Baoding Balls

Baoding balls, also called Chinese exercise balls, Chinese meditation balls, and Chinese medicine balls, are thought to have been created in Baoding, China, during the Ming dynasty. Baoding balls are a tool for injury recovery or as an exercise tool to improve manual dexterity and strength. They consist of two or more balls which are rotated to orbit in the hand. The iron-ball system is the greatest of Baoding prefecture's "three treasures." Long throughout history, renowned within China and other countries, this is Baoding prefecture's traditional product. It was first produced in the Northern Song Dynasty, this item of Buddhist martial arts.

History

During the Ming Dynasty, in Baoding prefecture's southern avenues, at GanShi Bridge Weaponry's founding, blacksmith Wang MengShen gave instruction on the manufacture of metal spheres with a hollow center, one for both male and female, and sent forth the call of Long XiaoFeng. That very day, the emperor was presented the news: Mr. Long's countenance filled with delight, for upon him was conferred a royal tribute. Later also he was summoned as an artisan in the palace: solely for the imperial house he practised his craft. Only offered up for the imperial family to enjoy, over time it came to be known as a palace treasure.

Materials and composition

In Baoding, they are instead called Iron Balls, because they were originally made out of iron. As they became more popular and metalworking skills improved, construction methods varied. Most Baoding balls made and used today are constructed as a pair of hollow spheres - one inside the other with a chime between which rings as the inner ball strikes it. Many modern examples are decorated with Cloisonné and brass wire; however, these are not as suitable for actual use because they can easily chip when dropped or when they come into contact with each other. For injury recovery, hollow balls are generally more suitable due to their lighter weight. For exercise purposes, balls made of solid iron, steel or tungsten carbide should be used, since the added weight requires more energy be expended in their rotation.

Uses

Exercise

The basic exercise for learning how to use the balls consists of rotating a pair in the palm of the hand, ensuring even and constant contact is made between the balls - the idea being to maintain permanent contact between them. This should be performed in both directions, and is a good exercise to develop both grip and forearm strength since the friction between the balls means more force is required to rotate them. Once this has been learned, the rotation speed can be gradually increased until the balls separate in the hand. Eventually, one can learn to rotate them completely without the balls making contact with each other. Exercises have been developed involving two, three, four, or even more balls. These exercises generally require an extensive amount of training, due to the extremely high strength and dexterity required to perform them.

The average person should be able to start with a 50mm circumference ball, moving up to the 60mm size as they get used to the exercise. Larger Baoding Balls, ranging anywhere from 70-100mm, can be used, although it eventually becomes impossible to rotate them separated. The area of the hand exercised can be varied at advanced levels of practice, altering the portion of the hand they rotate over, or changing the orbit of the balls in the hand so that more force is exerted on a particular finger, or over particular joints of the fingers. Many famous strongmen, such as John Brookfield, use large shots as Baoding balls, rotating them in their hands to develop forearm muscles and produce an effective crushing grip.

Other uses

In addition to the health benefits of exercise, practitioners of alternative medicine believe they interact with acupuncture points on the hand. According to national Chinese medicine jingluo theory, "The nerves of the 10 fingertips are linked to the heart" and jingluo handles and stimulates finger nerves, connections between the 5 internal organs and the 6 hollow organs [3] rise, traversing the fingers touching the iron ball, the sphere stimulating the palm's matching pressure points, simultaneously the sphere's massage and sound gently vibrates various jingluo pressure points, regulates and excites the cerebrum and central nervous system, invigorates the brain increasing wit, refreshes and eliminates worry, eliminates fatigue, can prevent and reduce high blood pressure, finger/wrist arthritis, liver spots and hand tremors, and various other effects of diseases of old age.

There are apocryphal legends of the iron version being used as weapons, but no reliable sources describe this.

Common Confusion

Although they look similar, Baoding balls should not be confused with Ben Wa balls.

External links

* [http://www.baodingballs.com/baoding_ball_techniques.html Videos of various Baoding Ball exercises]
* [http://qi-journal.com/culture.asp?-Token.FindPage=2&-Token.SearchID=Baoding Qi Journal]