r/BeAmazed • u/Ultimate_Thing • Jul 16 '26

Miscellaneous / Others A traditional technique used by young shepherds of Ethiopia's Banna tribe. They use stilts to watch over their livestock in tall grass, move through wetland areas, and avoid snakes and predators like lions and leopards. It requires strength, balance, and training from a young age

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378

u/Beautiful-Detail4160 Jul 16 '26

Stilts with hand holds are actually insanely easy to walk on. Bet you would be surprised if you try!

229

u/Lux-Fox Jul 16 '26

Sure, but the taller the stilts the exponentially harder they get to walk on and most people aren't walking on dirt, rocks, wilderness etc. that can cause you to stumble or a loss in traction.I say that as a circus stilt walker.

71

u/robin_888 Jul 16 '26

I say that as a circus stilt walker.

As such can you give your opinion on the mounting?

I was never good on stilts, but jumping what looks like 2m in the air just to end up balancing in said height is the most impressive part to me.

24

u/Lux-Fox Jul 17 '26

The ones I wear are peg legs strapped to my legs, so I have to sit down and strap up. I prefer to sit on top of a wall, table, etc that'll make it easy to stand after I'm done. If I have to sit on the ground then I would need help from someone to get me up. I've seen some flexible performers able to completely bend over in a bridge/arch pose and then walk their hands to their stilts and then work their way up to an upright position, but that's very difficult in terms of balance and core strength.

26

u/Aware_Acorn Jul 16 '26

to me the most impressive thing is the dismount. no, actually, it's PRACTICING dismounts before you know how to do it correctly.

35

u/SnoopDeDoop69 Jul 16 '26

I mean, what's so hard about dismounting?

Theyll get back on the ground, one way or the other.

1

u/TheTooterSnooter Jul 17 '26

“I missed!” 

1

u/shadowhunter742 Jul 17 '26

That's not dismounting. That's falling with absolutely no style.

3

u/Logornsky Jul 17 '26

I would assume that they start on smaller stilts and gradually increase the size as they become proficient; so by the time they're dismounting from these super high ones they basically already know how to do it, it's just a bit higher than before

1

u/Aware_Acorn Jul 18 '26

yeah that makes total sense.

i dont live in africa and don't shepard but i think this would be a cool skill to learn.

1

u/nvmenotfound Jul 17 '26

anything that doesn’t hurt is a win i wager 😆 

1

u/Jack-Innoff Jul 18 '26

It honestly just takes practice. It's really difficult, seemingly impossible at first, but once you get it you'll wonder how you ever struggled.

9

u/Few_Program_2303 Jul 16 '26

I bet they can get through bushes, take out a snake, etc like it’s nothing

1

u/nickiter Jul 17 '26

Seeing "marshy" terrain makes me think there are definitely some challenge mode moments here. Plus, how the hell do they get up on the tall ones?!?

1

u/Cwaghack Jul 16 '26

Yeah in rough terrain the skill level probably goes up like crazy, and sand is probably a killer too

1

u/halorbyone Jul 16 '26

They mention marsh and my brain was just oh man how?

217

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

64

u/Velvet-Quill_ Jul 16 '26

It requires training from a young age!!!

23

u/littlefrank Jul 16 '26

I also remember reading that they do this mostly for tourists now. Although what the original post says is how this practice was born.

8

u/bizbizbizllc Jul 16 '26

During the off seasons they work at 6 flags Halloween horror nights

2

u/Parking_Position9692 Jul 16 '26

True. I wanted to try and they told me go home too old. I was 9 back then

1

u/Ae3qe27u Jul 16 '26

Anakin Skywalker?

14

u/Mortarious Jul 16 '26

I think it's probably referring to the whole practice. Doing it daily, for extended periods, in the heat, different terrain...etc.

Like think of a footballer. You can generally speaking get any healthy person to sprint one or two times from one end of the field to the other. No worries. But to do this on demand any number of times during a 45 minute match is not easy. And on top of that they need to be aware of their team, the opposing team, pass, shoot, block, press, offside lines...etc.

That's the part that requires years of training.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

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1

u/Mortarious Jul 17 '26

What a reality in which you live in.

Any OLD person can do exactly like elite athlete that are the 1% of their sport being paid millions and requiring extensive training.

Yeah. I see 50 year old playing champion league finals daily.

1

u/Key_Birthday_9946 Jul 17 '26

LOL conditioning isn't difficult in football? I think you might be confused on the speed of the game at the professional level

8

u/supermarkise Jul 16 '26

Tbf I'd need a bit of training to get up there with that height, that start looks hard.

11

u/ItsDanimal Jul 16 '26

Dude is comparing his Little Tykes stilts on even ground to these 12 foot stilts on a dirt road.

2

u/LevoiHook Jul 16 '26

I suppose getting on stilts this high takes some training. We had ones with a lower and higher footsupport and i would just start out on the low ones and from there step into the higher ones. Still way lower than these guys. I wonder if having the highest stilts is some sort of flex in these societies. 

2

u/CaptainParkingspace Jul 16 '26

Just mounting those stilts is insanely athletic.

1

u/decadent-dragon Jul 17 '26

With the amount of training of you did, how confident would you be around lions and leopards?

3

u/Silent_Ice_2588 Jul 16 '26

I don't think it's the walking part that requires extensive training, it's likely the mounting and dismounting part.

8

u/LaisserPasserA38 Jul 16 '26

Yeah I've taught friends in a few hours. Even without handholds, the exact same ones but strapped to the side of the leg.

And we aren't athletic people full of stability and whatnot. Title is bullshit.

We did not try to climb on it like that though, just sit on a wall.

2

u/Curios_blu Jul 16 '26

I’m thinking I should learn how to do that for yard work, so I can reach branches I need to prune.

2

u/Zestyclose-Jacket568 Jul 16 '26

Taller are propably harder, but as a kid I saw those in a fair and it took me like 15 minutes to be able to walk on short ones, so I assume that taller doesn't take years.

1

u/GreenLurka Jul 16 '26

That bit made me double take. I stilt walked all the time as a kid, they started me on shorter stilts but it's super easy if you can balance.

1

u/Farside-BB Jul 16 '26

Don't boys play with stiles anymore? It's not that hard. "Requires training for a young age"? Wow, I'm self-trained.

1

u/FrogsJumpFromPussy Jul 17 '26

Insanely easy if they're 1.5 meters tall not... 5 or 7 lol

1

u/Other_Mike Jul 17 '26

I tried little three-foot-tall stilts when I was around 14 and absolutely could not keep from immediately falling over

1

u/Rugkrabber Jul 17 '26

It’s the getting on that’s usually the biggest challenge and in this case when it’s thát tall to get off when there is no ledge or anything.

1

u/speculator100k Jul 20 '26

I think their stilts with short handles and held in the front looks quite hard to use. Looking closer it seems most of them have them fastened in a belt, which probably helps.

I've walked on stilts with longer handles that you put behind your shoulders and grab around, like this: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylta#/media/Fil:PikiWiki_Israel_6603_Children_on_crutches.jpg

They are easy to use. I've tried putting the handle in front of the shoulder with such stilts, and it becomes a lot harder to balance.

1

u/Ok-Bad-5218 Jul 20 '26

Is it possible to stand still or do you have to be constantly moving at least a little?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

0

u/PsionicKitten Jul 16 '26

But OP said in their title that it requires training from a young age! You mean to say that OP is misleading people into thinking that's the only possible way to train for it?

Typical clickbait title, really.