Comments on: Mallakhamb – 12th Century Pole Dancing

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:50:24 +0000

Hello Sridhar,

Thank you for your message, I’m pleased you enjoyed our post.

That’s really interesting that you agree there isn’t much out there for people to read and learn about, so we can’t wait for your website to come live so we can learn more about your amazing sport – and do send us any videos you have of yourself – we would love to watch!

xxxx

By: Sridhar Ramachandran

Sridhar Ramachandran — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:19:10 +0000

hi.. guys.. i practise mallakhamb for past four months.. its really a great game… i read all ur comments…

@ andrew: hi u r rite… we dont find much stuff on internet, its because we guys here in india have stuffs only in regional language so couldn’t post it in net..

and you said about the scoring system… its completely based on our flexibility,endurance,style and timing…. we have postures of various yogas.. mounting styles, dismounting styles which adds our score..
a good news is tat im creating a website for mallakhamb so i will try to put more stuffs,informations, photos , videos etc…

By: mohan zunjepatil

mohan zunjepatil — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:53:21 +0000

hi, i am student of m.ed (in physical education) . i am intersted research on mallakhamb

By: FitnessFreak

FitnessFreak — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:07:07 +0000

That’s cool although the initial mounting looks somewhat uncomfortable! :)

By: alexa

alexa — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:18:05 +0000

amazing

By: silentjess

silentjess — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:14:50 +0000

i love it. it really justifies the benefits of pole exercise. it should be educated to others whom view it as dirty dancing. :)

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 03:27:52 +0000

Thanks for dropping by, Mahesh! And good luck with your research. Please let us know what you find out. The Yoga in Air site seems to be down at the moment and obviously I don't want to publish Mahesh's email. If you want to participate, please post something here or use the contact form and I'll put you in touch.

By: Mahesh Atale

Mahesh Atale — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:22:25 +0000

Hari Om
Like Yoga, Mallakhamb is also a Traditional Indian Physical activity. We are conducting research programmes on this amazing act of Mallakhamb ! Anyone who is interested in partcipating actual research project, please mail me. Doctors, Biomechanics, Engineers, Anatomosist Everyones help is essential.
HARI OM

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:35:24 +0000

Yes, it’s fascinating how it can be so similar and yet so different.

One thing we didn’t talk about in the post is the way it’s scored – participants have to perform a set routine (and optional extra moves) within a certain time limit (max and min). This seems to come out in the way the boy moves – he doesn’t gracefully hold any of his poses, but just jumps straight on to the next move. No idea what most of the required positions are though, as (of course) they have unfamiliar names.

An odd thing about mallakhamb is the almost complete lack of info on the web. Normally, if we stick a few links at the bottom, we choose 5 or so that seem to be the most useful out of hundreds or thousands of possible choices.

But in this case, the links on the bottom are almost literally it (and most of those seem to have copied the same bit of text verbatim). I also only came across about 30 photos (including a dizzying 1 on Flickr).

It’s not as though it’s a fringe sport either (as far as I can tell at least) – 14 states in India compete every year in mallakhamb championships.

By: Terrassa

Terrassa — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:12:22 +0000

Wow, he’s really good. And that was a mighty thick pole! And he has castor oil on?!?! Now, that’s skill!