Do-it-yourself Meihua Poles?
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.
What senses do we lack that we cannot see or hear another world all around us?
--The Orange Catholic Bible