Gaara can form a sand pillar using the sand from the ground or by warping the lower half of his body into sand. Gaara manipulates the sand to suspend and manoeuvres himself in mid-air at high speeds. The sand maintains contact with the ground, thus creating a pillar-like formation.
Trivia
- In Naruto Retsuden: Naruto Uzumaki and the Spiral Destiny, it is revealed that Gaara is capable of building a sand pillar up to 200 kilometres high. But since he combined this pillar along with the stone pillar of Kakashi Hatake and Kurotsuchi, as well as the wooden pillar of Yamato, it is unknown whether Gaara could reach this height on his own.