Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

To reveal the fundamental skills involved in slacklining,this study examined a hypothesis regarding single-legstanding on a slackline. In the field of practice,instructors teach learners how to maintain balance on aswinging flat belt (slackline), such as by moving theirhands in parallel. We hypothesized that bimanualcoordination in the horizontal direction mightcontribute to dynamic balancing on a slackline. In ourpilot study, two participants at different skill levelswere asked to maintain their balance on a slackline aslong as possible. The dynamic stability of bimanualcoordination was assessed by a nonlinear time seriesanalysis (cross recurrence quantification analysis), thencompared among the participants. Bimanualcoordination stability was higher in the experiencedplayer than in the novice player. The results suggestthat the single-leg standing skill might be correlatedwith bimanual coordination stability. Furtherinvestigations are expected to clarify this notion in thefuture.