Hi all,

I've been training in indian clubs or club-bells for a while now and have noticed a lot of similarities in some movements, e.g. swipes and casts, which mirror similar motions with a sling. I use pretty light clubs, i.e. wooden clubs(2lbs) and some steel ones (6lbs) for all of my workouts. I may move on to larger heavier ones in the future but right now I'm just enjoying what I have.

I'm not generally a big fan of free weights or "bulking up" more a general toning and stretching and working to improve my joints and their flexibility. This is not to say that such an approach is wrong, just not my cup of tea, as it were.

Anyhow, there are lots of club swinging vids on Youtube but some of the best (IMO) are by a chap called zenkahuna. He's a really relaxed dude and I love to watch his vids. I may try to make a vid, which shows some of my club swinging and how it mirrors the sling moves. Until then, maybe you'll like this:

http://youtu.be/rc8XNqfuyVA

Cheers,
SC.

I never tried them but my dad was into Indian Clubs in his younger years.  He had the strongest hands and wrists of any human I've ever known.

Looks like something I`d like to do with a couple of axes ;)
timann

Cool Beans  :D

For the sake of continuity and to show other approaches to club training, here's a couple of links to other club vids on Youtube.

Scott Sonnon: http://youtu.be/owDJGnXGnxY

Good for general fitness and for those interested in MMA or bodybuilding. Bit too serious for me.

The Persian traditional approach using wooden meels, often done with music it seems!: http://youtu.be/QPEe7uTuuho

Interesting, but involves a traditional, perhaps quasi-religious approach (not 100% sure on this), which lies outside my interest in club bells. Impressive though.

Ok, the smaller/lighter end of the club spectrum would seem to better cross over to slinging. Hefting anything up to 30lbs is IMO a tad OTT.

But then chacun son gout!  :)

To Timann,

were you thinking of the Icelandic sagas? There was one mention of a chap fighting with two short hand axes as opposed to pairing a hand axe and large round shield. His father was ashamed and asked why he could not afford a linden shield. The son replied that his second axe was his shield.

The practice of such paired weapons may have been so unusual to have merited mention in the sagas. Google Hurstwic or have a look at their vids on youtube.  :)

Hurstwic is an awesome group. I've used them as a resource for my research into medieval sports and games. The work they have done on analyzing the saga's is very impressive. Darc is another group that does a lot of research into the viking sagas.

snowcelt wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2011 at 4:30am:

To Timann, were you thinking of the Icelandic sagas? There was one mention of a chap fighting with two short hand axes as opposed to pairing a hand axe and large round shield. His father was ashamed and asked why he could not afford a linden shield. The son replied that his second axe was his shield. The practice of such paired weapons may have been so unusual to have merited mention in the sagas. Google Hurstwic or have a look at their vids on youtube.  :)

I`m always thinking of Islandic sagas ;)  
But honestly I was thinking more of the fact that I have several axes (wood processing tools - not weapons) laying about, but no heavy clubs.  Guess they has to be bought somewhere, and buying tend to cost money, which could be used to buy usefull stuff instead.... :)

Axes seems to be perfect for the job, heavy heads, sharp edges....teaches you at least to be carefull, to avoid edge to edge or edge to flesh contact :D

Back when I was boxing and wrestling, I used to use a sledgehammer on an old tractor tyre for a similar style of force generating training. Brilliant training. Now I powerlift and supplement it with Olympic lifting but really wish I had that old tractor tyre still kicking around. I imagine it'd be an excellent method for training the force generation needed for distance slinging.

snowcelt wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2011 at 9:47am:

Hi all, I've been training in indian clubs or club-bells for a while now and ...

So I just had to run out and assemble a pipe fittings clubbell ... My local big box didn't have all the parts from the YouTube video so I made do with what they had.

1 1/2" cap, 12" X 1 1/2" nipple, 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" coupler, 1 1/2" to 3/4" bushing, 3/4" X 18" nipple and 3/4" cap ... PS all in inches ... wasn't heavy enough so loaded with galvanized nails  now weighs in at 9.5 pounds .  Just had the most intense workout I've ever had using near 10 lbs.  The weight concentrated in the end makes a big difference.

I remember seeing a thread about this a while ago, and thinking "boy, I really ought to try that" and now I really do have to, it makes more sense to me than isolating muscles that are meant to work together.

SnowCelt, since you work out with these regularly, did you just copy zenkahuna's videos when you first started?

Hi again,

Yep, pretty much. I watched as many videos on club bell training as I could, decided which approach I wanted to take and started slowly from there. I usually train new moves with the lighter 2lb clubs and when I have that down I switch to the heavier steel clubs (still only 6lbs).

One small word of warning. Mind your wrists and elbows. You can strain them if you go too heavy too fast. Same as with kettlebells, start low and work up. Technique is everything.

Enjoy your training!