Balance
Balance is the ability to control one's body in different postures with minimum swaying or loss of contol. Having good balance allows all your muscles and fibers in your body to work as one. Balance training can improve the muscular tone of your body. Balance allows you full control over your body's adaptive motion and develops precise movement and power in combat.

Balance Drills:

Leg Holding Drill - builds endurance, strength, flexibility, and control for different kicks, such as, side kick, roundhouse kick, front kick, and hook kick. Each kick is held for a few seconds, starting at the chamber of the kick and then, held again when the kick is extended. Each kick will be extended at 3 different height levels, Low, Middle, and High. It is important for the Enthusiast to train at their own pace. A beginner's low, mddle high could be ankle, knee and hip, or even ankle, shin, knee. Height and Endurance will come over time. It is most important to develop control and muscle memory.

This drill can be done by yourself, by utilizing a chair or something to aid in your balance. When holding on to something, try not to depend on the object, but use it to help recaliber your balance when you begin to sway. Once you have gotten the hang of the drill you can then practice the Leg Holding Drill without holding onto anything. Try picking targets for each level so you can focus the kicks. You will find that even more stabilizing muscles will be hard at work.

The Leg Holding Drill can be done with a partner. This is extremely helpful because now you have real targets you can aim for. Of course, you will utilize even greater control, so not to accidentally hit your partner. You will be able to judge distance and angles of your kicks to their targets. How I usually start the partner drill is to have each person start out of striking range. Both will either have their right or left side forward, thus the lead leg will be the kicking leg. Designate which person will kick first. Now, both Enthusiasts will step towards each other and perform a lead hand backfist to each others striking hand, then grab your partner's hand like a handshake.  This will be the helping hand when you feel your balance swaying. The whole step-up backfist intro allows the Enthusiast to start thinking about how they can enter, close distance, distract, and strike an opponent. The partner that isn't kicking, can aid their partner slightly by using their off hand to help hold their partners extended kick, and also can use their off hand to simulate blocking the extended kick.

The only kick that is performed a little different is the hook kick. The hook kick isn't held at full extension, it is in constant slow motion, spiraling from low to high and then high to low.