Balance Skills for Physical Education on Unstable T-BOW®
Updated: Sep 20
Summary — Balance Skills for Physical Education on the Unstable T‑BOW®
Dani Picó‑Benet, Joaquim Reverter‑Masià, David Ribera‑Nebot —
EEB Sport Training Barcelona https://sporttraining.org/
- Designed for children’s physical education (Special Dynamic Coordination: balance interacting with mobile objects) but applicable to adult movement education and sport initiation.
- Why the T‑BOW® is effective
- Arched design, high reactivity, light weight, and a single axis of instability require fast, precise postural adjustments and improve responsiveness.
- Multiple foot placements (concavity, narrow edges, convexity, double T‑BOW®) and footwear options (barefoot, shoes, socks on wood version) increase proprioceptive and tactile stimulation (wood version includes glass microspheres for enhanced sensitivity).
- Narrow-edge balancing develops bilateral ankle control, leg verticality, segmental independence, and promotes a spiral “screw” alignment of the limb.
- Exercises are enjoyable and promote wellbeing.
- Training applications
- Combine unstable T‑BOW® positions with stable convex work and creative footwork.
- Integrate mobile objects (balls, balloons, sticks, hoops, ropes, etc.) — including bilateral tasks using two objects — to link balance with object manipulation (throwing, catching, passing, dribbling, striking).
- Use pairs, small groups, circuits, or stations to vary stimulus and teach progression.
- Emphasize movement control, spatial implementation, rhythm, and holistic integration of cognitive, social‑affective, emotional/volitional, expressive‑creative, and physical capacities.
- Pedagogical value
- Ideal for movement education and sports initiation: creates frequent balance/re‑balance scenarios, enriches swings, jumps, turns, static and dynamic balances, and a wide range of coordination tasks.
- Safety
- Avoid ankle/knee overload during lateral balancing — teach correct foot placement and cue knees to move outward.
- Modify for small children (one foot mid‑concavity, other on edge) when necessary.
- Encourage barefoot practice for sensory learning, but use well‑gripping, not overly soft shoes when appropriate.
- Alternate T‑BOW® work with flat‑floor drills.
- For advanced grip needs, add sandpaper strips to edges (not required for the wood model).
- Conceptual foundations from Fundamental Movement Skills teachings of Fco. Seirul·lo Vargas (https://entrenamientodeportivo.org/).
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Balance Skills for Physical Education on Unstable T-BOW®
By Dani Picó-Benet, Joaquim Reverter-Masià and David Ribera-Nebot
EEB Sport Training Barcelona (www.sporttraining.org)
Balance skills in interaction with a mobile object are among the basic Special Dynamic Coordinations skills in Physical Education for children; although all movement education for children is beneficial for movement efficiency at any age in life, thus applicable for adult movement education too.
The T-BOW® provides special characteristics that will help to enrich all these special dynamic coordination skills, like some shown in these photos (Nivali Ski, 2007).
What makes the Unstable T-BOW® Special for Balance and Coordination?
Arched design, reactivity, lightweight and single axis of instability promote rapid and precise postural adjustments and responsiveness.
Many alternatives to place de feet on concavity, narrow edges and convexity (double T-BOW®).
Barefoot and with sport shoes. Also with socks on the wooden version, which has narrower edges and its concavity has glass microspheres which extraordinarily enhances tactile sensitivity.
Balance and coordination challenges for a wide range of users and applicable to many daily and sport activities.
Placing the feet on the narrow edges of the T-BOW® requires bilateral ankle control, promoting leg verticality and excellent segmental independence, also making possible a functional screw connection of the leg's longitudinal axis in spiral dynamics.
Balancing on the T-BOW® is fun and gives wellbeing (like a mother's gentle sway of her baby).
Optimizing Balance Skills in Interaction with a Mobile Object on Unstable T-BOW®
Use all the balance and coordination options proposed above which make special the T-BOW® in its unstable position.
Combine the balance situations with balloons and different types of mobile objects (balls, ballons, sticks-pikes, swords, hoops, ropes, ...), considering bilateral actions with two mobile objects at the same time.
Combine all the unstable positions of the T-BOW® with its stable convexity, performing creative footwork drills.
Implement all the options in pairs and small groups.
Create circuits or stations alternating selected balance-coordination proposals.
Apply the optimization resources of coordination-balance abilities related to movement control, spatial implementation and rhythm for a fully enriching experience.
Interact coordination-balance options with cognitive, conditional, socio-affective, emotional-volitive, expressive-creative and mental priorities for a holistic optimization.
Safety / Taking Care while Balancing on the Unstable T-BOW®
Avoid overloading the ankles and knees when lateral balancing on the T-BOW®. The arch and narrow edges will tend to bend ankles inwards and so the knees; that is why is crucial to place the foot properly on the edges and push the knees outwards, therefore, promoting a good postural structure adjustment in children, a relevant issue in the development years. For smaller children or children with very short legs, the mid lateral balance by placing one foot in the middle of the T-BOW® and the other on one edge can be a good alternative.
Practicing barefoot is a very enriching experience for children, but it is also important to practice with sport shoes that have good grip and are not too soft.
Alternate the concavity, the narrow edges and the convexity of the T-BOW® with the flat floor.
For more acrobatics and challenging options, consider hooking a strip of sandpaper on the side edges for extra grip. This is not necessary on the Wood T-BOW®.
T-BOW® for Movement Education
The T-BOW® is ideal for movement education and sports initiation by creating balance and re-balance scenarios with high reactivity and innumerable variability of foot positionings. It enriches swings, jumps, and turns using different body parts and postures, static and dynamic balances on concave, convex and narrow edges surfaces, and coordination tasks like passing, throwing, catching, dribbling, striking, object manipulation and T-Band actions.
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Based on the conceptions learned from our professor Fco. Seirul·lo Vargas (https://entrenamientodeportivo.org/) · Fundamental Movement Skills in Physical Education.
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balance, balance skills, throwing, catching, passing, ball-passing, balance, coordination, T-BOW®, tennis ball, physical education, adult group fitness, movement education, games for children.
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