I would like to cover this very important topic as I keep on receiving no. of calls from students/ parents for Gymnastics classes and at last after knowing details of Kalaripayattu they end up opting for Kalaripayattu classes. This is just because people know name of Gymnastics more than that of Kalaripayattu.
Having learned Gymnastics from no. of teachers and Kalaripayattu from Guru Murugan, I can easily explain difference between two.
Fist of all I would like to use one statement that Gymnastics too is one part of Kalaripayattu and apart from Gymnastics Kalaripayattu has many things to offer.
People has below reasons to choose Gymnastics.
1) Stunts like Flips, Handsprings, Rolls etc which looks very cool. Now these are also used in Dance.
2) It offers very good flexibility to students.
3) It gives very good strength to students.
4) It gives very good control on body.
5) It gives very high level of Fitness.
Now I will explain why people should opt Kalaripayattu instead of Gymnastics.
1) Stunts- All the flips, Handsprings, Rolls etc are already their in Kalaripayattu. At higher stages these moves are done with weapons in hands. Beside this there are so many complex moves including complex kicks in Kalaripayattu which when learnt leads to overall development of Body. Students of Kalaripayattu can easily learn most of the Dance moves in their Dance classes too. Even the high professional Dancers learns Kalaripayattu for improving their perfomances.
2) Flexibility - Though Gymnastics gives very good amount of flexibility to it's practitioners but it cannot match the flexibility offered by Kalaripayattu. Kalaripayattu offers endurance Flexibility instead of just simple flexibility. I mean to say Kalaripayattu practitioners can perform many moves especially of legs for much longer time. Actually most of the moves are combination of Strength, Flexibility and repetitions of both to increase Muscle endurance.
Beside other strength training exercise, try to hold the stances shown in pic. below even for 5 minutes and you will know what kind of strength Kalaripayattu practioners have.
4) Control- As I have already said Kalaripayattu practioners practice a lot of complex moves including Gymnastics which gives them total control on body in every kind of situation.
5) Fitness- Fitness offered by Kalaripayattu is unmatchable by Gymnastics or any other Martial arts. Iam saying this by experience not just boasting. Kalaripayattu gives overall fitness to students which includes Physical Fitness, Internal Fitness, Mental Fitness and Spiritual Fitness.
6) Moving Meditation - Kalaripayattu has a lot of scientific predefined moves. Most of the predefined moves when performed for in a seuqence is actually a kind of moving meditation. Very high level of concentration is achieved by it's practitioners. Below is just one example. These moves are called Ashtavadivus sequence.
7) Self Defense - Self defense is such an important part in today's lifestyle that is never offered by Gymnastics. Very high level of Self Defense system is taught in Kalaripayattu. Bare hand combat are taught at much later stages and weapons are taught in initial stages of Kalaripayattu.
8) Weapons - Variety of Weapons is taught in Kalaripayattu. Practioners are taught weapons not just for combat purpose only but are taught for display/ performing purpose too. Students when performs infront of large audience, their fear, nervousness go away after sometime. So you can see Kalaripayattu works on overall personality development of students. Me too has performed on variety of platforms all over India. However academy in which iam learning has perfomred outside India too.
In one line I will say Kalaripayattu is such a deep science offered by Lord Shiva (and his disciples) to mankind which if utilized can lead to very very healthy life till old age. This is not offered in Gymnastics.
Pranaam
Namaste
Ranjit Mishra
Martial Warriors Academy
www.martialart-warriors.in
Email- ranjitmishramartialarts@gmail.com
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