The Chinese believe that all your body systems are connected by energy meridians. Using Baoding balls is believed to stimulate meridians that end in your hands and, in turn, all the systems, like the heart and lungs, those meridians are connected to. Baoding balls are almost always sold in pairs, may be made of wood, metal or stone, and vary from 30mm to 60mm in diameter.
Basic Spin
The fundamental baoding ball exercise consists of rotating two balls around a common axis. Hold two baoding balls in one hand, palm up, and imagine a pole sticking straight up out of the middle of your hand. Use every part of your fingers and palm to rotate the balls around that imaginary pole. They’ll look like two planets orbiting the sun. The balls may click together as you first get started, but work up to rotating them without letting them touch at all.
Make sure to spend an equal amount of time rotating the balls in the opposite direction, too. Once you feel comfortable with this motion you can add extra balls into the rotation.
Sideways and Upside Down
Once you’ve mastered the basic spinning technique, turn your hand sideways so that your palm is vertical and continue the same motion. Remember to reverse directions halfway through.
You can also turn your hand palm-down and rotate the balls in first one direction, then the other. Obviously you’ll need to close your fingers around the balls to keep from dropping them, but the rotating motion stays the same.
Up and Over
For an extra challenge, turn your hand palm-up and place two balls in it, one resting on your fingers and the other in the middle of your palm. Use every part of your fingers and palm to bring the ball resting on your fingers up and toward you, over the top of the ball that’s sitting in your palm. At the same time, push the ball that was sitting in your palm up to your fingers to take the other ball’s place. Continue switching the balls back and forth this way, then switch directions so that the ball in your palm slides up and over the ball in your fingers.
Orbit
The orbit technique is almost exactly like the basic spin, but this time instead of rotating around an imaginary pole, two or more balls orbit around another baoding ball, held motionless in the palm of your hand.
Pyramid
The pyramid technique is similar to the orbit technique, but the orbiting balls are brought closer together while the center ball sits on top of the orbiting balls, instead of resting between them. The end result is a pyramid structure with a rotating--or orbiting--base.
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