Baoding / Dexterity / Chinese Exercise Balls

[Pancho Villa]

Hi - this is my first post, and I wanted to discuss the use of Chinese exercise (Baoding) balls for improving hand dexterity, arm and shoulder strength. I recently got into this, and have been using solid steel balls from 60mm through to 90mm and wanted to share a cheap source for these I have discovered, and also to discuss variations on the techniques for their use.

Bear with me, as I wrote this in one sitting about ten minutes ago, so it may be a little rough and ready.

Chinese exercise balls:

CHEAP SOURCES:

F J Brindley have been mentioned on here in previous postings, and they supply forged mild steel balls (in the UK) for use in shot blasting - just find a local shot blasting equipment supplier. From memory they carry sizes up to 150mm in diameter, however for exercise purposes, we would probably be restricted to the 50-100mm diameter size range. Machine bearings in these size ranges are enormously expensive - once you go past 50mm, you could be looking at more than £100 per ground and polished ball.

Since these are supplied in an as-forged condition, they are not really suitable for use immediately, but will need a little preparation. Firstly, they are covered with what is known as mill scale - black Iron oxide which is deposited on the surface during forging. This leaves black marks everywhere, and can be very difficult to remove without the correct tools.

If you are in a hurry, you can file off mill scale, however this leaves the surface of the ball covered in file marks. These will wear down after if you constantly grind the balls together in your hands, and they will eventually become smooth. You will notice that as you grind them together, a black residue is left on your hands - this is iron powder which comes of as high spots on the balls wear off.

A better way to remove mill scale is to soak the balls in household vinegar, the longer the better - anything up to a week is fine, hovever the time required is increased with a larger ball, or a thicker deposit of mill scale. Periodically during the soak, you can rub the mill scale off with your hands or a brush, thus allowing the vinegar to reach the layers underneath.

Once all the mill scale is removed, you will need to wash off all the vinegar thoroughly, and then protect the balls against rusting (since they are not stainless steel) - this can be done by the application of oil after each time you use them.

Olive oil works well, since it is slightly viscous, and clings well to the balls surface.

I have noticed that the smaller (50-60mm) balls may have excess material present in the form of large ridges - these can be filed down to produce a more rounded shape, and continued use with the balls contacting will smooth out the imperfections.

Larger balls are normally pretty round, though balls of all sizes may be covered with pock marks which will again wear down with continued use.

I would suggest that on the receipt of a new pair of shot blasting balls, some time be spent rotating them in your hand while they touch to smooth them off.

If the balls rust again, they can either be re soaked in vinegar, or you can wear the rust off by grinding them together in your hands - however this will not remove any rust that lies in pock marks in the surface of the ball. This also deposits a fine layer of red iron oxide on the skin, which some believe can toughen it.

USE:

In use - you can rotate a pair of balls both touching, and not touching, clockwise and counterclockwise - varying the position of the hand relative to the body to work different muscle groups in the arms and shoulders. You can hold the hand outstretched infront of you, out to the side, or - my personal favourite, with the arm bent 90 degrees at the elbow, rotate the balls with the hand at waist level, and a fist sized gap under the arm.

Concentrate on either keeping the balls in constant contact, or when keeping them apart, try to keep the distance between them constant from rotation to rotation. To vary the muscles that are exercised, the gap between the bals can be increased and decreased.

Once you have achieved a smooth, fluid, quick rotation with a balanced pair, try using two balls of different weights, keeping them both rotating quickly.

To increase your awareness of what your hand feels, work with your eyes closed, this way you must feel the position of the balls and react to any changes to prevent you dropping them.

Do try to avoid dropping them on yourself - it bloody hurts when they fly out of your hand and land on your ankle bone, or toes - I have plenty of experience of this :P

There are so many ways you can vary the exercise - pushing the balls mor over a particular region of the hand, jumping balls etc. but these are quite difficult to put into words, so I shall try and take some video clips of what I mean - I have by no means mastered the balls, but I can ocasionally get a few of the variations to work - its just a matter of for how long before I drop the balls on a vital body part :P

[Cunny]

welcome to the board!

nice info what else do you train what brought you here?

[BAM676]

Hey there Pancho,

I am new to this board as well and this is my first post. Good suggestions on other exercises to try. I use mine as a warm up and cool down to my grip training with grippers. They seem to help loosen my hand joints up and aid afterward in forcing the lactic acid from my hand muscles.

I have only been grip training for about 2 months now but have been pleased with my progress.

When using my Dexterity Balls I start with plams facing up, then move to palms facing each other. Then to add a bit more difficulty I try doing them with my palms facing the ground, and yes the balls hurt when dropped on a toe or in your lap!!

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Pancho Villa]

Cunny:

I have only really just got into grip training - I have been using solid balls for about 5 months now - I began with 55mm and 60mm balls, and about a month ago, once I was confident I started on 70mm and 80mm balls.

I usually try and use them for at least an hour every day, doing a variety of exercises, I even started using them on the walk to and from university - though I got some funny looks :P.

Currently with my right hand, I can manage about 100 fast rotations (with balls touching constantly) at a time with a pair of the 80mm which weigh about four and a half pounds each. I can spin both the 70mm and 80mm quite fast without them touching in a counterclockwise direction, and can rotate the 70mm balls like this almost indefinitely (they weigh about three pounds each). Running the balls without them touching clockwise in the right hand at any speed is more difficult, however I can go quite fast with the 60mm and 70mm balls.

As I said - ill try to take a few video clips of some of the variations - it might take me a little while though.

I like this type of exercise, as it involves skill, and practise to do properly, and you can perform such a wide variety of subtle variations so as to prevent it becoming boring.

Currently, I am also practising rotating three 60mm balls touching with a 50mm ball balanced on top - this is quite difficult to do without dropping the 50mm ball, and puts quite a strain on the fingers and the wrist.

Eventually, I think I should be able to move up to 100mm balls, however I have been looking into Tungsten Carbide - from memory, an 80mm TC ball would weigh almost nine pounds, though the cheapest price I have found was a 50mm TC ball for £140 - Quite costly. On the upside, they would never corrode, and are virtually indestructible.

Edited July 30, 2006 by Pancho Villa

[richcottrell]

Just saw this while reading a book on magic from The 1400’s to the 1950’s…

not grip, but interesting to me enough to visit my old home “the gripboard”

[Cannon]

Great to see you @richcottrell!!!