3.4: Balance activities: Reducing your base of support

Reducing your base of support

Explanation and demonstration of principle

• Your base of support is all the parts of you that are in contact with the floor or something that is holding you up.
• You increase your base of support when you use your hands to support yourself or you use a walking stick.
• As you reduce your base of support you increase the difficulty of balancing. It is more challenging for your balance to stand or move with a narrow base of support.

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Try it out….

A wide base of support can be provided by standing with feet apart holding onto a chair or table.

Demonstrate how bringing the feet together and not using hand support decreases the base of support and increases the balance challenge.

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Progression Tips

• Start simple with a wide base, progressing to a narrow base of support e.g. semi tandem -> full tandem
• Start stable and begin holding on to support, progress to a light touch to fingertip to hovering hand hold
• Start still with static exercises and progress to dynamic e.g. full tandem -> one leg stand -> tandem walk