Frequently Asked Questions

  • Where did Bal-A-Vis-X Come From?

    Bal-A-Vis-X was developed by, Bill Hubert, after years of working as a first grade teacher, middle school teacher, and martial arts instructor. Bal-A-Vis-X wasn’t born in a eureka moment. It evolved–a long process of connecting dots.

    • Dot One: Each year many of Bill’s grade one students didn’t function well.
    • Dot Two: Bill’s martial arts experience enabled him to watch these 6-7 year-olds through the twin lenses of balance and rhythm.
    • Dot Three: Bill felt it was important that all these students have fundamental balance and rhythm capabilities so he taught them such basic physical skills as throwing, catching, walking balance beams, skipping, and so on.
    • Dot Four: Slowly Bill became aware that, of all his students, the ones most deficient in these basic physical skills often were the same ones who struggled most academically.
    • Dot Five: Bill noticed, as we all worked on balance and rhythm, that now and then when a struggling student’s balance and rhythm improved, his/her academic performance also improved.

    Connecting these dots, then, posed this question: might fine tuning a child’s balance and rhythm simultaneously address his/her academic difficulties? What followed were more than 20 years of trial and error to find out. The result, as of 1999, was the still-evolving program now known as Bal-A-Vis-X.

    Bill’s personal Assistant Instructors are students. Since 1998 when he and his 7th graders provided their first training (of a public school staff in Wichita), some 40 teens traveled with Bill to train more that 15,000 adults on three continents. Without these student assistants, Bal-A-Vis-X could never have become what it is. One hour into your first training you will clearly see why.

    About Physical Movement

    “While aerobic exercise elevates neurotransmitters, creates new blood vessels that pipes in growth factors, and spawns new cells, complex activities put all that material to use by strengthening and expanding networks. The more complex the movements, the more complex the synaptic connections. And even though these circuits are created through movement, they can be recruited by other areas and used for thinking. This is why learning how to play the piano makes it easier for kids to learn math. The prefrontal cortex will co-opt the mental power of the physical skills and apply it to other situations.” From SPARK, by Dr John Raty [emphasis added by Bill Hubert]

    About Rhythmic Physical Movement

    Physical movement is one thing. Rhythmic physical movement is another.

    Rhythmic movement is easier to learn, to practice, to remember, and to teach because it is consistently replicable and predictable. This is why even the most accomplished pianist revisits scales and basic techniques each day, to re-engage touch and rhythmicity’s flow. All of Bal-A-Vis-X is deeply rooted in rhythm. [Bill Hubert]

    Slow, steady, repetitive, rhythmic physical movement is safe, predictable, and replicable.

  • Who benefits from Bal-A-Vis-X?
    It has been used with students who are labeled:
    • Learning disabled: cognitive integration improves
    • Behaviorally disordered: behavior “settles”
    • Attention deficit disordered/attention deficit hyperactive disordered: impulsivity decreases and focus increases
    • Gifted: physical coordination improves and stress headaches diminish
    • Regular: academic achievement improves yet requires less effort
    It has been used with students whose visual acuity may be 20/20, yet whose vision remains deficient in:
    • ocular motility (tracking): eyes that float/stick/skip/stutter/dart begin to flow
    • binocularity (teaming): eyes that squint/blink excessively/produce extreme head-neck postures for near vision tasks begin to work together
    • visual form perception (discrimination of details): eyes that are “careless about”/’forgetful of”/”inattentive to” differences and similarities begin to notice
    It has been used with children and adults who are on the autism spectrum or have Down syndrome; have physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy; and who have neurological disorders such a bipolar syndrome, depression, anxiety, and apraxia.
     
    It has been used with adults who suffer from dementia, effects of stroke, and Parkinson’s.
  • How does Bal-A-Vis-X differ from other programs based on, or related to, physical movement?

    Several things. 

    • First, rhythm. And I mean natural rhythm. Not matching a tone or a metronome or a musical beat or any other outside source. The rhythms of Bal-A-Vis-X are the natural outcome of proper physical techniques–which techniques one learns and commits to muscle memory during our trainings. 
    • Second, visual tracking. In a typical 30-minute Bal-A-Vis-X session one tracks across three “midlines” (side-side, up-down, near-far) probably 1,000 times. 
    • Third, entrainment. The majority of our exercises are done with a partner and/or in concert with others. Synchronicity is always the goal. In a Bal-A-Vis-X setting no one is allowed to be a Lone Ranger, free to follow his own plan. 
    • Fourth, responsibility. As soon as you are fully competent with even a few exercises, you are immediately set the task of teaching those exercises to a new or less competent student–always, of course, under the trained eye of your instructor. You, still a student, are responsible for the new student while the instructor is responsible for you both. In time, as your competence grows, and you become less a student and more an instructor yourself, your responsibilities and confidence grow exponentially. Earned self-esteem naturally follows.
  • Why is rhythm so important in Bal-A-Vis-X?

    About Physical Movement

    While aerobic exercise elevates neurotransmitters, creates new blood

    vessels that pipes in growth factors, and spawns new cells, complex

    activities put all that material to use by strengthening and expanding

    networks. The more complex the movements, the more complex the

    synaptic connections. And even though these circuits are created through

    movement, they can be recruited by other areas and used for thinking.

    This is why learning how to play the piano makes it easier for kids to

    learn math. The prefrontal cortex will co-opt the mental power of the

    physical skills and apply it to other situations.” From SPARK, by Dr John

    Raty [emphasis added by Bill Hubert]

    About Rhythmic Physical Movement

    Physical movement is one thing. Rhythmic physical movement is another.

    Rhythmic movement is easier to learn, to practice, to remember, and to

    teach because it is consistently replicable and predictable. This is why

    even the most accomplished pianist revisits scales and basic techniques

    each day, to re-engage touch and rhythmicity’s flow. All of Bal-A-Vis-X is

    deeply rooted in rhythm.

    Slow, steady, repetitive, rhythmic physical movement is safe, predictable, replicable.

  • Where is Bal-A-Vis-X used?

    Since 2000 we’ve provided trainings to more than 15,000 teachers, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Speech and Language Pathologists, counselors, Recreational Therapists and parents in 45 American states, Europe, and Asia. The number of students with whom these adults have subsequently used the program is unknown.

  • After taking your training what will I be able to do?

    You will be able to use Bal-A-Vis-X with your own students/clients. You may not use the program with other people’s students/clients, and you may not “train” colleagues, employees, or any other adults.