As seen in the video, the scale and arabesque are beginner skills, however, proper practice can improve your technique in leaps and bounds.
Almost anyone can stand on one foot, but some gymnasts make it look effortless, here is how you can achieve that.
For boys, start in a lunge, back foot turned out, with your arms out to each side. As your front knee is bent, lean your weight on it, having your back foot go to a point.
This keeps all your body weight on your front leg, so your back leg can raise with ease.
Arabesque to Scale
Keeping your head faced forwards, lift your back leg up till your foot is 6-8 inches off the ground. This is an arabesque.
To avoid your shoulders from going into a hunched position, keep your chest open and back straight or slightly arched.
To make your arabesque into a scale, all you have to do is keep lifting your foot until it is horizontal with your shoulders and hips.
It will take a while to figure out how much you should lean forwards to counter-balance your leg; you can use your posting foot and ankle to balance yourself.
For girls, it is slightly different. As girls go into the arabesque or scale, they raise their arms slightly higher, with their backs a little more arched.
Like the boys, they start in the lunge position, and lean all their weight on their front leg. As their back leg goes up for the scale, they lower their arms, while still keeping their head and shoulders up.
Unlike the boys, girl gymnasts will use these skills on the balance beam.
Like any skill in gymnastics, both the arabesque and scale take practice. Fortunately, this skill is easy to practice, and isn’t rough on the body. All you need is an open space to practice (and try to cover any corners or hard surfaces with pillows).
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