A Preview of Staff Drills for Application

One of the skills our advanced students are working on at the present time is staff (gunshu).  Staff is an interesting weapon in that it has two ends and a middle.  "OK, Captain Obvious," you say, "how can this be enlightening?"  The answer is complicated.  Because of this, staff can be both very versatile, and very hard to really understand.

Consider first this traditional form

Shaolin Staff Section 1a

This type of form stresses the use of both ends of the staff and focuses quite obviously on the coverage of the centerline.

Section 4 Old Compulsory

In this case, the center line is covered more via rapid action and broad sweeping or clearing manuvers and one end of the staff is used preferentially.

What's particularly interesting is that both forms are represented as longfist-based despite their clear differences.  The first form comes from my sifus Artie Aviles/Henry Gong who learned it from Nelson Tsou, who learned it from Li Mao Ching, who (probably) learned it from Han Qing Tan.  In short, it is from the Nanjing Central Guoshu Institute's longfist curriculum.  The second form comes from the compulsory series of forms (which were largely Chaquan based) first published in 1989.  These forms contain many movements from the more basic contemporary staff sequences from the 1950s.  However, it's not clear whether such movements are purely northern staff, northern spear (which emphasizes one end over another), or some hodge-podge of technique.

In any event, it can be challenging for students to assimilate both modes of thinking: using one end of the staff vs. using both ends.  Although we make heavy use of two person forms at our school since these provide students with timing and flow elements that are needed to really understand technique, we have also found that practically, other drills are needed.

To this end, we focus first on using the staff as a long range weapon whose primary purpose is to guard the centerline.  Students are taught to use a superior guard, such as what is found in the contemporary Yi Lu Gunshu (16 step) form, and move in such a way as to keep the opponent's staff off the centerline.  In many cases, this requires only very small movements since the bulk of the body is already protected.  In other cases, when the opponent has made an opening, more complicated motion and footwork is required in order to keep the centerline safe. 

After a handful of basic blocks have been mastered, we move to three step sticking drills where one partner attacks while the other defends.  The defender attempts to neutralize the attack using minimal force and by projecting their centerline onto the opponent.  If done well, contact between staffs may never be lost!  Then after three attacks, the roles change.  Once students have really started to learn to cover their centerline under such conditions, we pick up the speed and move to a more freeform version where both sides can attack and defend as needed.  More often than not, a good defense involves a simultaneous attack. 

Below is an example of a moderate speed three step drill followed by free-form drill.  You'll note that both contemporary and traditional type techniques have found their way into the drill although in this version, primarily one end of the staff is used.  You'll also note the footwork and angulation used to maintain the centerline.  There's a reason why contemporary staff uses so much floor space.  On the other hand, you'll note that stances are not used terribly much since we're not truly beating on each other.

In some upcoming installments, I'll break things down a bit more, show how stances get integrated and how they can change the game, and show a transition to middle range technique so that both ends of the staff are more involved.  Enjoy!