Balance As An Athlete
Balance As An Athlete
Balance is a term we use in Baseball ASAP consistently. It is the one thing that every athlete has to have in order to be successful. If an athlete loses balance they lose control, power, and accuracy. It doesn’t matter what sport you play balance is a very important issue.
So what is balance?
My definition of balance: Having complete control of your body relative to gravity pulling you down.
This means that every sport you play will have different aspects of balance but it all refers to controlling all body parts. In Gymnastics the athlete has to be balanced even when they are completely off the ground. They have to be in control of their body on the way up as well as on the way down in order to land with balance. In sports like football, soccer, basketball, and baseball; we focus on balance while on the ground. Which means balance will start from the ground up. If an athlete looks like they are losing control of their body then a coach should first look at the feet and work their way up to the head. There are a number of things that can cause an athlete to lose balance, and once the balance is lost the athlete usually has to counter their lack of control with improper mechanics. Coach Juan Eichelberger talks about how most of the time bad mechanics in pitching is a symptom not a cause, that lack of balance is usually the cause. Fix the balance and the symptoms are likely to go away.
Now, if you are sitting at home I want you to take your shoes and socks off until you are barefoot.
Look at your foot and ask yourself, why do I have one big toe and four little toes? Is that big toe going to help me with balance?
The big toes play a major role in balance for an athlete. If our body weight shifts off of the big toe and on to our little toes (or the outside part of our foot) then we are going to lose balance and lose control. Most coaches will use the term “balls of your feet”. Well if you are still looking at your feet I want you to notice that what we call the ball of your foot is the knuckle of your big toe. I have come to find that youth athletes understand where their big toes are but most of them don’t understand what the ball of their foot is. It seems to me they are the same thing, just different terminology. So if we can keep the athlete on their big toes (or balls of their feet) then we can help them achieve balance and control no matter what sport they are playing.
We can also look at how movement of the head can throw off our balance. A lot of our balance comes from what our eyes see. Try standing on one leg and wander your eyes, you are likely to either fall off balance or fight to maintain your balance. When our eyes stay in control our balance is easier to maintain. In the sport of diving they focus on whipping the head around and finding the water as the athlete comes out of the tuck before they hit the water. This helps the diver control his body so they hit the water at the perfect angle in order to make the smallest splash possible. If the divers eyes look to the wrong spot at the wrong time they will lose control and produce a larger splash.
There are many things that can happen as an athlete to throw off our balance. I believe most of the time the cause of losing balance will occur in the feet or the head. That doesn’t mean that’s the only body parts that can throw off our balance but it seems to be a common cause. Most of the time if we can fix the athlete’s balance, or control, it makes it much easier to correct the smaller mechanics. If the athlete is not in control of their body then any coach will have a very hard time trying to correct the symptoms of off balance movements.
Check out next Monday’s Blog, I will be talking about balance as a baseball player.
-Caleb Allen
Balance is a term we use in Baseball ASAP consistently. It is the one thing that every athlete has to have in order to be successful. If an athlete loses balance they lose control, power, and accuracy. It doesn’t matter what sport you play balance is a very important issue.
So what is balance?
My definition of balance: Having complete control of your body relative to gravity pulling you down.
This means that every sport you play will have different aspects of balance but it all refers to controlling all body parts. In Gymnastics the athlete has to be balanced even when they are completely off the ground. They have to be in control of their body on the way up as well as on the way down in order to land with balance. In sports like football, soccer, basketball, and baseball; we focus on balance while on the ground. Which means balance will start from the ground up. If an athlete looks like they are losing control of their body then a coach should first look at the feet and work their way up to the head. There are a number of things that can cause an athlete to lose balance, and once the balance is lost the athlete usually has to counter their lack of control with improper mechanics. Coach Juan Eichelberger talks about how most of the time bad mechanics in pitching is a symptom not a cause, that lack of balance is usually the cause. Fix the balance and the symptoms are likely to go away.
Now, if you are sitting at home I want you to take your shoes and socks off until you are barefoot.
Look at your foot and ask yourself, why do I have one big toe and four little toes? Is that big toe going to help me with balance?
The big toes play a major role in balance for an athlete. If our body weight shifts off of the big toe and on to our little toes (or the outside part of our foot) then we are going to lose balance and lose control. Most coaches will use the term “balls of your feet”. Well if you are still looking at your feet I want you to notice that what we call the ball of your foot is the knuckle of your big toe. I have come to find that youth athletes understand where their big toes are but most of them don’t understand what the ball of their foot is. It seems to me they are the same thing, just different terminology. So if we can keep the athlete on their big toes (or balls of their feet) then we can help them achieve balance and control no matter what sport they are playing.
We can also look at how movement of the head can throw off our balance. A lot of our balance comes from what our eyes see. Try standing on one leg and wander your eyes, you are likely to either fall off balance or fight to maintain your balance. When our eyes stay in control our balance is easier to maintain. In the sport of diving they focus on whipping the head around and finding the water as the athlete comes out of the tuck before they hit the water. This helps the diver control his body so they hit the water at the perfect angle in order to make the smallest splash possible. If the divers eyes look to the wrong spot at the wrong time they will lose control and produce a larger splash.
There are many things that can happen as an athlete to throw off our balance. I believe most of the time the cause of losing balance will occur in the feet or the head. That doesn’t mean that’s the only body parts that can throw off our balance but it seems to be a common cause. Most of the time if we can fix the athlete’s balance, or control, it makes it much easier to correct the smaller mechanics. If the athlete is not in control of their body then any coach will have a very hard time trying to correct the symptoms of off balance movements.
Check out next Monday’s Blog, I will be talking about balance as a baseball player.
-Caleb Allen
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