Tai Chi Balance on One Leg

During my various forms practice I’ve been focusing on keeping my balance while standing on one leg.

As I raise one leg I imagine a line shooting through my supporting leg and foot deep into the ground. This visualisation helps anchor my leg thereby maintaining my balance.

Here’s an exercise that can help your balance when standing on one leg:

• Stand with with your feet apart, knees slightly bent
• Transfer your weight to say, your right leg
• Lift your left leg up until your left thigh is parallel to the ground
• As you do this imagine a line shooting through your right supporting leg and foot deep into the ground
• Now slowly move your left leg forwards, backwards, and in a circle
• At all times maintain your focus deep into the ground where the line is
• Lower your left leg to the ground back to the starting position
• Now try the other side

You can test the effectiveness of this training method by not imagining the line going through your supporting leg and focus only on raising your leg. Most likely your upper body will raise too and you will become less balanced.

Using  a bit of imagination can improve your balance in Tai Chi.