Baoding Balls
Encyclopedia
Baoding
-Administrative divisions:Baoding prefecture-level city consists of 3 municipal districts, 4 county-level cities, 18 counties:-Demographics:The Baoding urban area has a population of around 1,006,000 . The population of the Baoding administrative area is 10,890,000. The considerable majority are...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, thought to have been created during the Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. Two or more Baoding balls are rotated repetitively in the hand to improve manual dexterity and strength, and they are also said to assist in injury recovery.
History
Baoding balls are believed to have originated in BaodingBaoding
-Administrative divisions:Baoding prefecture-level city consists of 3 municipal districts, 4 county-level cities, 18 counties:-Demographics:The Baoding urban area has a population of around 1,006,000 . The population of the Baoding administrative area is 10,890,000. The considerable majority are...
, a town in the Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
province of China, during the Ming Dynasty. They were once called "Chinese iron balls", since they were originally made of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. As of 2011, there are still artisans in Baoding who produce the meditation balls.
Materials and composition
As Baoding balls 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 cloisonnéCloisonné
Cloisonné is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects, in recent centuries using vitreous enamel, and in older periods also inlays of cut gemstones, glass, and other materials. The resulting objects can also be called 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
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
or tungsten carbide
Tungsten carbide
Tungsten carbide is an inorganic chemical compound containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. Colloquially, tungsten carbide is often simply called carbide. In its most basic form, it is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes for use in industrial machinery,...
provide added weight, requiring more effort to rotate.
Use
The basic exercise consists of rotating a pair of Baoding balls in the palm of the hand, ensuring even and constant contact is made between the balls. 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 more balls.The average person should be able to start with a 45 millimetres (1.8 in) diameter ball, moving up to the 60 millimetres (2.4 in) size as their muscles get accustomed to the exercise. Larger Baoding balls (70 millimetre) can be used, although eventually it is impossible to rotate them without touching. 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 particular finger joints. Well-known bodybuilders such as John Brookfield use large shot-put balls as Baoding balls, rotating them to develop forearm muscles and improve grip.
In Popular Culture
Baoding balls are used by the character CLU 2 in Tron: Legacy; this occurs in the arena scene as Sam Flynn battles Rinzler/TRON. Kevin Flynn himself is seen to have a similar pair of objects as decor in his home, but which are actually Yoshimoto CubeYoshimoto Cube
The Yoshimoto Cube is a polyhedral mechanical puzzle toy invented in 1971 by Japanese man . The cube is made up of eight interconnected cubes and it is capable of folding and unfolding itself in a cyclic fashion. You can keep folding, or unfolding the cube, indefinitely. Once folded, the cube can...
s that are spiked instead of rounded and resemble the Bit of the original Tron
Tron
-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
.
Aerosmith included clips of Baoding balls (including skull-shaped ones) being rotated in their music video for the song "Eat the Rich."
Cptn Philip Francis Queeg (Humphrey Bogart) The Caine Mutiny (1954)