Balance

In this section the concept of balance is introduced and considered as a fitness fundamental for any
young football player. Some common misconceptions regarding balance training are presented and
clarified. The What, Why and How of balance training are discussed and appropriate balance
training programme design is outlined before looking at the best exercises to develop a good level of
balance among young athletes.

1. What is balance?
2. Why is balance important in football?
3. Common misconceptions regarding balance
4. Balance training- the What, Why and How?
5. Balance training- Getting technical
6. Balance training programme

What is balance?

‘Balance’ describes the ability to maintain the centre of gravity (COG) within the base of support,
with minimal postural sway. In other words, balance describes the ability to maintain stability
(stability may also be used to describe a level of balance) while remaining still or moving.

Static balance is merely stability maintained while the whole body remains still, think of standing on
one foot without swaying. The benefit of remaining completely still during football offers little
inspiration or advantage to players and so must be considered a foundation level of balance that
allows the further development of dynamic balance.

Dynamic balance is concerned with maintaining stability while the body is in motion. It is this
dynamic balance that provides the basis of almost every sporting movement and a solid platform of
dynamic balance is vital for any football player.
The role of dynamic balance in football becomes clear with a brief look at the movements involved
during match play; passing, shooting, tackling and agile directional changes would all be impossible
without the stable base provided by good dynamic balance. In fact even walking is impossible with a
poor level of balance! Walking is simply a series of falls and catches where control of balance is
crucial to prevent falling down.

The same analysis may be applied to running and indeed any agile movement where manipulation
of the centre of gravity allows an athlete to perform many quick, controlled movements that are
fundamental for sport, without falling.
Identifying and assessing balance

Balance can be observed easily, without any need for high-tech equipment or testing. It can be quite
simple to identify a player struggling to remain balanced, failing to perform controlled movement
skills while remaining stable and ultimately fall over.

Similarly it is easy to observe a player maintaining good balance, perhaps while performing complex
actions such as dribbling or quick, agile changes of direction under close pressure from an opponent.
Watching exciting players such as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in full flight; it is easy to
appreciate their superb levels of balance as they glide past flailing opponents with ease.
Why is balance important in football?

Balance is a basic skill needed in practically every sporting activity. Competitive football, tennis,
handball, hockey, Gaelic football, surfing, hiking, running and even walking require an athlete to
maintain or change their center of gravity in order to stay stable and perform various movements.
Many coaches and young athletes may overlook the importance of balance as a component of
fitness and may not recognise the fundamental role balance plays in all movements performed
during a competitive football match.

Balance provides the platform of support for the performance of complex skills such as dribbling,
passing, volleying and shooting. Think of balance as the foundation that allows more complicated
technical skills to be developed and mastered.

As discussed elsewhere; Agility describes the ability to react and perform a series of explosive,
powerful movements in rapid succession in different directions. However, Agility is also the
technical term used to describe the change of the centre of gravity through movement of the body.

Football players must control and manipulate their centre of gravity through movement almost
continuously during a competitive match. As presented in the relevant ‘Agility training’ section; elite
players change activity every 4-6 seconds and these various activities involve agile multidirectional
movements, quick turns, sprints, stops, backpedal running, side shuffling and jumps.

There is a very close relationship between balance and agility. In fact, balance is considered a critical
prerequisite to agility; a player who fails to maintain stability and display a competent level of
balance simply cannot perform the multiple agile movements typically demanded during match
play.

In a competitive environment a player’s success is highly dependent on how quickly and efficiently
they can move out of a stationary position or change movement direction. Balance provides the
platform for this multidirectional, agile movement. Without a solid base of stability, players could
never perform the many agile and explosive movements characteristic of match play.
Stability is vital to all players but perhaps the crucial role of balance control for a goalkeeper can be
most easily appreciated. ‘Keepers perform more successfully from an unstable stance and so the
ability to control their levels of balance is crucial. Think of a goalkeeper leaning in the direction of a
shot before diving low to save; this ‘keeper becomes unstable as he leans and must maintain
balance as he is moving into an unstable position, a loss of balance at this point would cause the
‘keeper to fall too early and fail to save the shot.

Similar to the goalkeeper leaning towards the direction of a shot; sprinters gain an advantage by
beginning a race in an unstable position, where their centre of gravity lies in front of their base of
support, thereby pulling them forward. The forward lean characteristic of acceleration allows
sprinters to fall forwards at the start of a race, propelling them forward at a much greater speed
than if they began in an upright position.

It is then clear that balance does play a vital, if somewhat hidden, role in football match play and as
such balance training demands inclusion in any football players training programme.
Common misconceptions regarding balance

Balance does not need to be trained

Balance is without doubt the most overlooked component of fitness there is. Rarely, if ever, will a
coach consider training the balancing ability of their athletes. Balance is often associated with the
balance beam or tightrope walker, of course balance of this nature is not necessary for young
football players but there is much more to balance than traditionally appreciated. As with all
components of fitness; balance must be challenged through training in order to develop. The circus
tightrope walker spends years perfecting his act though training and so too must the young football
player develop a solid foundation of stability that allows them to perform the demanding agile
movements required by their sport.

