History of Contact Staff

So, this thread is a question for those with the knowledge to answer.

I, and I'm sure many others, would like to know the history behind contact staff...
Where it originated?
How long ago?
Was it a natural progression from stick twirling, or derived from other arts? (Feicha? other martial arts, etc)

Any other other questions related to this are welcome...
So, get to it and let learn a bit about our art.

Peace

I'd not heard of contact staff as a type of staff twirling (as opposed to conventional or 'freespinning' twirling) before i read about it on the internets via drew and rob posts.
I saw it in real life after after videos like drawandstaff were posted on HoP, which is to say that there's a significant difference between 'first appeared on HoP' and 'where it originated.'

theres lots of information on this already in the forums, do a durbs ?

most of the contact staffers i know can trace their learngin back to mushy pea steve i might ask him next week where he learned...

First person I saw doing contact staff was Ben-ja-men.

I've seen videos of a monk doing contact staff with a trident mostly prayer / steve type rolls. think it was on here somewhere.

First person I saw doing it was strugz about 5 years ago.

I think that is what Feicha is Mynci.

I thought Meg invented contact staff?


I know a lot of contact staff goes along with baton twirling....

I first learned some from steve kelly from the gold coast Australia in '99 or so....
he'd met some ppl who where traveling who had taught him I think
I went on record saying it was a dumb idea that would never take off....
I'm SURE I'm right.....anyway day now....**POOF**
-sam

perhaps we can dig around and ask our contact teachers their 'lineage' - who teaches the teachers?

i'm 100% sure that loads of us wrote out our 'lineage' a coupla years back, but can't find it at all....

meg invented contact
roflmao.

i think we should be asking seichi inagaki his lneage, perhaps....

Yeah! I invented contacto!

I assume people will insert me rolling around on the floor laughing lots and lots and lots. Cos that is a funny idea.

Screw Baton Twirling and Fei Cha, I have major problems with them. Fei Cha, 4000 years of chinese history and all they do is three rolling moves with bad planes? Screw that. At least baton twirlers came up with the other types of contact. Shame about the pagentry aspects that stop people taking it seriously.

i think this is what your after rob

*bangs head at screen* Meg... [le sigh] there she goes again...



Excuse my language capabilities, but are you referring to
pagentry = no result in the M-W online dictionary or
pageantry =

1 : pageants and the presentation of pageants
2 : colorful, rich, or splendid display : spectacle
3 : mere show : empty display

??? ??? ??? dunno where you're going with this...

There are good reasons why contact has not been a dominant part of martial arts. The main one being that YOU'RE NOT IN CONTROL OF THE PROP and it's all-too-easy to seperate you from your prop/ weapon in combat. (disclaimer: This is not acting as an excuse for but as a possible explanation for the absence of too many contact moves in (Chinese) martial arts...) If you would truly understand the logic of martial arts, you would not belittle it's results the way you do.

As to the history of contact (or its origins) all that I can say is that I noticed some tender beginnings in the dusk of the last Millennium, when I started. Some twirlers did a few simple neck- and shoulder-rolls, really nothing too fancy.

The fact that EJC 2000 (Karlsruhe), 2001 (Rotterdam) and 2002 (Bremen) had hardly any people practicing some kind of contact (to me) proves that there has been very little attempts of contact to staff up to that period (- 'not claiming that there had been none at all, but they didn't show...). There definitely has been "contact" - but I would boldly say that it's not been remotely as complex as what we see these days.

And so far I less blamed baton twirlers but contact jugglers and martial artists for inspiring to incorporate the contact element and for the development of various (basic) moves...

As to my notice there has been an 'explosion' to contact, starting in 2003/04.

But let's finally hail MCP as the one and only source and constitutional evaluator of this worlds techniques; as the one and only justified successor and avatar of Bodhidharma. Ooooommmm, she really is up to something and latest by the time she finally starts tapping her feet whilst twirling a staff - she will definitely enter Nirvana and we will all petrify in awe... I certainly will and I can bluntly say so because I have seen her videos and know about her technical capabilities...



If only...



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disclaimer: some of my above post should be read with a huge gallon of humor, a spoonfull of sarcasm and a dash of poopedness