Double Gada Preparation for Jori

This is definitely not for the faint-hearted, I felt really honoured to bear witness to the Double Gada swing. The weights of the Gadas were 25kg and 20kg respectively, which is unbalanced for a kick-off.

Loading the Two Gadas

The loading process is the same as for the Jori Clubs. The athlete lifts and loads the first Gada onto his shoulder, and the second Gada is lifted by an assistant who holds the Gada high up on outstretched arms so that the contestant can move below the upheld Gada and have it lowered onto his shoulder.

Technique

It is vital that each Double Gada swing is on the lateral plane, this is accomplished by turning the shoulders and thoracic section, in addition, the legs step moving the whole body weight to counterbalance the moving Gada.

A Challenge

This process is a difficult challenge because the stationary Gada has to be held still and controlled while the first one is in full swing.

Swinging Jori Clubs

The Gada is used by Jori Club athletes for training and preparation to swing Jori Clubs. The training involved is ladder-style, one arm 360 swings are performed starting with 10kg, 15kg, 20kg and 25kg Gadas.

20 Repetitions

Starting with the 10kg Gada the athlete will swing 20 repetitions with each arm and then progress to the next weight, and so on. This is considered to be a warm-up for swinging Jori Clubs.

Ladder Style

Once the warm-up is complete the attention is given to swinging Jori Clubs which are swung in pairs. Starting with clubs weighing about 10kg each a similar ladder style progression is performed to the Gada warm up.

It is worth noting that there are three categories of Jori, THIN, FAT and NAIL.

This description refers to the body of the clubs, a Thin Jori is easier to hold on your shoulder than the FAT Jori, which wants to roll off.

So you can see a kind of natural progression here.

• The warm-up with a Gada has a narrow handle and a lot of weight.
• Swinging THIN Jori, which are bulkier and somewhat lighter in each hand.
• Swinging FAT Jori, which feel like telegraph poles due to their bulk. To prevent the clubs from rolling off the shoulders the athlete pushes his elbows forward and up creating a small valley by the collar bone, simultaneously pushing the stationary club against his neck and face.