescottishdude (Aug 21, 2006)

may be obvious but bending the standing leg will help you get much better balance.


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## IWishToLearn (Aug 21, 2006)

Another point I almost never see covered is when you lift your leg to the crane position, make sure you use the UPPER part of the quadricep to do the lifting motion, it will relax your back muscles and allow you to keep the knee relaxed. You'll be using one muscle part to do the work, remaining relaxed and stable. If you use the lower part of the quad like most people do, you'll take a lot longer time to gain your balance in a crane because you're using five or six major muscles to do the same job - which is harder to co-ordinate, one, or six? Thanks Dr. Chapel for that one btw.


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## charyuop (Aug 21, 2006)

I don't know how true it is or not...or if it is stupid. I have a friend black belt in karate and once I saw him doing a high kick keeping a good balance. I tried jokingly to copy him and my balance sucked. So I asked him how he can do that. I don't know if he was joking or not, but he told me I cannot stay balanced on one leg if first I don't learn to stay balanced on two.

He told me that he practiced alot on a short board of wood under which he had put a little stick (he suggested me to start with a small stick coz easier). Placing each foot at each end of the board he learnt to keep in balance on the stick.

As I said I don't know if it is true or not. Personally I learnt doing and repeating many times 1 leg stances and keeping a still position.


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## mantis (Aug 21, 2006)

thescottishdude said:
			
		

> may be obvious but bending the standing leg will help you get much better balance.


that's actually a g o o d way of doing it.


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## still learning (Aug 23, 2006)

Hello, Everyone give great points....just want to add one more thing...besides practice, practice stand on one leg...is learn to do this on the BALL of the foot. 

Balance is the key to movement and power striking...ball of the foot gives you more mobliablity and movement.....Aloha


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## kingkong89 (Nov 8, 2006)

the easiest way o improve balance is find a sturdy object such as a coffee can, pracice your stance on that everyday for about 5 minutes. this should help you improve


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## thewhitemikevick (Nov 20, 2006)

To improve with your balance, my suggestion may seem a bit unorthodox, but it has worked quite well for me. Ballet has worked really well for me in improving my balance. Since taking ballet classes, combined with tae kwon do classes, my balance has really escalated to an entierly new level. A technique that I have drawn from ballet can possibly be integrated into your training methods. The ballet position is called Arabesque. To start, move over so that you are close to a wall, and so that you are facing it, and within reaching distance of it. Now press your hand gently up against the wall and shift all of your weight onto the foot in which you are having trouble balancing on, or whichever side in which you want to work on your balance for this particular occasion. Lift your other leg up into the air, and point your back foot directly behind you. Slowly, begin to unfurl your backlack, pointing it directly behind you like an arrow. Once it's all the way behind you, start increasing it's level of elevation. Move it up higher and higher with gentle care. Sooner or later you will feel that higher up in the leg, the muscles will begin to feel very tight at the point where your flexibility ceases to be. Before you get to a level of elevation in which you feel as though your muscles are going to tear apart wildly, stop and let your leg rest in the air in that position. Now, while doing this, raise your chest up and out of your hips, and keep your chest up so that you aren't slouching with your leg pointed back. If you're extremely flexible, your body positiong will look similar to a "V" shape. It would look something like this of course it all depends on how stretched out you are and how comfortable you are in that position. To switch the exercise up, move your head down towards the floor and while staying in this position try to touch your nose to the ground.

Another fairly simple way to improve your balance, is by improving your abdominal strength. Strong abdominal muscles allow the body to lift up out of the hip sockets and provide good support for the rest of the body's frame, which provides good balance. So anything that works the abs can be helpful.

Of course there are yet simpler exercises to improve balance, such as jump-roping, playing simple games like hop-skotch (primitive, but if employed enough and tweaked a little it can actually help you), and partaking in footwork drills. If you have a good jump front snap kick, you can practice doing one with one leg, and then landing with that leg down and the other up, and then doing it with the leg up, just switching from right snap kick to left to right in quick succession. 

Well I'm done ranting and raving. Sorry about the excessive text I get carried away  lol. But I hope you can find something that I said at least a little bit helpful.


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## exile (Nov 20, 2006)

thewhitemikevick said:


> Sorry about the excessive text I get carried away  lol. But I hope you can find something that I said at least a little bit helpful.



Hey Mike, no, that was very informative! Some of what you suggest is similar to Loren Christensen's recommendations for balance improvement in his book _Solo Training_. What I would suggest adding to any balance training is to do whatever it is you're doing _eyes closed_. It's terrifically hard, but once you can do those things with your eyes closed, anything you do eyes open is going to be way easier. It just takes a while to get there....

One other thing---increasing strength will often translate into improved balance. If you have trouble standing on one leg with the other raised, the problem may well be in the raised leg, not the balancing leg---you have to do weird things with your upper body, quite possibly, to keep that leg up there, because you don't have enough muscle strength to do it with the leg flexors alone. Build up strength in the raised leg and your overall balance will very likely increase markedly.


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## thewhitemikevick (Nov 21, 2006)

Ahh that's a good suggestion about doing it with your eyes closed...actually I never really thought on that idea too much lol. Thanks I think I'll actually try using that some lol you're absolutely right...anything that you can do with your eyes closed is going to be much easier than with your eyes open. Also, very right about the fact that it may not be the actual leg that you are standing on that is giving you the majority of your balance problems. If you lack the physical strength in that grouping of muscles, than the posture won't be able to be supported by those muscles, and will therefore make the frame that the body is creating with that posture weak, and imbalanced. I know in Ballet we spent months just working on core abdominal and leg strength just so that we were physically strong enough to hold the difficult postures with enough balance. I remember one day i was up on the balls of my feet on releve' in a very akward ballet position, with my arms above my head in unmoving balance and she came over to me and said "See, you're getting stronger." So you see, it's not always that balance is this mystical attribute of the body that we cannot see or relate, there are important physical aspects that are thrown into the equation, such as your leg strength, abdominal strength, and the strength of the posture itself (for it is possible to physically be strong enough to hold the posture, yet still hold the posture incorrectly if improper form or technique is used)


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## exile (Nov 21, 2006)

thewhitemikevick said:


> it's not always that balance is this mystical attribute of the body that we cannot see or relate, there are important physical aspects that are thrown into the equation, such as your leg strength, abdominal strength, and the strength of the posture itself (for it is possible to physically be strong enough to hold the posture, yet still hold the posture incorrectly if improper form or technique is used)



Yup, exactly. Working on balance directly is important, but all of the ballet dancers I've ever seen look incredibly strong and muscular, and I've always suspected that that's a big part of how they get that terrific quiet equilibrium even holding extreme positions.


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## thewhitemikevick (Nov 21, 2006)

Yep it's the truth...we didn't even start dancing until almost tthe end of the 1st quarter of the year lol...takes a lot of preperation, work, and deciation.

Amazingly enough, it sounds eerily similar to martial arts  lol


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