I’ve been seeing slack-lining everywhere lately and was always intrigued by it. At the rock climbing gym I’ve been going to, they have all sorts of different balance and agility tests you can practice on and one of which is a slack line. Let me be the first to tell you that this looks much easier than it actually is. You will probably see someone twirling and walking back and forth on one right before you try which will give the illusion that this is a cake walk. I’ve only attempted a few times now but in the times that I’ve tried, I have picked up some important tips.
1. The wider the slack line, the easier to balance. There are different variation in width and the wider the line, the easier to start out.
2. Starting near the ends of the line is easier than the middle. The line is more taught on the ends and you will feel more stable. However be careful when you fall near the sides as you will be very close to the supports.
(Brie picked this up pretty quickly!)
3. Commitment is half the battle. Once you have stably placed your foot on the line, try to stand up quickly. This way the rope doesn’t have as much time to toggle.
(Daniel)
4. It’s easier to get the feel for the slack line if someone sits on one side of the line. I know this may technically be “cheating” but it can be scary when you first try. This allows you to get the feeling of the balance you are going to need.
(Tuckey helping stabilize the line)
5. Starting straight forward is the way to go. I would not suggest jumping on perpendicular to the line.
(Moss demonstrating the correct way)
(Me demonstrating the wrong way HA!)
6. Once you get comfortable with the feel of the balance (which you should always start with your dominant foot/leg), try starting and balancing on your other foot/leg so that when you want to start walking along the line there will be no surprises in balance. They are both pretty different to get the feel for.
(Tuckey)
7. Have fun with it! Brie’s friend Daniel had the slack line which can be set up anywhere there are sturdy posts so we just set it up in the park overlooking some of the lake and just played around with it. The more you try, the easier it becomes. It’s an interesting activity but provides a lot of entertainment! We all kinds of random things we were trying for fun like 2 people on at the same time, etc.
Dog friendly of course 🙂
At the end of the day, we took down the set up and headed home. It’s one of those work outs you don’t realize you are getting at the time but I slept so great that night.
Slack lining is the ultimate mind and body balance challenge. It is the ultimate yoga and if you can conquer this, you are demonstrating immense discipline and balance. The following video is slacklining at it’s finest and craziest. I believe I first saw this video on Transmission’s blog here but now have an entire new feeling about the video. Slacklining is an entire new extreme and this video is AWESOME!
Just a little Brit 