The Art of Balance: from Static to Dynamic and Beyond

One of the most striking visual aspects of such sports as acrobatics, rhythmic gymnastics, and contact juggling, is the astonishing degree of balance that performers and competitors display as they appear to glide effortlessly through their routines. And just as with any art, the more effortless it seems to the casual observer, the more work the artist has generally put into it.

All balancing acts can be divided into two types: static balance and dynamic balance.

3. Static Balance

When picking up your ball for the first time, you are already performing the first step in ball contact. By simply holding it in your hand, you are supporting it with at least three points to keep it in a state of balance. This is called static balance, and is the basis for developing stability in all other exercises.

Just like the palm of your hand, your body has many “dents” in which you can learn to support a ball indefinitely. Here are the easiest ones to start with:

• The outstretched fingers of one hand
• The backs of the fingers (often called the “cradle” because of the steady support provided by at least three of the fingers)
• The fingertips, at least three of which are generally needed to keep the ball balanced
• The circle formed by touching your thumb to your forefinger, or “pointer finger”

These are the positions you can always come back to at the end of a roll. After familiarizing yourself with the simplest ones, you may want to try the same in the crease of your elbow, the flat area on the back of your wrist, and the side of your bent elbow between the crease and the tip.

Moving past your arms, you may also want to explore other “valleys” in your body’s surface, such as your temples, your forehead (you might want to stretch your neck and upper back first), the back of your neck (this is easier if your raise your elbows up to make “chicken wings”), your foot, and the top of one knee raised up to waist level. If any of these are more difficult than the others, there’s no need to worry. Everyone’s body is different, and if certain areas are harder for you than they are for others, then you can be sure that some areas that are easier for you are harder for them.

Once you’ve managed to find and hold the ball in a new area, test it out by shifting the ball’s weight around inside it. Once you’ve found the center, the point where the ball is most stable, move the entire area around. Now walk around the room, holding the ball steady as you slowly wave it around in all directions.

When you’re comfortable with your ability to center the ball in a specific area, you may want to practice launching the ball up in the air and catching it again on the same point. Start with small throws, bending your knees when you catch them again. All these practices will quickly pay off by increasing both your confidence and stability with the area in question.

Now is probably a good time to mention that you’ll generally find smaller balls of around 3-4″ (75-100mm), easier to hold in these valleys. Larger balls, for reasons to be explained later, are easier to use when working on the more difficult practice of dynamic balance.

2. Dynamic Balance

Before going on, it may be useful to look at the essential difference between this kind of balance and the last one. Remember, static balance is based on supporting the ball with at least three points. In such a position, the ball simply cannot move unless you move first. To change the balance from static to dynamic, all you have to do is take away one of these points. BOOM! The ball rolls off the other two points and hits the floor. What happened? Simply put, three points are necessary to block the ball on all sides.

To understand the usefulness of the third point, start by asking yourself, “How do you stop a river?” The answer comes easily to mind: “Build a dam.” So what exactly is a dam? Well, basically, a dam is a wall, which when added to the two banks of a river, creates a third surface which stops the water from moving downstream, effectively blocking the river’s flow. And when you take the dam away, when you remove the third surface holding the water still, the river starts to flow again.

Coming back to our discussion, remember that static balance is rather easy to maintain. All you have to do is relax and hold still. Dynamic balance, on the other hand, is more complicated. With only two points supporting the ball, it has to move unless you either move with it or stop it with another point. If you stand perfectly still, the ball will roll on its own, without any effort on your part. The hard part is to get it to roll where you want it to go.

Now you may have seen some artists holding balls on various parts of their bodies, and you may have been mesmerized by the extraordinary degree of balance they displayed. And no, this is not an illusion! It takes a lot of work to master these areas, especially the ones that are small or shallow. However, unless the artist was moving to keep the ball from rolling, he or she was using static balance, not dynamic.

To start developing dynamic balance for yourself, the first and easiest area to work on is the space between your fingers. Simply spread two fingers, place the ball between them, and roll it toward your fingertips. The closer you get to the tips, the closer the ball comes to falling off the edge. As you feel it start to approach this point, pay more and more attention to the feeling of contact between your skin and the ball, as well as the pressure of the ball on your muscles and bones. The more sensitive you are to its movement, the quicker your reactions will be to swoop down and recover the ball when it starts to fall off the edge.

Virtually any point on the body can be used to balance the ball; however, you will probably find that heavier, more compact balls are easier to work with for the simple reason that they sink deeper into your skin and touch more points on your body’s surface. I heavier ball may also help you find new pathways to work on by sensitizing you to the shape and depth of different muscles in your body.

One last interesting fact is that you automatically work on dynamic balance, even if just for a split second, every time you reverse the ball’s direction during a roll. For obvious reasons, these brief “pit stops” can be called reversals. During such a reversal, the ball is not moving on your skin, but has the potential to roll in any direction you give it. All it takes is a simple impulse at exactly the right moment to make it roll in the direction you want it to go. Without such an impulse, it will either roll in the exact opposite direction as the one that brought it to this point, or roll off the side.

