5 tips to start slacklining

We collected some of the best tips to start slacklining. Even if it can look easy, it is far from being. Since we all started by the very basics, you will find here above what helped us to start, which is now what I tell to others that try for the first time (or more!). Before even starting of walking on a slackline, I strongly recommend you to set-up a line of, at most, 15 meters. The gibbon classic of 2'' (5cm) is really perfect to start. The tenser, the better. And you can get this tense easily by making it short. You might have the feeling to be a funambulist walking on a tightrope, but when you are, you can loosen up the slackline. Don't put it too high, 30-50 cm high is enough to start. Once your set-up is in place, here are our 5 ways to easily increase your slacklining skills.

1- Work your strong foot

First foot on the rope, your knee is shaking... we all have been through that. It's because your knee, your favorite one (because yes, we have a strong and favorite one, like the skaters are goofy or regular) is not used to work this way. The muscles need to be warmed up and trained. So a short session of 5 to 10 minutes doing strength on that knee, putting a good 60% of your weight on that foot (the one on the line) like if you were going to stand up (but actually no, you keep the other leg on the ground). With time, the shaking will disappear to let place to confidence and you will be able to let the other leg come to the line with ease.

2- Don't focus on your feet

"Easy to say" you will tell me, but that's really the first and best advice. Take your time, control your breathe and try not to look at your feet. Instead, target something eye level further. It's not with your sight that you will find the balance, it's with your inner sense of balance. If your rope is tighten between trees, the simplest to look eye level at a precise point of that tree.

3- Use a friend

Use them to find the balance more easily while "taking off". With experience and then confidence, you will drop their hand sooner and sooner until the point you won't need that help anymore. And I see you coming.. which friend? Well, the world of slackline is full of nice people that just want to share their experience and help you. 

4- Don't get frustrated, relax

Once again, no one ever walked a 100 meters line straight for the first time. From experience and what we see, it takes generally a dozen of hours before walking 5 meters. It's obviously an average, which means some people need half less, and some others, half more. But everybody can do it, it's about perseverance and training. Among the best tips I can recommend, you have to relax your shoulders, your arms, your whole body and take a deep breathe. Remember you do that mostly for fun, so when you fall, you must back with smile. Don't be too intensive, you could get hurt, it's also important to take breaks from time to time. Anyway, the first times, you will regret having done this much during to previous sessions, you will discover muscles of your body because of unexpected stiffness.

5- Work your position

As we said before, before taking your step make time balancing on one foot your first challenge. Then the position is the important. A really good tip is to loosen your shoulders and rotate your arms for controlling the balance. By doing so you will avoid your core and upper body to tilt all the time and then you will gain much more control much quicker! Use your arms as sticks to find your balance. Don't hesitate to play yourself by moving these arms, it will improve your balance skills. Move as if you were going to jump, move your trunk, you will actually move your gravity center.



These are 5 unmissable tips, 5 ways to do better and keep the motivation on. There are of course many others that we know, and probably some that escape us. Do not hesitate to share your tips with us, your experience, even your most hidden secrets. In a next article, we will try to provide you more tips to go further and help you improve your level. Because with that, and a few hours, you should be able to do a lot already.