Slacklining is a balance sport in which a person walks, runs, and performs various tricks on a suspended webbing. This elastic material is stretched and tethered between two anchor points such as trees. The slackline is often set up closer to ground level and provides recreational leisure for hobbyists and athletes alike. Gibbon Slacklines is a popular brand for top-quality slacklining kits and instructions. It provides quick and safe assembling and dismantling accessories that help you adjust tensions and lengths to suit your slacklining comfort.
There are several benefits of practicing the art of slacklining. The versatile sport branches out into different categories – trickline, yogaline, and highline are just a few to name. Different static and dynamic tricks can be followed once you feel confident on the slackline. Moreover, it can be a very freestyle activity with your own creative tricks and stunts.
Slacklining Benefits
Multisensory Focus
Slacklining stimulates your brain, nerves, muscles, eyes, ears, limbs, and joints when you focus on balancing yourself. This activates your coordination skills as the sport requires you to really summon all of your concentration and responsiveness.
Posture Control and Rehab
The multisensory input into slacklining directly affects your neuromuscular systems. When the nerves and muscles together join this balancing orchestra, they work to improve your posture. Slacklining is also inextricably linked to physiotherapies and various injury rehab regimens. Chiropractors often resort to slacklining techniques for their balancing and motor exercises.
Fitness Workout
When you practice slacklining regularly, it acts as a workout routine for a healthy lifestyle. You develop muscle strength, flexibility, and balance – all of which translate into athletic competence during sports. This why it is quite common for athletes like mountain climbers and surfers to incorporate slacklining into their training programs.
Meditative Freedom
Just like any recreational activity brings therapeutic benefits, slacklining also takes you on a meditative escape as you dance against gravity. It demands your undivided attention to stay upright on the slackline, and this leaves no room for distractions. You can clear your mind and just focus on one task. This balancing locomotion makes a fun hobby especially because of how enriched you feel at the end of each practice.
Slacklining Tricks
After learning how to walk and balance on your slackline, you are fit for some skills promotion! You can progress to basic slackline tricks and eventually move on to advanced stunts. Slacklining is a quite adaptable sport, and you can always choreograph your own moves. It is important to remember that yes, you will fall more often than not, and that is completely fine.
As long as you follow safety guidelines regarding equipment setup, optimum distancing, and personal limits, you can enjoy the learning leaps along your slackline. Throughout the different tricks, you will notice how your arms and free leg help you achieve body orientations for stability and balance.
Jump Mount
A jump mount is when you begin your routine by jumping onto the slackline. You can jump mount by landing on one foot or both feet on the line, finding your balance point, and then proceeding to walk forward or backward.
Walking Backward
The key to walking backward on a slackline is to look straight ahead and resist the temptation of looking down at your feet. This trick really makes you invest your sense of sight and touch. You need to look ahead while simultaneously focusing on moving one foot behind the other.
Turning Around
The act of turning around relies on different techniques like balancing on the line with your feet sideways (which is another slackline trick on its own). You start by walking forward and focusing on one fixed point, then turning your feet at 90-degrees one at a time. Finally, you make another 90-degree rotation to completely turn around from where you started. Turning around/rotating/spinning makes use of a pivot point on which you balance your legs before turning.
Vertical Jump
A vertical jump starts with a bounce on the webbing. You gradually exert more weight on the line until you achieve enough momentum to jump from the slackline. While complex stunts can be performed in the split-second gaps, a basic vertical jump simply ends by landing with your feet sideways. You can also land inline with the webbing with one foot ahead of the other.
Drop Knee
The drop-knee mount is where you drop one knee and balance yourself in an almost sitting position. It is a more advanced static trick for competitive slackliners as it can be combined with other stunts to form unique sequences.
Sitting Down
Sitting down begins with balancing yourself into a seated position. You often start by dropping one knee on the line and squatting to achieve proper balance by moving one leg forward.
Tree Pose
The tree pose is a simple and static trick for beginner slackliners. Since there are no movements involved, you can perfect the tree pose in no time. It is all about standing upright on one leg with the other leg bent as you try to balance yourself into a stationary, yoga-like position.
Slackline Surfing
It is recommended to check the webbing tension levels and have crash mats placed underneath to break the fall. Slackline surfing is when you stand on the line and push it with both your feet in a surfing motion. The slackline acts as a surfing board, and aerodynamics creates the waves!
Folded Arms
This adds something new to simply walking on the slackline. You focus on staying upright by walking with your arms folded in front of or behind you.
Aerial Rotation
An aerial rotation is a type of slackline flip performed by advanced slackliners. It involves completing your aerial rotation before landing still on the slackline.
A Word of Caution
Slacklining definitely has a strong recreational pull for adventure seekers and hobbyists. While it is exciting to learn all these tricks and experience the thrill of gravity-defying stunts, you should always follow guidelines from leading companies like Gibbon Slacklines. Safety precautions and gear control are essential as they help you optimize your slacklining activities. Moreover, practicing with experts and watching tutorial videos are a great way to understand and work with your personal limits.
