Improving balance

what is balance?
Balance is a reflex action to prevent falling and injury.
It involves more parts of the body than any other. It uses 3 of 5 basic senses, the majority of muscles from the head to toe, a whole host of nerves and the brain.
Balance is a whole-body reflex which is developed during infancy. It is essentially a hard-wired reflex action.

Exercise 1: Balance awareness
With your shoes off, preferably on a hard floor, now pick up one leg in front.
Become aware of the feel of your heel, ball of the foot, the outer edge of the foot against the floor.
Feel how it flexes back and forth, shifting your body position to keep you upright. 
This will become more apparent the longer you hold your leg up off the ground, as the muscles tire, they will respond slower to the pressure changes and it will become uncomfortable.They will require larger movements to keep you in balance, and may begin to ache.

Exercise 2: Slow squats
1. Start with feet shoulder width apart.
2. Bend the knees, lowering your body directly above the inward pointed heels of the foot. Keep the body vertical, and keep the back slightly arched.
3. Move down into a 90 degree bend in the knees, moving down slowly across 5 seconds.
4. Hold for about 3 seconds.
5. Move up into a straight leg position within a 5 second period.
Repeat for 10 reps

Note:

Pay attention to your upper body, making sure to keep your shoulders directly above your hips, your hips directly above your heels. This will improve your upper body posture.

Exercise 3: One leg squats
1. Raise one knee up to hip level in front of your body, thigh parallel to the ground.
2. Start to pull your shoulders then, start to arch your back.
3. Bend the planted leg at the knee, lowering the body over the planted heel. (keep shoulders and hips vertically in line). Start bending the knee in a 2 second movement.
4. Hold for a couple of seconds
5. Raise body to a straight leg position.
6. Place your foot down.
Repeat for 10 reps on each leg.

Note:
As you get more comfortable with this exercise, begin working the knee bend deeper and deeper until you can reach 90 degrees.
Once comfortable bending to 90 degrees, work on slowing the rate of travel into and out of the squat until you can perform 10 reps with 5 second travel.
Once comfortable with 5 second travel, work on extending the hold duration until you can hold for 5 seconds.

Exercise 4 (advanced): Side kicks
1. Place your left hand against the wall.
2. Point your left toes to the same wall your hand is using.
3. Align your shoulders and hips to the same direction that your heel is pointing towards (opposite wall)
4. Now start to pull your shoulders back, and now arch the back.
5. pull your knee to your chest (Side kick chamber)
6. While holding your shoulders in line (do not turn them!) – push the heel of the foot out into a side kick slowly (3 seconds)
7. Hold for 3 seconds at a fully extended position.
8. Retract the kick to the chamber position slowly.
9. Set the leg down to the floor.
Repeat for 10 reps each leg.
This is where i got some of the information from.
http://bwmalone.blog.com/category/basics/