Mallakhamb: Teaching fitness the ancient way
Hyderabad: As we enter the bylanes of Badichowdi, the sound of children screaming at the top of their voice and cheering their peers, egging them to perform better, leads us to the Health League Trust, where several young ones are being trained in the traditional Indian sport of Mallakhamb.
Formed 77 years ago, the Trust has been where several hundreds of the city’s children have learned multiple traditional sports and remained fit and agile.
“Health League was founded in 1944, and since then we have been training boys and girls in Mallakhamb, Kho Kho, yoga and modern gymnastics. Mallakhamb is basically doing all the asanas on the pole and on the hanging rope. We take boys and girls from the age of five and train them. This is recognised by Sports Authority of India, and we are the authorised coaching centre, under Khelo India scheme,” says Captain Shanti Swaroop Lele, Health league secretary and an ex-Merchant Navy officer.
“We train students in indigenous games mostly, and from families that cannot afford racket sports and all. All these years, we were teaching for free and since last year, we are charging a nominal fee. We also initiated a diet scheme where we give them a nutritious diet supplement. We have 150 boys and girls every evening on the ground. Of them, 75 are being trained in Mallakhamb, for which we have three ropes and three poles on the ground. We also have kabbadi, Kho Kho and yoga,” adds Captain Lele, who advises that it is always better to get the child start young. It’s a daily activity with the exception of Sundays.
What is Mallakhamb:
“It’s like performing all the asanas on the pole or on the rope, mostly boys do on the poles and girls on the rope,” explains Captain Lele.
The word Mallakhamb also refers to the pole used in the sport. The pole is usually made from Sheesham (Indian rosewood) polished with castor oil. Three popular versions of Mallakhamb are practised using a sheesham pole, or rope. The name Mallakhamb derives from the terms malla, meaning wrestler, and khamb, which means a pole.
The Health League has two Mallakhamb trainers and offer training in Pole Mallakhamb and Rope Mallakhamb.
Pole Mallakhamb: The vertical wooden pole is fixed to the ground, and smeared with castor oil to minimise friction. Participants perform various acrobatic feats and poses while hanging on the pole. Wrestlers mount, dismount and utilise the pole for various complex callisthenics designed to develop their grip, stamina, and strength in the arms, legs, and upper body.
Rope Mallakhamb: In this variation, the student performs exercises while hanging on a rope suspended from a support at the top. The rope is typically 5.5 metres (18 ft) long, and approximately 1 to 2 centimetres (0.39 to 0.79 in) in diameter. The rope is caught by the performer in the gap between the big toe and the second toe, along with one or both hands.
After climbing upwards on the rope, the performer ties the rope around the body through a sequence of steps. The performer then reaches various positions called Udi (to fly), some of which are imitations of standard asana.
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