Balance

Welcome to my blog for all new readers and welcome back to my regulars.


 In this post I have decided to give you some hints and tips on balance when kicking. I receive lots of emails and mail asking about how to train certain things within health and fitness and martial arts. Balance is something that comes up on a regular basis, so here it is..... 

Loosing your balance when kicking.

If you find yourself loosing your balance when kicking this could be due to a few factors. Everybody’s physical and physiological make up is different so the factors will vary to a certain degree. However; there are fundamentals that you need to be aware of and understand to improve your balance and consequently your kicking ability. 

Firstly there are two types of balance:

Static Balance : stationary with equilibrium – important whilst kicking, blocking or punching on the spot.

 Dynamic Balance:  movement with equilibrium – important when advancing or retreating and simultaneously performing techniques, and imperative for generating power.

 Both types of balance require the maintenance of the centre of gravity.

1) Maintenance of the center of gravity

Balance requires the maintenance of our centre of gravity over the body’s base of support. The centre of gravity is the centre point of a body’s weight. This is the point of even distribution of bodily weight. The base of support is the area around the body’s contact with the ground i.e. foot. When moving into a certain position or holding a certain position, our center of gravity needs to be inside our base of support. If our center of gravity falls outside our base of support we begin to gain momentum and movement so consequently we loose balance and begin to move in a certain direction or fall.  

When doing martial arts and performing martial arts movements our center of gravity is continually moving thus falling outside of our base of support so consequently we begin to gain  momentum. Our body is continually trying to regain our balance through moving our base of support so the centre of gravity can again begin to run through it (dynamic balance).  This process is exactly what happens when we walk, run, advance and kick, shuffle forward pivot etc. 

Balance requires fine muscular and nervous coordination and control which and respond quickly and efficiently to the continual variation in body positions  of martial arts kicking. The nervous and muscular system must exert the correct amount of force at the right time to control the centre of gravity and keep it over the base of support whether it be on one leg or both. The brain must receive a huge amount of information about where the body is in space to achieve this. 

As human beings we draw on several sources, which we depend on. Through the interpretation of this we can determine where our body is in space at any particular time. 

The sources that we draw upon are as follows:

1) Vestibular feedback

The vestibular system consists of tubes of fluid situated in the inner ear area. This system provide us with information about where the head is and motion in relation to gravity.

2) Visual feedback

This provides us with information in terms of our head and body position and motion in relation to our external environment.

3)Somatosensory feedback

These are receptors found throughout the body that provide mechanical  information and feedback i.e receptors in the skin that monitors touch and feel, muscular tension, receptors that monitor a change in muscle length and muscle contraction.

All of this information is essential to maintain good balance. This can be demonstrated by simple activities like getting students to stand on one leg normally. Then get them to perform the same task but with one eye shut and then with both eyes shut, thus reducing visual feedback. Get them to stand on one foot again but this time ask them to tilt their head to one side. This will unsettle vestibular feedback which again will distort vital feedback needed to maintain balance. These simple tasks become far more difficult when a form of feedback information is impaired. 

All of the above feedback collectively is known as our proprioception or inner sense. To be kinesthetically aware means that we are aware of what our body is doing in-terms of movement at any given time. In light of this, our kinesthetic sense is our ability to determine our body’s position in space using our proprioreceptive information.  

The more often we receive this information doing repetitive actions i.e. practicing kicks, punches, Katas, blocks etc the better we become at interpreting proprioreceptive information. This in turn improves our kinesthetic awareness  and collectively improves our ability to control our body.  Body awareness together with specific control over muscle recruitment determine the quality of our balance and technique.