How to Balance a Hat on Your Nose

Life doesn’t have to be all about running and joggling. It can also be about hat balancing! One of my New Year’s goals was to learn to balance a hat on my nose for more than 1 minute. I don’t really know why I want to possess this skill except for the fact that amuses me to know end and universally, kids find this entertaining. My nephews and nieces love when uncle Perry balances the hat on his nose.

Hat balancing

As you can see in this video, I can already balance it for a short amount of time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3w0nJVlAsI 350 425]

But I can never get it to last longer than 5 seconds. Five minutes of practice each morning and night should help me improve.

Learn to balance a hat on your nose

If you’d like to learn this skill, here are a few tips I’ve read, learned, and experienced.

1. Start long. The classic balancing device for jugglers is a peacock feather. These are nice and long and almost float in air. However, most people don’t have such things so you can start off with a long broom, cane or a golf club.

2. Steady it with your hands. Balancing begins with a nice steady set. Use both hands to get the stick on your nose. Hold it for a couple of seconds then let go!

3. Look at the top. Keep your eyes focused on the top of the object. Actually, you want to find the center of gravity. For long objects this is usually near the top.

4. Adjust your body not your head. When balancing something on your nose you shouldn’t move your head. You should move your torso and feet. Ideally, you make only tiny movements and eventually no movement.

5. Get shorter. After you can balance a long stick on your nose, go to shorter objects. One person on the juggling discussion board suggested starting with a long broom handle, cutting off 1 inch and re-learning to balance that length. Eventually, you’ll get down to the length of a hat. When you get there, start using a hat.

6. Keep it stiff. You’ll notice in the video above, I’m balancing a Baltimore Oriels hat (circa 1970’s). This is a fitted cap that is also fairly rigid. Trying to balance a floppy baseball cap is much tougher.

7. Practice. Obviously to increase your balancing ability you have to dedicate some practice time to it. I like to practice 5 minutes in the morning and another 5 minutes at night. It’s been shown by some researchers that you learn better at night because your brain will incorporate what it’s learned better while you sleep. So, if you can only muster one practice session, do it at night before you go to bed.

That’s what I’m doing now. I’m also working on 75 more goals for the year. Geez, I love a new year!

Bonus Tip:  To learn to how to balance, learn how to stand first.  Do this by trying these excellent standing exercises.