Balance is about standing still on one leg without moving

Traditionally speaking balance might be considered to be best illustrated by standing on one leg and
staying as still as possible for as long as possible, known as stork standing. As presented earlier in
this section, this type of balance is commonly known as static balance. Indeed static balance training
is important as it challenges athletes to control their body (stressing core muscular stability) and
provides a platform for which more specific, functional, dynamic balance can be developed.
Dynamic balance, as we know, is concerned with maintaining stability while the body is in motion
and it is this dynamic balance that is demanded during match play. Therefore, static balance is
merely a starting ground for the more movement based, dynamic balance needed by football
players.

Balance isn’t important for sports like football

An appreciation of the vital role balance plays in serine sporting events such as gymnastics, dancing
and figure skating is easy. Elite gymnasts, dancers and skaters can exhibit mind boggling levels of
balance and seem to defy gravity at times. It is perhaps a little more difficult to identify the role
balance plays in more dynamic sports like football, where there is so much going on. However,
balance provides the fundamental platform or foundation for essentially all movements performed
during match play. Passing, shooting, tackling and volleying require the player to remain stable while
using only one leg for support. Walking and running are basically a series of falls and jumps where
one leg supports the whole body through movement and of course as already discussed; agility,
crucial for so much of the activity involved in match play would not exist in the absence of good
balance.

Some athletes have good balance, others don’t

This is true. Of course there will be athletes with varying levels of balance and bodily control in any
group, just as athletes differ among any component of fitness. However this difference is not
important and shouldn’t put coaches off training. Progression is easily made to any balance training
exercise and all athletes, whatever their initial level of balance capability can benefit from balance
training. The idea of an athlete being too well balance or having too much stability for football is of
course nonsense and players should be challenged to develop individually within any given group.

Balance training is difficult and time consuming

There are a huge variety of gimmicks and gadgets available, all claiming to train balance and
improve stability. While such equipment might be beneficial to patients of physiotherapy, there is
no need for coaches of young athletes to employ expensive or high tech balance training devices.
Balance training can be trained simply using exercises that challenge the athlete to maintain stability
by controlling their centre of gravity.

Coaches may argue (and rightly so) that due to the limited training time they have with their young
athletes, balance training is simply not an important training goal. Coaches might prefer to train
their athlete’s technical skill and fitness and may not have time for balance training. However,
balance training by its nature is low intensity training and does not require any large chunks of an
already busy training session. Coaches can use balance training exercises during periods of rest or
between periods of more high intensity exercises. Examples of appropriate balance training
exercises are presented here later.

Taller athletes have poor balance

There is perhaps some reason to this misconception. The more upright an athlete is the more
unstable they become, the opposite is of course true in that the closer to the ground an athlete is,
the more stable they are, clearly an athlete lying down is much harder to move than one standing up
tall!

However, all athletes have their own individual centre of gravity and it is the movement of their own
centre of gravity that will dictate how stable or unstable they become. For all athletes the centre of
gravity is roughly located at bellybutton height when they are standing up straight, but the centre of
gravity moves as the athlete moves. An athlete who moves their arm to the left will shift their centre
of gravity slightly to the left, the centre of gravity also responds relatively to the amount of
movement and will move more if the left leg is moved compared to the movement of the much
smaller left arm. Similarly, an athlete who crouches down, or squats slightly into the athletic position
will lower their centre of gravity, increasing their own levels of stability.
Balance training- the What, Why and How?

What is balance training?

Balance training challenges the body’s ability to maintain stability and control while remaining still
or performing complex movements and technical skills.

Balance training that challenges the body to remain still, without any swaying is known as static
balance training. Static balance training challenges the core muscles and is also a foundation for
dynamic balance training, i.e. balance training that challenges the body to remain stable and
controlled while performing various agile movements and technical skills.

Why?

Balance is a critical performance element in most if not all sports and must be trained as such. For
this reason many athletes, from a wide range of disciplines, use balance training as an integral part
of their overall training programme, both for injury prevention and performance enhancement.

Strength, power, speed and technical skill are all important to success in sports such as football, but
none of these abilities can be optimally developed in the absence of balance and therefore balance
must be considered a foundational skill to be trained and developed from a young age.

With correct practice and training, the performance of complex skills; combining flexibility, balance,
agility, coordination and timing, required in competitive sports like football can become automatic,
i.e. the athlete can execute complicated actions without even thinking about them. The goal of
balance training is to establish a solid foundation on which more complicated movement skills can
be developed, mastered and become automatic to the young athlete.

How?

It is important that the foundations are set correctly and static balance shouldn’t be dismissed as
unnecessary, particularly with young and inexperienced athletes. Athletes should first be challenged
with static balance training exercises before progressing to perform more complicated dynamic
balance exercises.
Dynamic balance training, (balance while moving) is functional, sport specific and meaningful. While
some athletes display natural balance ability, it is very trainable as a movement skill and
improvements can be made easily through structured training.

Balance training can be progressed easily by increasing the complexity of movements involved or
performing exercises on different surfaces, i.e. grass, astro turf, sand. The difficulty of all balance
training can be increased by closing the eyes, limiting the visual feedback that regulates balance.

