Improvements in balance & coordination

[Nightrage]

The other day I was listening to an audio book called " 10 days to a better memory" & a intresting peice of info stuck out to me.
While the book was playing they were talking about foods that improve memory,but one of the foods that was tested to improve memory, also was proven to improve balance & coordination,It was blue berrys.
I figured it would be useful to any martial artist trying to improve in those area's.
Also if anybody has made improvements in those area's please share your thought & methods.

[Frank White]

I was told blueberries also increase your life, so now I mix them with my blood-of-virgin smoothie.

As for balance, sometimes train wearing a blindfold, and remember, keep your head over your ass.

[Nightrage]

Whats up switchblade? thanks for those words of wisdom "keep your head over your ass"
As for wearing a blindfold,most of my training is with the heavy bag,speed bag or sparring.
I think it would be a bit painful to try any of those with a blindfold.So I must assume your referring to kata or shadowboxing.
Im not a big fan of kata,but Ill try it the next time i get in a little shadowboxing.

[OZZ]

Honestly, I think that kata did a lot for my balance and co ordination over the years.
Kata may have its critics, but it does help with some areas and I believe those to be two of them.

[A.D.D]

Blueberries, like all thin skinned fruit, are very high in antioxidants. Plus other goodies.

[Kempo Chris]

Dingleberries helps my balance

[Nightrage]

That was brilliant Chris,did you use all five of your brain cells to come up with that, while drooling on your keyboard? That must make you the resident oil checker.
All bow to the mighty dingleberry master.....

[A.D.D]

All bow to the mighty dingleberry master.....

Actually I will. I appreciate it when someone can work the word dingleberry into a conversation.

[ironlurker]

Ross Enamit has some good stuff on balance in his books.
He makes an interesting point that many athletes don't train balance/proprioception/kinesthesia enough and it may be the cause of many injuries. I think it's in his Underground book where he says fighters can underestimate its importance- he gives the example of recovering quickly from a missed hook. He claims fighters should spend 10 minutes a day on it.

There's both stable/static and active balance which overlap and help each other but should both be trained. A balance progression in an exercise generally goes by the reduction of the contact surface area- for standing balance this goes from flat foot to ball of the foot but also depends on placement of the hands/arms and as the other posters mentioned eyes open/closed.

The standing stork is one common static balance test/exercise. You start hands on hips and raise yourself up on the ball of one foot and raise the other knee up (like a karate chamber for a kick) and hold the position. To make it more difficult, you put your hands behind your head. Harder still is to put your palms together arms outstretched vertically above your head.

The yoga tree pose is good as well- you do it flat footed, palms together arms outstreched over your head with the sole of your other foot as high up the inside of your standing leg thigh as you can. Once it gets too easy, close your eyes.

With a swiss/stability ball, you can simply sit on it with your legs off the ground- too easy, close your eyes and swing your arms. You can also kneel on it (with hands on it then off), and add in the same things, kneel with one knee on it, or do planks from it working a progression of hips on ball, hands on ground to shins on the ball to feet on the ball to toes on the ball.

For active stuff, enamit suggests standing on one foot (ball of the foot if you have t3h ninja skills) and turning the head back and forth with eyes closed, as well as raising and lowering the non-standing knee (not touching the ground at the bottom), swinging the non-standing leg side to side and forward and back.

Pushups on a stability ball (with the progression hips-knees/shins-feet-toes or hands on the ball and the leg progression on the floor) also help. Hops (hopping on your hands forward through the progression of legs on the ball above) are good too as are one leg squats (with either leg behind on the ball or lateral to the side on the ball). If you can do a one-leg pistol that's obviously great as well. You can also do Supermans, Superman/Bird Dog pointers, and leg raises or hip flexion/extension on the ball as well.

Bridges, handstands, and headstands (elbows/forearms on the ground making a triangle with your head) are good for body balance as well. Wall pushups (getting more vertical on the wall) and handstand pushups (if you're l33t) are active forms.

Rolls (or plain somersaults if you don't know rolls) with your eyes closed are great for proprioception. Enamit has some cool exercises that are like burpees/American football drills. Basically you do a burpee type movement with your eyes closed but add in a lateral roll (or two) at the bottom. You can also practice standing up quickly (match appropriate fashion) from prone or supine position with eyes closed.

For open-chain proprioception (moving part not fixed, ie., pushups are closed chain, bench press is open chain) you can get one of those small medicine balls (the squishy ones) and try balancing it on your feet/knees/arms/hands/head with your eyes closed, then moving the balancing part when it gets easy.

If you can't get/afford a wobble board or bosu, discount stores sell an inflatable balance disk for about 10-12$ that ups the difficulty of all the standing exercises.

Footwork and quickness and agility drills as well as cardio-paced solo or partner medicine ball workouts help with coordination as well. Getting one of those weird little agility balls with the knobs on them and chasing it around or catching it off of a hard throw against a wall and/or after a bounce is cool too- there's also partner drills for them. Obviously, core strengthening helps with balance (and many balance exercises will work the core, at least isometrically) but calf strengthening will too. The Tibialis Anterior (muscle that works when you bring your toes/foot towards the shin, as opposed to a calf raise) seems to do a hell of a lot of the work with balancing. Standing balance exercises will strengthen it, and you can do self-resistance (force it up against your hand) or isometrics (squeeze your foot under something heavy/unyielding and press up against it) to strengthen it too.

Heres some links and pdf's
stability ball
balance science and exercises
medicine ball
core stability
core and balance
balance board (you can do it with a ball or disc as well)
gait training and balance

In no time at all, you'll be ready for the Plum Flower poles :happy2:

[Fitz]

My favorite balance trainer

http://www.indoboard.com/