Description
Persian meels 101
This video course teaches you how to swing Persian meels, in a way you can easily follow and do at home.
It is also a great conditioning program for HEMA and historical fencers, especially if fighting with buckler, shield or dual weapons.
We start with a brief crash course in club swinging, where we cover safety and general principles, so that even new beginners can enjoy this program.
Then we dive into the traditional club exercises from the Persian Zoorkhaneh, otherwise known as the “House of Strength”.
Training with Persian meels addresses: strength endurance, mobility of spine, hips and shoulders, agility, coordination and balance. You will also improve your grip and train your core in a reactive fashion.
The club swinging rhythmic and repetitive circular patterns to drum beat work as a type of mindfulness. This was used to train the warriors’ minds to remain calm and collected before having to kill everybody on the battlefield…
What type of clubs do I need?
Traditional Persian meels are not required, any type of Indian club works fine to learn the exercises! The Pahlavandle is great to star light and increase the weight, or leverage, as you go.
For your benefit and future development, we cover the technical differences about swinging both light AND heavy meels, should you at some stage invest in a set of Authentic Meels.
The focus of this video course is on swinging light Persian meels to perfect technique, because we believe that for your longevity and own benefit, how fluid you swing is more important than how heavy. Light meels are favored by wrestlers while heavy meel swinging is more of a specialized weightlifting competition.
We also show you a few traditional push ups on the “Shena” push up board. With our quick guide, you’ll be able to build one yourself with just a handsaw, a piece of wood, a screwdriver, 8 screws and some sandpaper!
We do not cover the traditional arts of: Sang (shields), Kabbadeh (iron bow), Meel Sangin (heavy Meel), Meel Bazy (Meel juggling), Charkh Teez & Charkh Chamani ((fast and slow whirling). If you want to experience the full Zoorkhaneh traditions and rituals, you can find more info by looking up the International Zoorkhaneh Sports Federation.
Meels 101 includes:
- Training Guidelines and Safety
- Club swinging 101 express (safety and key point of club swinging)
- Basic exercises (grip, closed style vs open style club swinging, swipes, alternating low cast, footwork…)
- Classical exercises (4 count and 2 count swings, proper footwork, technique for heavy Persian meels)
- Extra exercises (double inner and outer back, alternating parry and strike, crisscross…)
- ”Pahlavan Rising Program” (program with 3 levels, benchmark goals, training advice…)
- How to easily make a Shena push up board to YOUR size (with minimal tools such as a handsaw and screwdriver)
- 3 essential Persian Shena push ups
- Cool down
Bowden L Palmer (verified owner) –
I finally got around to doing the bench test, so I think I can fairly review the program.
If you like to swing clubs and are in close quarters, this is the program for you! I’m 6’3″ and have safely swung my clubs under an 8′ ceiling with no issues.
It’s also pretty diverse in it’s exercises, so it can be challenging. I’m looking at Criss Cross and Parry and Strike for those.
The exercise program, Pahlavan Rising has 3 levels, plus sheena pushups and the Rostam flow/routine. I haven’t done the Rostam flow, but the video of it is pretty and I should take the time for it one day.
My only downside on Pahlavan Rising is that it gets a bit repetitive – no variability. And after doing Meels 101 for several months + Hanuman, the Bench Test wasn’t as bad as it looked.
However, neither are enough to take away a star. And the lack of variability got me to cook up my own semi-random program.
I highly recommend this program, especially if overhead space is an issue and you want to swing some heavier clubs.
Hugo Brincard (verified owner) –
If you are looking for in depth technique and workflow with meels & heavy club, this one is a must have!
Really complete & informative!
Mark Robson (verified owner) –
I gave this video series a watch after completing the Level 1 Club Swinging Certification and boy am I glad I did! This was a great follow up to the certification. It built on what we learned in level 1, brought us in to swinging two clubs and we finally got to swing some heavy clubs! :). I’ve been swinging heavy clubs for a while now but all I would ever do is upper back circles. After watching these videos from Thierry, I have so many more exercises to choose from! I’ve also cleaned up my technique and learned how to better protect my shoulders and rotator cuff. This is a great intro into heavy club / meel training and once you’ve completed it you will love the ZOORKHANEH and want your own House of Strength!