• Learning to Stilt Walk
• Safety Considerations
• Falling

Stilt walking is easy! Some people manage to walk after only a few minutes supervision, others may take several hours to build up confidence.

Have a Spotter

When first learning to stilt walk it is best that you employ the help of a "spotter". A spotter is somebody to hold your hand and catch you if you fall.

Find a Suitble Practise Area

Ideally find a place to practise with a wall or soething you can hold on to while you walk, that way you can have one hand on the wall while the spotter takes your other hand.

Practise Standing on the Spot

You never actually stand still while on stilts. Instead you constantantly transfer your weigh between your feet in a rocking motion as this helps to maintain balance. As you become more experienced you will find you don't have to wobble about so much. When you are comfortable standing upright on the stilts you can try to start moving around.

Start Walking

Keeping one hand on the wall and holding onto the spotter with the other, walk back and forth along the wall. The spotter should have one arm ready behind your back to prevent you from falling backwards. Start by talking little steps, remember to lift your feet clear from the ground before stepping off. If you allow the stilts to drag as you walk then you are very likley to fall over.

Move to Open Ground

Start walking along the wall without holding on or putting any pressure on the spotter. When you have done this successfully without tripping up then you can proceed to open ground. Keep the spotter to hand just incase you should fall. It's a good idea to start by walking on grass as it is softer to fall on and you will find the stilt feet have better grip in the softer earth.

After walking for a little while on stilts you will find that brain takes over and adjusts for the fact that you are actually taller than normal. This isn't really something you can learn, it just happens and when it does you find yourself stilt walking without thinking about it. When this happens it makes doing things so much easier, beit juggling, poi, balloon modelling or whatever.

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Always Wear Knee Pads

If you fall you land on yur knees so keep them protected! It's also a good idea to wear wist protection, this is basically a glove with a rigid part in the palm. You should be able to pick up good quality pads from a skate shop.

People are Stupid!

First and foremost, if you are planning on stilt walking in public then you must remember: People are stupid! And the more people there are together the more stupid they are! For some reason crowds of people think that you kept upright on your stilts through some kind of magical force and they don't think twice about bumping into you. Only once have I ever fallen over whilst wearing stilts and that was due to a big crowd of people pushing me over! So if you are ever stilt walking in public be very aware, have eyes in the back of your head and always know what is going on around you, asume that everybody is stupid!

Environment

Take care walking on different surfaces. If you have used a mateial with good grip on the feet of your stilts then this will help on wet or slippy surfaces. The most hazardous surface I have encountered is sand. Due to the increased pressure on the small foot of the stilt it is very easy to sink in sand, furthermore the ground moves beneath you and it feels like you are walking in quicksand.

You may also have to be aware of overhead hazards that people of normal height don't have to worry about. This may include power lines, trees, door ways, and so on.

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So what happens if you fall? Ideally this will never happen, nonetheless you need to know how to fall should it ever happen. More often than not people fall forwards, after all that is the direction you walk in (walking backwards is pretty difficult while on stilts and not very safe). When you fall: land on your knees, keep your body relaxed. As soon as your knees hit the floor move with the force of the fall, this is similar to the "break fall" as practised in Judo when upon hitting the gound you allow yourself to move in the direction of a fall in order to release the energy of the fall. If you were to hit the ground on your knees and remain tense then the resulting force would travel through your body damaging bones and joints.

When stilt walking you should always be wearing knee pads, have I mentioned that before? Thats because it's really important! If you do find yourself falling then fall forwards! If you land on your side or your bum then you run the risk of doing great damge to your bones. If you are unfortunate enough to find yourself falling backwards then twist yourself round so you can land on your knees. If you can practise doing this with crash mats and the help of spotters.

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