Shaolin Staff Forms & Maintenance

[Shaolin Punchbag]

Hey, I was training at STUK the other day and decided to join in a weapons class. They seem to focus mainly on staff techniques & forms, and they have a shortage of spare ones lying around, so I bought myself a staff, a nice big heavy one, probably twice the mass of the average ones they sell (I assume it's made out of waxwood).

Anyway I was wondering if anybody can help me out with tips for keeping my staff in good condition, I hear things about treating it with oil or something?

Also, if anybody else here who trains at STUK could give me a hand identifying the form, as the monk who was teaching just said "OK, now Stick form!". I *assume* it's Ing Shou Gun, or a version of it (it seems pretty similar), but I haven't done any weapons training in the past (at least not Shaolin-style) so I'm not 100% sure.

[Asger]

Yes Oil is good for the wood.. it makes it less brittle.

.. but heck, i my sticks break pretty often so it would be rather superfluous to care that way for my training sticks

[zachsan]

staffs are fun.

that is my opinion.

[daodejing]

Orange oil, good. More flexible wood, good. I've shattered ash and oak staves, but never broken a waxwood one. Though I have broken waxwood three section staves, but thats a different animal.

[doc]

Heavy is no good. You want light and flexible.

[Shaolin Punchbag]

Nah, I prefer training with heavier weapons, precisely because it's more difficult. Where's the fun / sense of achievement in training with a little stick that's easy to whip around? Train with a big hefty mama of a stick and by the time you get the techniques perfect and going at full speed, you're that much more powerful and skilled than you would have been if you had one that was easy to use to begin with.

I do the same thing with guitars. Use a guitar that's horribly set up, almost impossible to play well and makes no apparently musical sounds, and by the time you've managed to get to the point where you can play it perfectly, and make it sing like a soprano, you can pick up one that's actually easy to play to begin with and be instantly god-like

Now that's what I call 'gong fu'!

[Shaolin Science]

The last time I was in stick class, shifu said that you should put your staff in water for like an hour and then dry it, this would help stop it breaking. He also said to be gentle at the begining too when you do the bits where you whack the stick on the ground (seems obvious but not everyone does, it's more fun to make big noise).

Ask shifu for his tips on stick care.

[daodejing]

This will help if your stick was brittle to begin with, but it runs a significant risk of warping the wood. The best way to preserve it is to seal it with oil while the natural moisture is still in the wood. Also, taping the ends with medical tape helps prevent the ends from splitting or splintering when the ends are struck against the ground or another target. Especially if that target is concrete.

[Nightstrike]

well for when I make my next staff, What type of wood should I make it out of?
SOmething you could find at a hardware store though,

[Asger]

Hmm it occurs to me rather bizarre to purchase a device of such simple nature as a stick. It seems more straightforward to me in any case to simply cut it off some vegetation?? Hazel is good for a number of reasons: it has a natural resilience which has also been utilized for bow making, and it grows in natural long and straight sections.
Of course the materials at hand varies coherently with the geographical and climatic circumstances in which you find yourself. My best advice would be inuitive improvisation combined with the concept of trial and error.

[doc]

Yes, but doesn't hazel only grow in those, far away, out of the mainstream of civilization places, such as Sweden, or Finland? You know, where they make those educational videos of fork lift truck driving?

hahaha...

[Asger]

ah well, it certainly doesn't grow in Las Vegas, too bad doc... who the hell wants to live in the middle of the desert anyway?
Oh yeah, and you don't need education if you live in the middle of a desert, that's why you only see them coming from over here.

You'll have to improvise using..... snakes?

[zachsan]

sounds like something you'd see on he-man.

[doc]

We use thin, cachectic, methamphetamine laden, strippers.

We grow plenty of those over here.

[meattosser]

speaking of the desert...

Asger: "...who the hell wants to live in the middle of the desert anyway?"

Ha ha, well speaking of the desert, I live in Westmorland, California (it's part of Imperial County), which is about 210 miles southeast of LA. The whole Imperial County area is desert, and temperatures in the summer here go anywhere from 105 F to 125 F. And as if that wasn't bad enough, it gets pretty damn humid. The heat doesn't really die down until about, the end of October. Ha, I love it though, it's home.