Full contact fighting with weapons changes everything. Yes, the half circles are not powerful enough to stop your opponent. They are used as blocks, pushes, and feints (often with intent) to open up opportunities to cut your opponent down. Remember: The staff is an impact weapon, a long bludgeon. The jab is effective but only to the face/throat/solar plexus/groin because there’s not enough power in it.

The trick is to treat the staff as an extension of your hands and develop skull shattering power by sliding your grip, striking with the body, and DELIVERING. Every fighter I’ve shown this concept to gets a big grin on his/her face. I’ve busted so many sticks this way that I now train with a 2″ thick fire hardened rattan staff with the skin still on. Heavy ehough to bust cinderblocks with a thrust or half-circle strike; a power move shatters them. Beyond this simple way to overpower nearly any other weapon (the spear being the most obvious exception), there are the ‘endless staff’ techniques whereby you can launch a barrage of strikes from virtually any angle in continuous succession. This you would have to see. It’s just a simple slip of the hands but it makes the staff one of the best weapons in my arsenal.

So in one sense I agree with you; what the Shaolin monks (and many of my kung fu brothers) call staff fighting is a pretty form. I decided long ago that only practical application would allow my students to understand each weapon and its tactics.

As for the spinning, it’s virtually useless in combat unless you have trained to redirect the circles into strikes. And by the way the guy who spins it in front of him nearly always loses his stick (and the fight) when I jab into the circle and disrupt his motion.

But spinning is the entry to understanding balance and power. Learn to spin from the center first, but then choose a place further down to one end so it is a little heavier on one end. See the power you generate now? Anyway, I could go on and on.

Keep up the good work, but don’t sit at your computer imagining what you might do; just make a couple of sticks and start hitting each other.

Thanks

B

I’m a combat instructor in California and I suggest you make a few padded combat staves and get to work with a partner. They are easy to make for under $10 each and all the materials are at your local home improvement store:
3/4″ thick walled PVC pipe
5/8″ or 1/2″ foam pipe insulation
roll of Gorilla Tape or duct tape

Make sure the ends are properly padded. They are heavy enough to strike with, but are light enough and have enough give not to break fingers or cut skin. A mouthpiece and cup are suggested, but some of my students want head gear.

I have been working this way for 10+ years and I can honestly tell you from FIGHTING

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond to some of my statements about the staff. I have used the staff mostly for kata but of late I have taken to “shadow boxing” and bag work with the staff.

Let me first say is I like the staff as a martial arts weapon. I think it is a medium range weapon that would work against a lot of attackers as well as animals.

My view point is from traditional karate forms and self-defense techniques transitioning to fighting – it does not work so well. Kata especially were created to demonstrate a view point of a style of martial arts and not generally supposed to be applicable to fighting.

Would I try to use a part of a kata in fighting? – Probably not although one probably could. I have the same view point for self-defense techniques (although one should be able to use these for self-defense). Pretty much anything developed to be pretty or flashy has no place in fighting.

On the positive side of your comments the spinning of staff from side to side can be useful as you say so the opponent will not know where the attack is coming from but spinning for spinning’s sake does not make much sense to me.

As I said – I do not like the short half strikes with the staff much. I view an attacker is too close if one is using a staff. I’d rather be fighting from the outside where the wide gripped staff would be out of range.

I will grant that the half strikes would work – I just don’t like that method and if an opponent was good at initial movement – he or she could counter easier at the close range with a punch or kick – negating the power of the staff at close range.

I do not think that a weak grip or weak strike that can hurt yourself, should be used in fighting. One example from the karate world is a ridge hand. The ridge hand can be thrown wide swinging style or punched past the head and hooked back. The wide swinging style of ridge hand works fine in point karate fighting but if thrown hard – hurts ones own elbow! That is probably why you do not see that strike in full contact but rather hooks or elbows.

Hitting a target hard (even if one can strengthen ones weak point) is still exposing a weak point in a real fight. I would not do that.

While I think your argument of using the flow and energy makes sense – again I do not want to get into a close range with a medium range weapon. I’ll grant you that is a personal preference. That is similar to a boxer liking inside versus outside fighting – both work but different fighters have their preference.

I’ll spin the staff to take out some ankles or change some position but as I will not fight too close – I’m more of a poker and swing the staff as I retreat to a better position. That would negate any spinning to a point until I had to commit myself. I really hope to never face another staff fighter so I do not have to test my tactics. That is the cool think about self-defense in a martial art – you use existing fighting methods and translate them into a weapon as needed.

Sorry I’m getting wordy but one more concept and I’ll close. Bruce Lee and Joe Lewis taught initial movement and bridging the gap techniques that translate well in to most fighting methods. A was of looking at this concept is if you understand distance of a weapon – all you have to do is stay outside of striking range or be striking… trying to block an attack with a staff is any wiser than trying to block a punch or knife thrust… all losing propositions if the guy was inside your distance.

You see I do not fight any different whatever the rules or if it includes weapons. To me fighting is fighting is fighting. The concepts are the same.

I really do have a lot of respect for you Josh as you have determined that you do not need formal training to work out how to use a weapon effectively. I believe that too… you have created a metal staff that is durable and actually practice it on the bag. I think the main difference between our positions are the distance of the fight maybe. I just don’t like to fight close in… So I don’t need to spin the staff as I used to do when performing staff katas. By the way the staff is a wonderful weapon to train with for kata and fighting.

By the way – take my comments with a grain of salt – everyone has to work out their own variances of their fighting style. This will change over time and if someone (like me) disagrees with a position – that does not mean I’m right – just that I may have a different approach and cannot thing out of my own tunnel vision.

Thanks again for your comments!

Anyhow I like your site it looks like you put allot of work into it.

Catcha later.

Josh