The Gada Part 1
by Thom Van Vleck
The Great Gama with his Gada (Mace).
When I was a kid my first influence in physical fitness was my grandfather Dalton Jackson He started training in 1928 at the age of 13. At that time training information was sparse and what was available was often poor and sometimes dangerous! One area my grandfather was interested in was wrestling and this led him to one of the greatest of all time….the Great Gama. Gama wrestled in India (although I have learned he was ethnically Pakistani) for 50 years and was undefeated in that span! He lived from 1880 to 1963 and his exploits were legendary. He beat everyone in India and then sailed to England and challenged the world. He had a “Gar Nal” that weighed over 200lbs that was a stone ring that he would put around his neck to do squats. There is a story that he lifted a 1200kg (2645lbs) stone. It is claimed he lifted this stone to his chest and then carried it. I think that’s impossible but I do think it’s possible he may have lifted the stone in some fashion (such as lifting the edge off the ground or flipping the stone or some other partial lift). Both of these stones are in a museum in Pakistan now. It is also interesting that Bruce Lee studied Gama’s training habits very closely and adapted them to his own philosophies.
Classic use of the Indian Clubs in both hands from an old English book on training.
One of Gama’s favorite training tools was his Gada (or Mace). It was a very heavy version of an Indian club. The legend behind it is that it was the main weapon of the Hindu god Hanuman. Hanuman was the god of strength and was the god that Indian wrestlers worshiped. So basically it is a war club what the Europeans called a “Mace”. I often think of it as being the first weapon ever and picture a cave man carrying his club! It became one of the traditional training pieces in Hindu physical culture and was eventually transferred to England in the from of the “Indian Club” that was a popular part of the early physical culture movement in Victorian England over 100 years ago. One Gada could be used or two. You will often see the Indian club trained with two at a time.
Dalton Jackson doing his modified "Gada" exercises.
When I was a kid I would watch my Uncle’s train with barbells and dumbbells. They were Olympic style lifters and trained as such. Meanwhile my grandfather always seemed to be doing something different. I hate to say it but there was a point where I was a teen that I was “all in” to weightlifting and when my grandfather tried to teach me on some of his training I didn’t listen well (politely…but not closely as I always respected him). I have few photos of him training but one I do shows him with makeshift “Gada” style dumbbells. I realize now that much of his training was based on “Indian” style training and since the Great Gama favored the Gada, so did my grandfather.
Part II: Building the Ultimate Gada