Balance is one of the key skills you master as a martial artist. When we discuss / practice balance in class most of the time we tend to think or focus on techniques like kicks or other one-legged stances. This may be because these are the times we challenge our balance the most, so it may be why we think and practice balance more for these techniques. Yet there is much more to balance than not toppling over during kicks or those one-legged stances.
- Being physically balanced consists of many things for martial artists:
- Even / physical equilibrium
· - Equal distribution of weight
· - Symmetry
· - Stability
· - Controlling one’s center of gravity
· - Retaining one’s balance
Some
things to think about when it comes to being physically balanced:
ALIGNMENT:
Alignment
is at the core of being physically aligned.
By being physically aligned it ensure balanced use of muscles versus
skeletal system as well as controlling one’s center of gravity.
STANCES:
In
stances like attack stance and horse stance, you want equal distribution of
weight on between your legs/feet and on top of the equal distribution/ equal
pressure on your feet.
For
the one-legged stance such as when kicking or for cat stance, for the base leg,
you want equal distribution of weight/pressure across the foot and not more
weight or pressure in the inside or outside of the foot or heel versus ball of
the foot.
LEFT VS RIGHT:
We
all tend to favor one side. As a martial
artist we should strive to be equal left versus right sides. This includes physical force – that is throwing
as much force on one side as the other.
We
also tend to be more flexible on one side versus the other. As martial artists we strive to be flexible
equally on both sides which may mean spending more time on one side to balance
ourselves out.
This
also includes movement and ensure we move equally well, transition from stance
to stance in all directions equally well.
USING ENTIRE BODY:
For
me, being physically balanced also means not overusing one part of the body and
using the entire body.
Various ways to improve the different
aspects of your physical balance in your martial arts practice includes:
No reciprocal practice. When we use reciprocals,
we can easily compensate with the stronger side of our body and not being aware
of it. By practicing just one side at a
time we can easily tell if one side needs more work than the other.
Practice all techniques on
both sides.
Some techniques tend to get more practice than others because they are
only performed on one side in a hyung (for example, extended spear hand). As
mentioned in class a few times, this was never meant to indicate that technique
is only good when thrown from one side.
Therefore, besides just practicing both sides, the practice of mirroring
the Hyung is also a great way to practice techniques on both sides but also
help you move equally well in all directions.
Go slow. Going slow will
definitely help your stability and controlling your center of gravity. Going slow can be much more challenging than
going fast and by going slow your balance will improve. For more on this, see my November 2018 blog, Go Slow to Go Fast.
Practice with your eyes closed. We use our eyes to help with our physical
balance, so with eyes closed you must really focus on alignment, use of center of
gravity, using all your muscles, etc. to stay balanced versus your visual
clues.
Focus on feet/stances: As practice, focus on your
feet and your stances practicing that equal distribution of weight and equal
distribution of weight/pressure along the feet.
This also includes using all your feet and leg muscles in your stances
and not just dumping weight onto your joints.
For more information and recommendations on improving your stances, see my
July 2018 blog, Stances Start With The Feet.
Focus on using all the muscles.
This is discussed above, but using all your muscles pertains to the
techniques themselves as well. It means
when you through a punch for example your arms (biceps, triceps, forearms),
shoulders (deltoids), back (trapezius, latissimus dorsi, scapulae, rhomboid),
chest (Pectoralis), and
stomach muscles (abdominal) are all engaged and working together. Practice
focused on each muscles or groups of muscles to ensure they are all engaged. Using the resistance bands are another way to
get feedback or insights if using all your muscles together.
Improve your flexibility.
If one side is less flexible then the other, then focus on improving
that side so even. This may mean more stretching on one side then the other or
taking up practicing something like yoga.
Focus on alignment: While practicing, focus
on alignment (shoulders over hips, knees pointing straight ahead, etc.). You
can find other information on alignment in my January
2017 blog, Alignment:
Critical to Protecting the Muscular Skeletal Body and my January 2018 blog, Key
Alignment & Motion Fundamentals.
There is so much to balance and ways to
improve your physical balance. What
aspect of balance is your most challenging?
What aspect of balance do you find the most enjoyable to practice? I encourage you to look at the various
aspects of physical balance whether it’s challenging or not and practice each
one.
Regards,
Kelly
"Better learn balance.
Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better
pack up go home. Understand?" ~ Mr. Miyagi, fictional Okinawan karate in The Karate Kid saga.
