The Little Geogia Wonder Notes:

Thoughts on how to do it?:

 

​She appeared to barely touch an object, but great force was exerted.
A method was that though she placed her fingers on it very lightly, she touched it lightly many places, misdirecting watchers to think placement was unimportant and touch always light.
But, in the instance of a staff, pool cue, or many other objects, when she wanted to exert great force, she secretly caught the object with the balls of her hands (right at the base of her fingers).
This gave the impression that her fingers either lightly touched, or, did not touch at all.  Yet, she could deliver full force in this way.
Leverage also worked for her.
Having an audience member hold a staff firmly, but in the middle, her "light" touches employing this trick were made to the ends of the staff. Where, even a gentle force would be huge to the person trying to hold it still from the middle.
Further, I get the impression she may have told the volunteer to keep the staff or cue aligned either parallel or vertical to the ground.
The larger audience might not know she gave this instruction.
Even a very light touch would therefore cause the volunteer to struggle enormously, with no hope of maintaining that orientation against her greater leverage.
To the larger audience, it would appear she lightly touched the staff and that they could barely hold it with all their might.
It appears, when she asked them to force the staff straight down, this was how she made that move impossible.  They were struggling to keep it straight, and to the audience, her gentle side touch somehow prevented them from pressing a staff to the floor!
It also sounds like she may have given them a stance that seemed strong, but in fact made it easy for her to push them off balance during these demonstrations.