What has poi done for you?
This is just a little something I wrote a while ago about one of the many reasons why I spin poi. It irritates me that some people assume you're just a show off or an attention seeker. As well as toning your muscles and keeping your joints supple and loose, poi and other skill toys have a number of other health benefits. Here's my story...
So about 3 years ago, I managed to break my right arm. It was a stupid and really un-dramatic way to do so, involving me tripping over and landing awkwardly. I wasn't even doing anything exciting, I was at work on a coffee break. So after a trip to the hospital A&E department, I was told I had a minimally displaced fracture just below my right elbow joint (a very bad place for a fracture to be!). I had to basically immobilise it for at least 2 weeks and stay off work for at least 2 more, because I was told that if the bone displaced itself any more, I'd need surgery to correct it, and surgery involving bones is never good.
Needless to say, a couple of weeks with a head full of codeine (nasty stuff, really -- it totally dulls your mind) and being unable to even write or draw, let alone poi or play guitar, I was bored out of my noodle! Though I did manage to teach my left hand how to be better at contact juggling in the meantime. But I digress...
So after some time, I had a checkup appointment with the doctor where I was told how to do a few excercises to help stretch out the (unbelievably stiff and painful) tendons in my arm. At the time I couldn't straighten my arm properly (actually about 120° was the limit of it being comfortable) and I was told there was a fair chance I might never fully regain my original flexibility... All sounding pretty dire there. Time to throw in the happy ending. My right and left arms these days are just as mobile and flexible as each other. If anything, they're both more flexible than they were 3 years ago! Unless I told you, you'd never know I'd even injured my arm, it's that good. The only thing to remind me is the occasional dull ache when it's cold, but that's nothing I can't handle.
So what's my point?
I owe the full use of my right elbow almost entirely to a combination of poi and contact juggling!
Just thought I'd share that. So if ever anyone ever asks me what the point is of spinning poi, sometimes I might say it looks cool. Sometimes I might say it's good for self esteem and that physical exercise wards off depression. Occasionally I'll say it's because I'm a pyromaniac... All of these things are true.
But sometimes, just sometimes -- I tell this story. Then people understand.
