Do-it-yourself Meihua Poles?

[onyomi]

I remember my teacher telling me that when he did stance training they often did it on poles, which I believe is called "Meihua-zhuang" training. I also remember reading here that they did this at Wah Lum.

So, my question is, is there anyway to safely approximate this training in your backyard without actually putting stakes in the ground? I read someone saying they practiced standing on V-8 cans, though I'm not sure whether they meant they were rooted to the ground or not. It seems very difficult, albeit not impossible to stand on cans if they're free-standing, but then you can't shift to other stances and have to set them back up if you lose your balance. I considered actually attaching cans to the bottoms of a pair of shoes, but that sounds kind of like an ankle injury waiting to happen.

So, for anyone who's done this training, could you give me a more detailed explanation of how you do it and possibly some suggestions on how to do it at home? I'm assuming the point is to train the achilles tendons, calves and quads by standing only on the balls of the feet, thereby increasing speed and nimbleness. Do you actually do Tantui with all the stance shifting on cans/poles, or do you just use them to hold static stances? Once you can do it on the balls of your feet do you bother still doing stance training/Tantui with the heels down, or do you think that you can get the full workout using just the balls of the feet?

Thanks in advance.

[mooyingmantis]

Onyomi,
Flower pots turned upside down or round pation block can substitute poles. Stances and forms can be practiced on top of them. Moveable objects are actually better (IMHO) than concrete embedded poles, since moveable objects can be arranged according to the movements of the form. Sparring on top of them is especially fun!
We never emphasized the ball of the foot, as you mentioned. Though I can see where that would be good exercise.
Also, practicing on top of raised 2X6 planks (drills & sparring) is a fun way of testing sure-footedness and balance.
Richard

[monkeyfoot]

i just took a load of stumps off a fence near my house, cut them to just over a foot in length, and smashed them into the ground with a f^^k off mallet

craig

[Chop Socki]

Neat topic - I think we're already talking about two different things though.

I've done training on 'plum flower poles' (Mui Fa Jong), but aside from the generic strength/balance benefits you'd expect to get from walking around on 4" wide posts (and unstable ones at that!) there was a very specific training regimen associated with them - sort of a pre-determined set of transitions from one stance to another.

Mooying has the very nice idea of moveable objects that give you more flexibility with regards to location and the types of drills you can invent; it's also much nicer on the lawn. His idea of flower pots sounds good; I've used standard bricks for the same type of 'impromtu' exercises.

If your goal is to practice moving from one stance to another with balance and confidence, I don't think the actual item you stand on top of matters much, and you'd use the same part of your foot as you'd use if you were standing on the ground. If you find something stable (and cheap!) that you can arrange to your liking and that won't cause grievous damage when it tips over or you fall off of it, I think just about anything will do. You may even find yourself moving to smaller, less stable objects as your abilities improve!

Good luck!

- CS

[mickey]

Greetings everyone,

Onyomi, you had me thinking about this all day long. One way of creating a portable Mei Hua pole arrangement is through the improvisation of the Chinese style guest table; you know, the one that is a giant, plywood, circular board that you place on top of the square table and can fold in half for storage. I think you have the visual. Now buy table legs or wooden dowels of same or varying heights and configure it so they can screw in at various points on the board. You can build additional supports for the legs. Your set up will look like an upside down table with several geometrically or chaotically arranged legs. When you are finished you can remove the legs and fold the table in half for storage (Dang, I should get bucks for this idea!! It is so HOT!!!).

Past purposes for training the Mei Hua formation:

1-Light skill

2-Balance

3:Mobility

4- Muscular strength through the development of the stabilizer muscles: this one is my experience


I hope this helps.



mickey

[onyomi]

Thanks for the info, but it seems you must use the ball of your foot if you're standing on a beer can or something even smaller (someone from Wah Lum mentioned V8 cans). My whole foot is on the ground when I practice stances normally (other than xu-bu, duli-bu, etc.), so I can't just do the stances as usual.

I also read that people arrange the poles in the shape of a plum flower (one center pole with a pentagon around it) and then practice routines on them. Which stances do you practice and how do you transition like this? Do you say do horse on two, then step back with one foot into a bow stance, for example? I wonder if anyone has a video of this training. Thanks again.

[uki]

traditionally they used like 100 stakes in the ground with uniform spacing... i have discovered that you can also pattern them after star constellations and geometric shapes... you can also increase or decrease the height of each one so as to further work your lower body - i like 9 inches difference in mine... you can also incorporate the concept into bagua circle walking. i have a stack of utility poles that i am using - they were left on the property and i got tired of watching them waste away... you can substitute set poles with FHA's and corner cinder blocks stood up on end... or upright bricks.

[Black Mantis]

This guy used industrial-sized coffee/food cans filled with cement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puk_6zwNBqI