Why more people are learning poi spinning and how it is therapeutic for them

Nitya Vyas always had the habit of spinning her ID cards in her hand in college and that continued till now, where she keeps rotating her office ID card continuously when she is at the office. It so happened that one of her friends saw this. She narrates, "My friend asked me, ‘Do you know what you are doing, or have you seen it somewhere?'" Vyas told the friend that she had no idea what they were talking about, but just spinning the card because it relaxes her. "My friend told me I am doing poi sport and encouraged me to do it properly," adds Vyas, who is happy to have discovered the poi spinning community.

There are so many different offbeat activities that are being done by people in Mumbai that aren't limited to the summer but throughout the year. While some of them involve sports like skateboarding, slacklining and surfing, others are going beyond that to pursue varied interests such as pole fitness, belly dancing and even hula hooping. As the plethora of activities increases by the day, the Covid-19 pandemic has also made people explore more of these different kinds of activities. The most recent one that is catching the attention of Mumbaikars has been spinning poi (pronounced as po-eh) and the summer season somehow seems like the best time to explore it.

For the uninitiated, poi is a weight on a cord, and poi spinning is the act of spinning that weight in circles around your body, according to spinpoi.com. A poi, Pitale says, can be made at home by using two soccer socks and two tennis balls; it requires two weights suspended at one end and you tie a hitch at either end. These pois are supposed to be moving in a circular motion in different planes. More popularly called contact poi, Vyas is one among many in the city, who are taking it up.

Discovering poi in Mumbai
The 25-year-old Borivali resident herself started practicing poi only three months ago after her friend introduced it to her in the office. After taking classes for two weeks before that, the city-based UX designer has been practicing by herself and she loves every moment of it. She explains, "I have myself been involved in a lot of different kinds of movements including being a Latin dancer. I am also a UX designer, so most of the time, it is just me sitting at the laptop or sitting still and that is why I have been keen to do a lot of movement practices very often."

It is not only the movements that are attractive for Vyas but also that it is quite cheap for people looking to explore any kind of movement which makes it ideal. "It is a potentially a very affordable way to manage both sides of your body and even in isolation, you feel relaxed whenever you are with poi. Since I am a graphic and UX designer and we work on laptops a lot, it just releases my wrists. So, it is a mindful practice of consciously moving every muscle of your body while being with yourself and relaxes you," she adds. Being a newbie, Vyas has only met a handful of people who are into it at the Mumbai Surf Club on Rajodi Beach off Virar, but she believes more people are taking it up because they are more aware of their body now than ever before.

Dr Suyash Rawat, founder of Mumbai Surf Club, explains, "The classes are held regularly - almost every week. We have been hosting them along with surfing so that people have more activities to indulge in when they come to the club." However, it seems like more people are attracted to spinning and that is more than Rawat even expect. "Lots of surfers are spending a lot of time learning such parallel activities like slackline, juggling, and balance boarding. So, this was one of those things," he adds. Since the club started in 2019, it has been seeing more and more people travel towards Virar over the weekend to indulge in different kinds of activities. While it first started with surfing, it has expanded to a lot more and spinning poi is one of them.

Interestingly, city-based health and wellness coach Sagar Pitale says the community is easily more than a few hundred people now. Being a poi spinner, he has been hosting movement workshops including spinning poi, for close to 10 years in the city. Apart from hosting sessions at The Mumbai Surf Club, Pitale, who is also a certified tai chi instructor, and founder of Poitrix, which hosts poi and tai chi workshops also takes classes independently in the city after starting almost 13 years ago. Since the start, he has seen a lot of change, and the pandemic like Vyas said did propel the interest toward workshops that help people learn about something new.

He explains, "Earlier, when I used to get workshops, I used to get participants who had gone to Goa and seen and learned about it there - they were more of the tourist crowd or people who have been travelling. However, now it is a stark contrast. "For my last workshop, I had a mechanical engineer, corporate executive, surfers, professional diver and a performance diver too."

Fascination with movement
It was on one of many such occasions where Malad-based Janhavi Ajgaonkar was at The Mumbai Surf Club in 2022 when she saw Pitale engaging the audience with these movements. While she was taking surfing lessons, the movements fascinated her almost immediately. "I never knew about poi, not even as a word. I didn't know what people do and why they are evening spinning around," laughs Ajgaonkar. However, it was that mystery that led her to pick up the poi in her hand and now it has been a year.

While the 26-year-old admits that she hasn't been as consistent as she would hope to be, it has become a part of her life now. Even though it is comparatively far, living in Malad allows Ajgaonkar to travel to the club, to attend the workshop, and she doesn't mind going all the way because she loves the community. Such is her interest that over time, she has only missed one or two sessions. However, she also hopes that the community grows and that more people take it up in the city, and through that more classes are held in other places in the city.

The finance professional, who pursues the practice in her free time, explains, "I have a fascination with movements and the need to check my body's maximum capability to know how it moves. Since I was always inquisitive, poi was one of the platforms that became a medium to understand how my body works." Before that, Ajgaonkar had limited knowledge about how her body can work but that changed because spinning a poi needs to force both sides of a person's brain to coordinate movements and that she says showed her how a whole new spectrum opened up for her mentally.

