YOUR BALANCE

 by Phillip Starr

In Japanese and Chinese arts and modes of physical conditioning, balance is often stressed at least as much as strength and stamina. I'm not saying that Western activities exclude balance, but you rarely hear a Little League player being lectured on balance in the batter's box. Our football players are encouraged to be faster and stronger; there are plenty of running drills and practice with blocking dummies...but not a lot of conditioning exercises that are intended to develop balance.

For the Japanese, stressing the importance of balance may have its roots in Sumo. In Sumo, you lose if any part of your body other than the soles of your feet touches the ground. So it is a contest of balance as well as strength, speed, and agility. And of course, there's Judo... In China, Mongolian wrestling (from which the ancient art of shuai-jiao is descended) features much the same rules (northern Mongolian wrestling has the same stipulation as Sumo).

Think your balance is just peachy? Okay...try standing on one foot one minute. No problem? Try doing the same with classmates running in circles around you. It's a bit more challenging, huh? Maintaining your balance under relatively serene conditions isn't too difficult but doing it in the midst of chaos is is another thing. And combat isn't serene by a long shot.

Fortunately, there are many exercises in various martial arts that foster the development of balance; from “one-legged Sumo” to practicing kicks in slow motion, the varieties are almost endless. But one of the best exercises is just to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart for 2-3 minutes or more. Let your arms hang naturally. Check your entire body, from the crown to the soles of your feet, for tension of any kind and let it go. Do you have any tension in your ankles or feet?

One of the secrets to maintaining balance is to imagine breathing (inhaling and exhaling) through the acu-point known as “bubbling well” (yangquan), which is found at the base of the ball of the foot. This point is well known to practitioners of the internal martial arts, but it's also known to practitioners of numerous Japanese martial disciplines. Take a few minutes each day to practice this simple, gentle exercise (it works for standing on one leg, too).