There are broadly two purposes of Gada swinging

I am not a wrestler but I think all r correct but target different areas of body.

To find a logical answer as a westerner is going to be difficult. These Akharas have been here for centuries and most of knowledge is passed via Guru - Shishya system, which is absent in west. A large number of these Akharas were either associated with Temples or were patronized by Royal families and had traditional Doctors ( Vaids in India) to support them, who had better understanding of body mechanics. What you see now is mostly the remnant of an ancient system which is barely breathing. With Government taking over temples and abolishment of Monarchy, most Pehlwans lost their sponsors and the places you visit are skeletons of glorious past.

I am from south, Karnataka. My parents and grand parents for generations we were wrestlers. The Gada has to be swung over head and once it comes front you should hold it upright. Then go for next round. Without holding upright, if you keep rotating, you won't develop wrist power and balance to hold the gada straight. Anyway thought of sharing after seeing your browser intrest in gada.

Over the shoulder is about conserving energy (makes sense for heavier club), but it doesn't mean over the head is wrong. More range of motion, more acceleration as the club drops behind the back which might have something to do with the shape of the club and its center of mass.

The guru didn't asked you swing over the shoulder but was asking to hold the gada in front after completing every swing....hold the posture then continue the next swing..... that's language barrier

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I'm from Kolkata, I have personal gym where I train myself for last 20 years. I practice regularly except sunday. Gada and mugdar are part of indian traditional Akhara exercise instrument. The main exercise of any akhara is Dand Baithak. Haryana and Varanasi are famous for Akhara. Style of swing depends upon individual Guru. And place of course. I think Varanasi style is the best, because its historically famous for physical culture and education. I will purchase a 10kg mugdar soon for my gym.

Let me add the southern perspective here. Here in south india gadas are not present or they are very rare. We swing the clubs. Gadas made a very late entry into south india. Although i am not sure if it is a fact, because these information are just out of conversations with elders. Our club is karalakattai and it is so named because it is the weapon of choice of the one of the commanders of lord shiva named karalan. Sorry for the digression, back to the topic of swinging. Here in the south we always swing it over head and not the wrestling style. Classical style is swinging over the head and wrestling style is kinda sorta over the shoulders, by moving your head up and down whilst swing. I am honestly not sure as to which came first or which is better with respect to region as club/gada swinging is more famous up north. One of the southern style which has almost become nonexistent is a full swing using thoppakarala("heavy club with belly") and slamming the ground like hammer constituting 1 rep. For the next rep you use the other hand and do a full swing over head and slam it on the ground. This type of swing has become extinct as there are not many club users in south unlike northern akaras which are saving these. So yes, comcluding in the south, we swing the club over head. In fact i came to know shoulder top swing or wrestler style only few years back. Till that i was swinging over head and I have been swinging for long time. Thanks to my dad, that i have a mace and few clubs and been enjoying swinging.

Several exercise has different methods to do it, mace/gada flow is one among those several exercises, this is a ancient training method, based on weapons like sword and gada, and when you move a weapon to hit the enemy, you can't really be position eccentric every time, so this uncertainty gives the gada training different methods to train, though every method is correct, given it doesn't give you an injury.

It is variation for practitioner of mace art which suits them by different teacher. Choose whichever way our body find comfortable to practice.

I am Indian and i learnt so much from this videos.

Mate you are doing a great thing. All the best.

I think the way you presented it was very brilliant because there could be a different ways to do it but you showed us the ways that explains people with their perspective. Nice video. Enjoyed a lot👏👏

You are really skilful in swinging mace

So I've been swinging western steel maces for a little over a year now, and in the last couple months started to make and swing some more traditional gada. Moving from 20lb steel mace's to heavier gada, I started to develop some low back pain which to me indicates my form is way off, or I tried to jump wait too aggressively. I've watched tons of your videos and tried to emulate Indian form, as well as yours but it's still just me guessing. Would you consider making a video that really outlines proper form with back, hips, etc? Or if you have any videos that you'd recommend I'd love to look at those. Thanks!

Very interesting bro! thanks for sharing knowledge!! greetings from Brazil!!

I noticed that swinging gada over head style is 100% like swinging Sword for sword fight in kind of old Marathi movie ,

Great video, I think, Both interpretations are correct they work on the different muscle groups.. people avoid over the shoulder as some mugdars are above 20kg weight and if not swung correctly can dislocate the shoulder due to the high jerk on the shoulder blade..

I agree, you should do them all. There is no good or best style imo. I started with the behind the head style (I call this a high cast) en just started with the behind the shoulder style (I call this a low cast). The low cast demand more mobility of the body and I think that is why in the West you see the high cast more often. Great video again.