How- Proprioception training

Proprioception (the awareness of body and limb position, without vision) can also be trained, or
sharpened through training. Juggling trains reaction time, spatial location, and efficient movement.
A young football player should practice juggling the ball (‘keepy upys’) and should progress to
performing solos(juggling) with their head up, attempting to limit their reliance on visual feedback
instead getting a “feeling” where the ball is. Skipping is also an excellent rhythm based method of
training proprioception.
Balance training- Getting Technical

Balance is concerned with the position of the centre of gravity (The technical terms ‘centre of mass’
(COM) and ‘centre of gravity’ (COG) can be used interchangeably), i.e. the point at in a body around
which the body’s weight is evenly distributed (or balanced) and through which the force of gravity
acts downwards.

This point is not fixed and movement of limbs or the body position manipulates the COG. For
example, in a crouched position, players lower their COG, increasing their balance (or stability), but
raising their arms above head height will in turn raise their COG, thus decreasing balance. The size of
limb movement is also important.

In practical terms, coaches often talk about a low centre of gravity, typically associated with small,
jinky wingers or attacking players. Having a low centre of gravity can be a huge advantage to a
football player in possession of the ball, as they become more stable and thereby tougher to knock
off the ball.

Players can lower their centre of gravity by adopting what is known as the athletic position. The
athletic position is essentially an almost squatting position, where the feet are shoulder width apart
with the knees slightly bent.

While balance may be easily monitored, describing the factors determining balance may pose some
difficulty. Maintaining and manipulating balance in sport involves the interplay of multiple senses;
vestibular (balance mechanism of inner ear), vision, muscular action and proprioception. A number
of these are conscious – such as moving the arm outwards to prevent falling at the same time as
performing a skill, e.g. shooting- while more are unconscious. The unconscious element involves
sensory mechanisms and automated programmed responses. This is known as proprioception.

Proprioception, often considered ‘the sixth sense’ is a series of mechanisms that keeps track and
control of muscle tensions and movement in the body. Proprioception is basically an awareness of
body and limb position. An example of simple proprioception in action is catching, or kicking, a ball
without looking at it. The athlete does not need to watch their arm catch, or leg kick, the ball to
accomplish the task successfully.
Balance training programme

Before designing or introducing a balance training programme it is important that the coach
appreciates the factors affecting balance, or stability. Levels of stability are affected by a number of
factors, most crucially including;

• The height of the centre of gravity

• The size of the base of support

As mentioned earlier in this section the height of the centre of gravity is critical to stability. A high
centre of gravity is associated with poor stability while a lower centre of gravity facilitates increased
balance and levels of stability.

The base of support is the area formed by the perimeter of the points of support. For a young
football player these points of support are simply the feet. By widening the base of support,
widening foot stance, an athlete becomes more stable than if they were to remain standing with
feet together. Obviously an athlete in the athletic position, also known as the power position will be
much harder to move than an upright athlete, standing on one leg, this is because the athlete with a
wider foot stance has a greater base of support.

An elderly person using a Zimmer frame increases their base of support and consequently stability.
In simple terms the wider the stance; the larger and more stable the base of support.

A large base of support added to a low centre of gravity (achieved by slightly crouching/squatting)
will produce the greatest levels of stability and this is young players must adopt the athletic position.

Optimal balance training

For optimal balance training, the principle of specificity should be followed, i.e. balance training
must challenge the athlete to recreate the movement skills required in match situation.

There are many training methods and tools commonly used to develop balance and balance is
typically trained with the athlete challenged to complete movements or technical skills in an
unstable environment. This unstable environment is often created through the use of various
training equipment like wobble boards and trampolines.

While such equipment is effectively used during periods of knee or ankle injury rehabilitation a
reliance on such training tools may be unnecessary when training healthy young athletes. The
overuse of balance training equipment is largely a result of a lack of creativity on a coach’s part in
training.

There are no sporting activities that require athletes to move in environments of such enormous
instability as created by wobble boards or trampolines and so the use of these artificial devices is
not continuous with the process of functional training.

However, balance control and manipulation above that merely required during competition is not
disadvantageous. Therefore, the “overtraining of balance” in unrealistically unstable environments,
may equip the athlete with an advantage allowing them adapt in all perceivable instances of
instability. However, the merits of this overtraining must be considered with regard the overall
training programme and time available.
Summary and guidelines

• Balance describes the ability to maintain stability (stability may also be used to describe a
level of balance) while remaining still or moving.

• Static balance is stability maintained while the whole body remains still and static balance
training provides a platform for developing dynamic balance.

• Dynamic balance is concerned with maintaining stability while the body is in motion.

• Balance is a foundational skill for any athlete.

• Some athletes display naturally good balance, but it is a very trainable ability.

• A competent level of balance will allow a player to perform the agile movements and
complex technical skills characteristic of football match play.

• Stance can change the size of base of support and height of COG, allowing an athlete
become more, or less, stable.

• Balance training is low intensity and can be performed as part of a warm up, cool down,
during transition between exercise drills or during rest periods.