I think it's proprioception (having spent lots of time last year doing similar exercises).
More importantly, do they make you look silly; and, if so, can we watch you on YouTube?
What, you mean like balancing on one leg, with your eyes closed, trying to write the Greek alphabet with the other foot?
Somewhat silly, but not too bad. The wierdest is the leaning forward slowly- you can't tell really if I'm trying to do something or not...
Pauline - that's very close to what do, but I do keep my eyes open... I'm not sure it's helping, as I kinda made it up. I suspect Ali's doing something real, so I'm looking forward to to the YouTube instructional video post :)
Well balancing on one leg with my eyes closed while standing on a balance board is what the physio had me doing towards the end of rehabilitating my broken ankle. The writing of the Greek alphabet (or any alphabet) is to push you a bit off balance & make your ankle work harder when you haven't got a balance board to do it for you. So it is a real exercise....
Okay, why the *Greek* alphabet? Is there something inherently more useful about the shape of Greek letters than Latin ones?
No reason, I did say 'or any alphabet'. After a while you get bored with writing the Latin one. You could argue that it makes you think more about the alphabet & less about the balancing, so it's better exercise for the ankle, but I'm not sure how valid that argument is.