Poi means ball in Māori, its basically a ball attached to a plaited chord. Perhaps you would have seen a poi performance in Goa, fire and LED pois are pretty common. The earliest Poi performances have been dated back to 1905 by the Māori tribes of New Zealand.
Poi performances were done for various reasons including war dances known as the Haka, a very active performance, that included fierce shouts as well as welcoming dance performed with swaying and rhythms. Take a look at a fire performance done by a poi professional below.
But what are the benefits of this form of juggling? When you first begin to spin the balls you would realize that its pretty difficult to get your left and right hand coordination even without trying to intersect the ball routes. This helps develop your coordination after you get that you realize that it can be quite strenuous on your hands.
The pois also help you develop flexibility, strength and most importantly dexterity of the wrist. The poi is an exercise of movements central to the use of hand weapons, but today its more of an art, a dance along with music as well as an exercise.
Simple pois are reasonably priced while the fire pois and LED pois are more expensive. A warning especially to the males who want to try juggling, when you are learning don’t spin too fast because the Pois tend to hit you where it hurts the most.
Lets take a look at this Poi tutorial –
Image source
Poi circles
Poi artist
