How to Walk a Balance Beam

Working on balance is a great way to build strength, concentration and focus, especially in children. Building concentration is a skill that a child can use in academics and balance is needed to be able to perform well in many sporting activities. Walking on a balance beam builds these skills and is one of the first things you must learn in gymnastics.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Start off walking on a balance beam that is flat on the floor before attempting to walk on a regular balance beam. Place your hands on your hips; keep your back straight and your head up when doing these exercises.

2. Walk across the beam frontward, pointing your toes as you go.

3. Try walking across the balance beam on your toes only. This is a little more of a balance challenge, and you may have to do it several times to achieve it. Keep your hands on your hips and your body in a straight line as you go.

4. Move across the beam sideways. You may have to look at your feet once in a while until you are comfortable with this, but the goal is to do it while keeping your head up and your eyes straight ahead of you.

5. Turn around and walk on the beam backwards once you are comfortable with the other exercises. Go slowly at first, feeling the toes of each foot touch the beam before placing the entire foot and your whole weight on it.

6. Jump on the beam with both feet then jump off with both feet on either side of the beam as you go across it. You may have to place one foot in front of the other for them to fit on the beam. Jump on and off over and over until you reach the end of the beam.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep practicing these exercises until you can do them with perfect form without looking at your feet before moving on to a higher balance beam.
• Your next step should be performing these exercises on a low beam and then move on to the high beam. For the jumping exercise, you will have to jump across the balance beam without jumping off.

Resources

• Purchase low-beam and regular-height balance beams.

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