1. One-point Balance

“Now wait a minute! Didn’t you say there were only two types of balance? What gives, and what’s up with your weird numbering scheme?”

Alright, alright, so I made a mistake! Are you happy? If it helps ease your mind, I guess I can define one-point balance as a specific kind of dynamic balance. Instead of using two supporting points to restrict the ball’s movement to two directions, you remove one point so the ball can move in any direction. Now, you might be thinking that it’s impossible to balance such an object on just one single point. If not, you probably at least think it’s extremely difficult.

This is partly true. Holding a ball completely still on one single point is practically impossible… unless… Have you ever seen a basketball player spin the ball on one finger? If so, have you ever tried it? This kind of gyroscopic spin acts like a magnet to help center the ball’s weight around the point of contact. The faster the ball spins, the quicker it will find the center of rotation, and the tighter it will stick to it. Professionals often use big, slightly deflated balls in order to bring the center of spin closer to the point of contact.

So that’s the easy kind of one-point balance. You don’t even have to put in the effort to move your finger; you only have to keep it still as the ball turns around it. The hard kind of one-point balance is exactly what it sounds like: balancing a completely motionless ball on a single point. Unfortunately, from a theoretical standpoint, this is impossible. Fortunately, the real world is less perfect than the theory describing it. In this case, no sphere is completely round, and no point can be entirely isolated from its surroundings. This means that all balancing acts, no matter how unsteady they may seem, are really one surface balancing on top of another. Once the weight of the ball is centered inside the surface below, it can be balanced indefinitely. The trick lies in learning to approach and pass over this balancing point.

You can start with a balancing exercise on your inner forearm, anywhere between the wrist and the elbow. Use the biggest ball you can find, preferably at least the size of a basketball. Bigger balls are easier to balance because the center of gravity is higher and you therefore have more space and time to move your body back underneath the center of gravity before the ball falls to the ground. So, with a big ball, the exercise is really very simple. Place or catch the ball on your forearm, and balance it. If it starts to roll to one side, turn to follow its movement. It’s okay if the ball rolls up and down your arm; just don’t let it roll off the side. If, heaven forbid, you lose control and it starts to roll off the side, lower your hand while turning and let it roll down into your hand below.

You may quickly find that in order to keep the ball balanced, when it starts to roll off one side, you tend to overreact so that it rolls back over the center line and starts to roll off the other side. Then, in order to keep it from rolling off the other side, you overreact so that the ball rolls back over the center line and down the first side. This back-and-forth motion sets up a sort of “wave” pattern, which is especially noticeable with smaller balls. This waving motion can go on and on for ages. So, if you’re like many people and forget to breathe when concentrating so tightly on something as abstract as an imaginary line down the center of your arm, you may want to consider taking a break every twenty seconds or so to relax and breathe. Or, you may prefer to pass out. Hey, it’s a free country. You do what you want!

So, now that you’re finished waving at all the walls, pedestrians or trees, try a similar exercise with your elbow. This time, you’ll probably find that it’s best to use a small, heavy ball that really sinks into your skin. So, remember the dent you created by bending your elbow, holding it parallel to the ground, and placing the ball in the hole? No? Well, anyway, it’s never too late to start. If you don’t find the area immediately, try flexing the different muscle groups in your arm. As with most things in life, it’s good to experiment and see what works best for you.

So now that you’re holding the ball in the valley you’ve just created, slowly, ever so slowly, begin to tilt your upper body in the direction of your elbow. Do you notice the shift in the ball’s weight? If so, visualize it as an arrow pointing down into the skin and muscles below. As you tilt the ball further and further toward the tip of your elbow, you may notice the arrow begin to move faster. This is a sign to slow down and give the new position time to “sink in”.

When you feel that the ball is stable in its new position, begin to tilt it even more slowly than when you stopped. Notice when the arrow starts to move again, and take this as a sign to slow down even more. As the ball gets closer and closer to the tip, you may start to notice a strange sensation at the point of contact. Whereas you normally wouldn’t notice it during a normal roll, you will soon find that slowing down is the key to both noticing and strengthening this feeling.

If you continue to tilt your upper body in a gradual, controlled manner, at a certain point you may find that the feeling on the point of contact suddenly expands and overwhelms you as the ball slips over the edge of your elbow and rolls down the other side. Quickly swing your arm around to the side, bending your knees and leaning into the ball so that it rolls down the back of your arm and onto your hand. Alternatively, if you have little experience with arm rolls and the four basic holds mentioned above, you can bend your knees to give you a little extra time to react, and bring your other hand around to catch the ball.

The more you repeat this exercise with any of your body’s “peaks” (including your wrists, fingertips, knees, toes, and the top of your head), the easier it will be to work with the areas, or “slopes”, surrounding them. And the more comfortable you become with these areas, the more you’ll find that you can actually cross over the peaks while maintaining some degree of control.

The day you realize that you can cross over one of these peaks at any speed you choose, is the day you will find that you can stop on it. That is also the day you’ll know that you’ve mastered the three types of balance. Then, if you want, you can finally go out and amaze people with your own balancing skills.

(an excerpt from the “Lightning Contact” book)