"The moment you realise - okay, this how the body is moving, and then you get into the sync, there is this relief from the daily chores you are doing and the 9-5 corporate job. The moment I start poi, during the entire session that I am doing, I just tend to forget everything. It is the only time I am thinking - what do I do, how do I do, how do I move, and my mind is working to do it. There is such calmness," explains the 26-year-old. Spinning the poi has led the Mumbaikar to apply the teachings in her everyday life by not limiting herself while attempting anything.

Poi for all
More than a decade ago, Pitale also did not limit himself to learning new things. Just like many of the people he teaches today in the city, even the Mumbaikar was introduced to poi by chance. "I got into spinning poi just by chance when I saw a family member spinning a set of pois almost 15 years ago. While my wife took to it, when I used to see her, even I got a little curious and thought I would give it a shot. Since it is an eye-and-body coordination activity, it requires agility and because I was into yoga already, it started coming to me easily." As the Mumbaikar started playing more with it, he realised how it was benefitting his muscle strength and even the suppleness of his wrist.

Pitale also realised that when he used to get into the process of spinning poi, he used to get into a flow, which was very identical to meditation. "So, I started enjoying spinning poi. While it first started as a hobby, after I started improvising and reached that kind of expertise that I could give performances," he shares. While it wasn't popular at the time, travelling around the world led Pitale to meet like-minded people and eventually got better at it.

In Mumbai, seeing a fraction of the population interested in it, he used to conduct workshops but never felt the need to take it seriously because it wasn't his bread and butter. The Mumbaikar, who has been sailing on the high seas for 25 years helps mariners keep fit and healthy by teaching them tai chi and yoga. However, whenever he was down from the ship, he spun poi and never stopped doing it. It took learning Tai Chi to help the Malad resident to understand how the movements were quite similar and how one has to train their body to move.

One may think Pitale's involvement in poi spinning is limited to self-discovery but isn't surface level because he is constantly researching about it. "Poi originates in New Zealand from the Maori tribe," he tells us. The Mumbaikar has also closely followed Dr Kate Riegle van West, who has completed her PhD in the health benefits of poi at the University of Auckland, where she is said to have conducted the first study to investigate how spinning poi affects physical and cognitive function.

"West has done a comparative analysis of health benefits you get while doing Tai chi and poi, and interestingly the results showed similarities between the two at all levels - physical, cognitive and mental wellbeing." West is also the founder and CEO of SpinPoi, a social enterprise dedicated to working with poi to improve health and well-being for all ages and abilities, according to the website.

Benefits of spinning poi
Today, Pitale is a Tai Chi instructor in the city and even does contact juggling and spinning staff but he loves spinning poi and advocating its health benefits to people. While he says there were as many as 100 people almost 10 years ago, today there are more people and that is evident from him conducting workshops in Malad too.

The fact that Pitale was getting on a call with a school that wanted to include it in their curriculum, just after speaking to this writer, proves that it isn't limited to adults but can also be done by children. The city-based instructor says there have been days where there are hardly any registrations for surfing but there are more for poi, and that is encouraging. "There has been an increase in interest. However, there is a lack of commitment and I would like to blame the city because we are all so busy that if someone tells people to come four times a week, it is difficult."

However, that hasn't deterred Mumbaikars like Vyas and Ajgaonkar to travel and spend time spinning poi whenever they can. The interest that he is getting has delayed him from going back on the ship. It is not only the interest of people wanting to learn but there are also more corporates showing interest. While these are attractive, Pitale reiterates that it is more than being a performative movement and more about the physical and mental benefits. Also, one that he says is contrary to popular belief that there is no gain without pain, spinning poi has gain without pain. "It is not something that will give you muscle soreness, rigidity or will not even frustrate you that you haven't been able to do it well."

It is something that Vyas has experienced when she took up spinning poi after the pandemic. Apart from Latin dancing, the Borivali-based designer has also taken up acro-yoga but keeps herself busy with poi movements, which is proving to be very fruitful. "I do it for mental peace and like to be alone when I am doing them," adds the Mumbaikar.

So, what are the benefits of spinning poi? Dr Sonal Anand, psychiatrist at Wockhardt Hospitals in Mira Road says there are many. She explains, "It helps with physical and cognitive benefits. It helps to perk up the mood and keep your brain and body happy and in synchronisation. It can be a good activity for those battling depression or who are under tremendous stress or anxiety. One can feel positive after the activity. It also improves hand-eye-coordination and decision-making skills." Apart from helping in so many different ways, she says it is a fun activity when done with friends and family members. "It also helps to enhance the focus and attention needed to do the daily tasks, strengthens the muscles and improves one's balance. One can also increase grip strength and mobility," she adds.

The fact that it isn't limited to a particular age group makes it even better. "It can help to become flexible, promote creativity, improves cardiovascular health, and increases confidence and self-esteem. It is also good for muscle toning and builds stamina and endurance." Last but not least, she says it is calming like practitioners have experienced, and helps with inner peace, while also teaching one to be patient as well.

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