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Shaolin Staff Forms & Maintenance

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  • #16
    If you've got some loot, theres a place in arizona that will make to order high quality wooden weapons from high quality wood. I beleive its Bearwoodproducts.com but be forewarned, it aint cheap. Still, they're stuff is good.
    Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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    • #17
      I think i'm gonna get a custom made aluminum one at a machine shop
      Id love to get a TI one..
      although that would be REALLY REALLY expensive.

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      • #18
        you're gonna do all sorts of hell to yourself practicing shaolin forms with a stick that is too heavy. for the sake of your joints and tendons let the heavy-weapon machoism go util your body is strong enough to handle going through the whole thing at full speed.

        here's what i ws taught in regards to staff-

        my teacher taught us just a couple of techniques at first- very simple but VERY powerful. we id these with really light bamboo sticks- if you have a Peir1 imports around where you live, they sell them there. you really need to start with something light, even lighter thn a broomstick for realistic staff training.

        do the techniques THOUSANDS of times for at least a month. your body might be strong enough to DO this at first, but i is unfamiliar to it and cannot necessarily HANDLE it.

        train the techniques slowly at first and then start to put a little more back (literally) into it. i would try to describe the ones i first learned, but im not really good at that. if any of you are interested, i will be at the chinwoo tournament in Dallas this summer, we can talk about this its really quite fascinating and its good classical training.

        The system i was doing this with was cheng school Bagua, but for you, i assume you are a Shaolin enthusiast. as far as shaolin weaponry i only have learned Yin Shou Guan, but i learned it from my teacher who showed me how a lot of the most basic staff techniques are found in that form. basically what we did was excercises (over, and over, and OVER) that when you changed the appearance just a bit, ended up covering most of the form. though they look diferent, they (the techniques) all shars much of the ame idea behind them.

        again, importantly, dont pick up a giant heavy staff just because you think that a heavy staff will leapfrog your progress- people do a smililar thing with leg weights and end up killing their knees. do everything gradually and carefully.

        good luck

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        • #19
          Re: speaking of the desert...

          Originally posted by meattosser
          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.

          i recently visited some family friends here in the south of Israel (the Negev, Israel's desert area)...dude, if i ever move back to Israel this is where im going to live. i have oficially been inspired to buy a 4-wheeler.

          plus, the scenery is just awe-inspiring. the place was just a few miles south of the dead sea, surrounded by mountains and wilderness. i took my friend's 4-wheeler, drove out to the middle of the valley, found an open area and did my practice. just one of those zen moments, i suppose.

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          • #20
            There are many aspects of the staff forms that can be better learned with a very light, whippy type staff too. I try to do my staff forms with as many different things as I can get my hands on to.
            practice wu de

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            • #21
              I am training in the shaolin temple uk! I know a lot about shaolin staff..I have learned 3 long forms from my master.I have never joined the weapons class in the shaolin temple uk.....But u have to understand that when u acheave more higher levels in shaolin staff u will find that the forms has to be done with the soft staff.

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              • #22
                Yes, this is what I said before. The staff needs to be flexible, which is why the waxwood staffs from China are best to use for training. The hard staffs that you use in Japanese and Okinawan forms are not good for gong fu.
                Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

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                • #23
                  Depends on the purposes, I use a light waxwood staff for gongfu, and a solid iron staff for strength training. But as if it needs to be said, one can do a hell of a lot more with the light staff.
                  Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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                  • #24
                    Doc, why do you need a flexible staff for gung fu?
                    thanks.

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                    • #25
                      Because insome forms, you smack it on the floor. Solid one's are not as easy to use in that regard. Don't get the same "smack" out of them.
                      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                      (more comments in my User Profile)
                      russbo.com


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                      • #26
                        Incidentally, I tend to break heavier wooden staffs when I "smack" them on the floor. Just finally broke a waxwood staff smacking it on dirt, and now I'm back to sword training for a little while.
                        Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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                        • #27
                          I was curies, in okinaween staff forms, my teacher usually says to divide the staff into 1/3's. He once said the Okinaweens were pretty good with parrying. He also send some chinese forms sometimes use the back end of the staff. Also I was wondering about the positions of the staff. In okinaween forms usually your trying ot hit with the tip, with shaolin forms, is it more with the center of the bo staff?

                          I've practiced with a long piece of pvc pipe, for awhile, till I broke it. I played around with a piece of metal, well I hit that to the ground and well i bent that. So I'm sticking with my wood one. Sometimes we spar with staff in belt tests, so me, I want to get a heavier one, for general use, and a fiber glass one for forms.

                          I have been told, the ideal way to store a bo staff is by dividing it into 2/3 hanging horizontally. That way it doesn't get warped. Later on I'm told, it's harder to do forms with a warped staff. I did some weightlifting before I started doing weapons so, my joints might have been a taid stronger than normal.
                          Last edited by agreenknight; 07-09-2004, 07:59 PM.
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                          • #28
                            My staff is warped, but I've never found that to be a problem when doing forms.
                            Besides, it matches my sense of humor

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                            • #29
                              Well, that could be one of the differences between Okinaween, and Shaolin staffwork. Well, I asked one of the blackbelts about it, and he said it does make it harder when you go to grab the staff, and it's not there. There's alot of figure eight type work in the forms I have, alot of rotating when you hit, and baseball batlike strikes. Perhaps some of the forms were originally for a spear or the Eki(0ar).

                              I was thinking, is the differenences between Shaolin, and Okinaween staff work. I was wondering is Shaolin staff work more like using a Hoe? I mean if you use the more of the end of the staff if you do a baseball strike wouldn't you break it? Where the staff's I know have gotten broken is where they used to strike other weapons or bags. The closest thing I have seen in Escrima Kubato, to hiting the floor is a low dragon stance. Keep in mind other styles, could practice this, and this could be in more advanced forms, but I'm just saying I don't have it. Why do you whack the floor?

                              I was thinking, it might be better to start out on a Jo, or Han Bo. It has a shorter length to beginners would be less likely to hit something accidently. It's weight is less also. But that's just my little theory. Also, like a Jo, I've read could use sword, staff, or spear techniques. Atleast that's what the century catalogue said on the Jo book.

                              I was wondering about Shaolin canes. I saw a tape for a dragon cane.
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                              • #30
                                one thing too, is that one of the blackbelts, has a Chen style spear form. I've heard it was eaiser for him to learn it after studying alot of bo staff forms. After black belt in the weapons program, you pick the weapon you want to study. But I got to get to blackbelt first. I want to wait awhile before learning more and let the forms cement in.
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