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Permalink Reply by spin gypsy of Centric Hoops* on May 17, 2010 at 11:29am

balance comes from the core. in yoga, postures such as tree, dancer/upward bow, half moon, etc you engage your core (abs) along with the quad and ideally the leg to help protect the knee. engaging the core and emphisizing the "pulling" of opposites- grounding your standing leg and the lifting the upper body and/or arms and leg- will help stabilze the pose. in other words, you want the lower part of your body grounding and any other parts above the waist lifting. hope this helps!! :)

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Permalink Reply by AliciaLove on May 17, 2010 at 11:32am

hey yo! I had similar probs. I danced too, felt silly cause I was falling over all the time when I hoop.

Do you look down when you're leg / one leg hooping? If so try it without. Make an effort to specifically look level. Sometimes when you're looking downward your eyes aren't just looking downward but your neck and head and upper spine are also bent down, throwing your balance off.

I regained my balance on the one leg by closing my eyes all together. I can do it now with my eyes open but I still kinda have to let them "zone out" and not focus on anything to be able to stay upright, lol.
I do other hoop things with my eyes closed. But Having my eyes closed let my body find its equilibrium on its own, as opposed to what my eyes were seeing and telling it to do. Same idea as like when you're walking around with a full martini glass or a topped off bowl of cereal. If you don't look at it you'll spill less because your eyes aren't causing you to overcompensate and cause extra tippage. By eliminating (or stifling rather) your brains response to the visual cues that try to keep you balanced, you only have to worry about focusing on your core ^like gypsy said.

hope this helps!

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Permalink Reply by circularlogic on May 17, 2010 at 2:40pm

The previous suggestions are all great-- I'd add one more, which is to make sure you are keeping a little bend in your standing knee at all times-- that's going to give you more ability to respond to the force of the hoop.

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Permalink Reply by Megan of *From the Hip on May 18, 2010 at 4:11pm

Also, holding your arms out to your left and right will help to stabilize you and to correct your balance when you start to go. Just like when tight rope walkers carry the long pole :)

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