WHAKAPAPA FRIDAYS - What if I said that balance and stability for Māori had more to do with our atua, than that wobble board people use at the gym? Developing balance and stability today is largely focussed around brain training and body training. Brain training develops your proprioceptive skills of understanding where your body is in space. Its a type of sixth sense that enables us to determine where our arms or legs are without looking at them. This allows us to walk without looking at our feet, or league players like Benji Marshall to pass the ball without looking. Body training looks specifically at abdominal strength, and developing our other muscles to manage strong, fast and accurate movements. These two areas of developing the body and mind is how that wobble board achieves greater balance and stability. However, as Māori, balance and stability training was primarily a function of our connection to atua. Our sense of balance and stability is determined by our setting, and our understanding of our connection (in all dimensions - physical, mental, spiritual) to the atua residing over that setting. Balance and stability is a relationship one has with our environment. Running with Papatūānuku, surfing with Tangaroa, flying with Tāwhirimātea and so on. Balance and stability therefore is not transferable across different domains. So a master within Papatūānuku does not become a master of Tangaroa by default. Balance and stability training was not, as I believe it, a primary focus of the training methods undertaken in the past. Activities such as training foot movements through pakiaka (grids likened to ladder training for sprinters) seek to establish a wide diversity in foot movements. The greater the diversity, the greater the relationship that exists with Papatūānuku. The greater the relationship, the better ones balance and stability in that setting. So what does that mean for us today? It means to establish balance and stability from a Māori perspective we are primarily looking at two areas; 1. Understand the connection between ourselves, our setting, and the environment we are in. E.g. Re-establish your connection to Papatūānuku by removing your shoes. Wearing shoes creates a barrier between ourselves and Papatūānuku. We lose so much sensory information, or cues that is detrimental to our sense of balance and stability. 2. Diversify our connection to the atua responsible for the setting we are in. E.g. Learn movements in abnormal ways to extend your knowledge and relationship with a particular atua. If you are a surfer, learning how to surf in a variety of stances develops a greater connection to Tangaroa. Imagine the possibilities of mastering goofy and regular stances! So when it comes to developing balance and stability, ask yourself in which arena do I need to excel. If it is on the ground seek to develop a relationship with Papatūānuku. If on water, Tangaroa. If in the air, Tāwhirimātea. If in the trees, Tānemahuta. If on rubber......medicine ball? #WhakapapaFridays #Maori #NZ #Balance #Stability #NoMoreShoes #ParuFeet #SurfsUp Photo Credit: Maori boys performing a haka, Ohinemutu. Hislop, Harold Stevens, d 1933 :Photograph albums. Ref: PA1-o-229-23-2. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 19:55:00 +0000
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