Making a staff for contact juggling ( a non auwi one )

so a like a few weeks ago i was on a festival and played with somebodies staff and thought like; hey, this is nice.

so i decided to make my own. so from all the knowledge i have about staff ( 2 workshops from meg with her mega heavy painful staff ) i made an 160 cm staff from steel pipe with isolation at the ends for making it less hurtful. for the grip i used a heat shrink to make it consist all out of one piece without bumbs. so the grippy part turned out kind of al right but this thing hurts massive, and that is not even when i smack myself with it.

so i was wondering does anyone have a good idea for making a good, maybe a little bit flexible staff that you can drop on your head and stuff.

and what is a good size cause this was a pure guess for me

and if someone knows other staff making things somewhere on the internetz please let me know to, i want to know more before i hurt myself next time.

thanks

this is a copy form my post on the .org sorry for that. thanks in advance

http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=149&Itemid=11


Use aluminum and not steel..length is all about personal choice...the 160cm is about normal...

i know megs site, but i am looking for something that i can play and practice with without massive braindammage evertime i hit myself.

but what do people here thing of staffs of different kind of plastics?

too much flexibility makes contact much harder as the staff is more likely to bounce than to roll smoothly. The initial pain will wear off as the contact transitions smooth out so they are rolling rather than bumping. I have concentrate glow staffs which are polycarbon plastic coated with silicon sheath. contact is doable but for a beginner I can see it bouncing all over the place and causing more bruises than a good heavy stick.

You could always go for a wooden staff. Lighter staffs are a little harder to learn contact but if you can use a lighter stick it won't hurt so much. the weight in contact helps the staff maintain momentum without having additional spin added. if you go for wood or a lighter staff try to add a bit of weight to the ends to maintain the momentum of your spins so the staff doesn't stall vertically and then bang your head etc or add length for greater stability (although 160cm is a little longer than I like to use as it limits some moves in the wall plane behind the back).

what I use is a wooden stick and then use old bycicle inner tube on the ends to put on the extra weight.



this my current one (not contact just a jack of all trades) I changed it a bit by adding another inner tube so the ends are a bit wider and its pure black/white now


I'll tell you how I've made it. I just went to a local bike repair shop asked if they had any inner tubes they wanted to get rid of and if i could have some

You need to get 2 that are the same and one extra that doesn't realy matter much.

then go to your local hardware store and buy a piece of wooden dowel (aka round piece of wood) of your prefered size.

and buy some grippy tape at yer sports store.

you'll also need some ductape and colored isolation tape to decorate it


you start by cutting of the vents on the inner tubes and cutting them open (either with a knife of scissors, I recomend the scissors) do that with all your tubes.

now mark the exact center of your staff with a bit of tape.


then put a bit of ductape on the end and tape it on the end of your stick then just wrap it around the stick as tightly as possible and secure it with ductape.

do this with both sides. if you are happy about the weight then you can start decorating if not cut the 3rd innertube in half and wrap in around the stick next to the other ones.

still not happy add more or remove a bit

remember the bit of tape you put in the center? now you can wrap the grippy tape around that but make sure you remember where the center is and then put another bit of tape on it so you know where the center is.

try to balance your stick by adding extra ductape to the ends till is nice and balanced

and then you can start decorating just remember to keep it balanced.

anyways I hope I didn't confuse you too much and good luck!

The lighter the actual bar of the staff and the heavier the ends the easier contact staff work is.

It makes the staff act like it is "longer" thereby creating a much wider balance point.

For marking, I suggest finding the dead center point and then grip the staff with that center being between your ring and middle finger. Then mark the staff with colored electrical tape on the outside of your pinky and pointer finger. So that the "center" is the width of your hand.

This will help TREMENDOUSLY when it comes to doing things like steve rolls so you can watch the two lines roll down either side of your arm.

I echo the others. Get a wood dowel. Heck you can use a screw and washers. Use the same size screws and washers, with the same number of washers on each end and screw them right into the butt end of the staff and walaa. A light staff with heavy ends

For the center grip area tennis racket grip works awesome. However, you duct tape works great too in a pinch.

*polite cough*

Look here for handles: MCP grip analysis.

well, thanks for the info, i am sentiently not going to make a wooden staff. i will going to make a few different ones.

i set my size at 150 cm, and i will make 2 of tick alu tubes where i can hang in a weight at the end so that it still looks like a stick, and for these ones i will use silicon tubes as grip.

for the other one, i will use either a solid alu rod or a solid PMMA rod and i will use neopreme tape as grib and making the weight with rubber and foam for isolation around it.

and i am really only looking for staff for contact, not spinning not fire.

thanks for your idea's especially the placing of hand marking points are not much heard. ( found those out already though, but it is good info )

if there are any more idea's keep them coming,

thanks

Robbert