Staff Flow Drills: Part 1 - the Rollover (and some brief history)

Many years ago when I first started learning staff from my first teacher, Anh, he taught me a technique which I didn't really appreciate at the time: the rollover.  The idea was that following a high block, one could move very subtly to control the other person's staff and return the head shot via redirection.  At the time, I was disappointed in the simplicity of the form I was learning and could not see the elegance of this approach.

Starting position of rollover drill

Disappointed in the perceived limitations of Chinese staff, I put it down for a number of years before picking it up again when I started doing Contemporary Wushu.  My coach at the time, Wang Yang, a former Szechuan team member, taught me a "real" staff form.  We worked hard on figure eights, spins, flowers, cloud parries, and jumps, and my staff play got better.  I placed second in a small field at the USAWKF national tournament that preceded the World Championships in 1995. I felt really good about my staff play.  Only we didn't actually work on applications. At all.

As time went by I started playing applications of staff with more advanced students.  I found that many hadn't learned any real staff play other than the forms.  There was staff sparring in tournaments involving the use of foam covered staffs.  This didn't look at all like the movies, and even was embarrassing when some of the midieval renactors showed up and solidly womped all the Chinese martial arts guys. 

Then I started thinking more about Anh and his teaching.  His forms were never really fancy, but boy could that guy fight.  I started comparing movements from his old staff forms to movements from my newer ones.  There were a host of similarities.  Many of them involved sliding motions, or the use of bounce.  The hand positions (open or closed) became important since the hand was clearly a target in many attacks.  With my learning of Shaolin staff, it all fell together.

A successful rollover. 

The drill presented here is one which is designed to hilight the rollover, the superior guard, and the cloud parry, the later two of which can be found at the very end of Yilu Gunshu (16-step contemporary staff).  One starts as shown above.  Person A has just issued a strike to his opponent's (Person B) head which is blocked with a typical cross high block.  Person B then counters with the rollover.  If person A does not respond in time, he will be hit in the head.  The rollover consists of a simultaneous pullback to chamber with the right hand along with a left-handed inward circular motion.  The motion is similar to what is seen in Lianbu Quan.  Notice that person A has lost control of his centerline, whereas person B has covered his centerline throughout the entire motion.  To counter this, person A *must* roll his staff into a guarding position using primarily the right hand.  The left hand stays more or less where it was.

Person A rolls into a superior guard position to defend.

Person A can then redirect and attempt to attack person B's open left side using the "cloud parry".  Really, it's a lateral strike.  The rollover defense was the parry part of the movement.  In any event, the tip of A's staff circles to the back and then strikes toward B's left side in an arc.  B responds by rotating the body to the left and by assuming the guard position.  You should notice both B's open left hand to prevent getting the fingers smashed as well as the oblique angle of the staff.  That oblique angle dissipates the force of the blow and also allows the tip of B's staff to help maintain distancing as it arcs across A's centerline.

The third step in the drill.  B is in guard position.

The force of A's blow spent, B now redirects by circling the staff back and to the left and turns the motion into a downward strike to bring the drill full circle.  The rolls now reverse and the drill continues.

Final step of drill before rolls change

The power in B's blow comes from several sources: the momentum in the redirect and circling, the turning of the body, and the shifting of the stance.  Also, the hands play a roll.  Novices will often leave the right hand out of chamber.  This means that there is less of the body turn transferred into the staff, and as a result, the left arm has to do most of the work.

It is important to do each phase of this drill separately when first training it so that each partner understands the intent of each attack and how to defend against it.  It is also important to ultimately use force while maintaining control.  If your partner messes up, you should not clock them over the head.  Getting hit in the head does not teach you a lesson as we've seen from boxing and more recently the NFL.  Only go as fast as you can control.  Below is a video of the drill in its entirety.  Notice the fluidity.  One of the characteristics of Chinese martial arts is *smooth* application of power. When you start to feel control of the centerline, force in your strikes, speed, and fluidity, you are probably really starting to understand this drill.