Forums > Help! > 10 cm shorter firestaff.. big difference??

Posted: 12th Mar 2004
how long is the staff? if it's over 1 meter then it doesn't matter much... if shorter then you'll know the difference... and IMO the best staves for contact are around 120 cm...

Smile.. It confuses people..:)

Wonders never cease as long as you never cease to wonder.

Posted: 12th Mar 2004
Entirely a matter of personal preference.

If anyone ever goes "your staff should be this long"

then do a really high pitched scream in their ear then run until you reach the sea.

this tactic has seved me well over the years.

(note: comment does not apply to White RaveN who used the handy IMO clause )

Some guy ages ago (i think his name was Charlie or something ) said

Quote:

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Shorter (hand to armpit or less) -
1. Good for baton style moves, including double baton style.
2. Much easier to burn yourself.
3. Restriction on wraps body moves.
4. Less weight means you have to keep the momentum up more for spinning and figure8 moves.
5. Burnoffs are harder, more dangerous and heat up the staff a lot.
6. Easier to transport

Longer (chin height or higher) -

1. Better for martial arts style and speed.
2. Harder to burn yourself
3. Much more surface area for wraps and body moves
4. More weight means they like to fall into patterns and will keep their own enertia more.
5. Burnoffs much easier, more imporessive and safer.
7. Can be difficult to transport.

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And he was entirely correct

For contact, longer sticks tend to be a little more helpful, but more important is getting the amount of weight on the ends right. Usually there's not quite enough on shop bought firestaffs IMHO.

If you want to do horizontal or inside arm stuff, then get one that fits thru your armpit when you hold it in the centre.

but REALLY everyone should have a large selection of sticks of different lengths to get all the good things from all of them

*does the happy dance of pure joy only known to those who now own over 20 different sticks, staffs, poles and rods*

"Switching between different kinds of chuu chuu sometimes gives this "urgh wtf?" effect because it's giving people the phi phenomenon."

Posted: 12th Mar 2004
I have a pair of short (68cm; about 2 and half ft) staffs that I use for indoor practice.. "doesn't that spin too fast"; people ask. Well I use them for those parties sans fire with 8 glostixs attached to each (4 at each end)(a 16 glo-stick night) (darth maul stylee), which increases the mass at the end and so the ?inertia etc., is higher and makes them fun to spin and more similar to lighter longer staffs..

The reason I mention, there are a ream of interesting contact moves that are MUCH easier to meister with these wee weighty things, and get harder to do the longer the staff is. I have one like the arm to back of hand transfer thing in contact juggling (I'm crap with official terminology). Basically:

- Throw staff up horizontally with one hand
- Catch on back of same hand (?a stall)
- Roll down arm to elbow where you smoothly transfer it to other back of other hand
- Here's the slightly tricky bit; you kinda bring it over your head on the back of your hand and then on other side twist your arm (staff still in contact) so that your hand will sorta go under arm and straighten out (palm down) and the staff is now spinning on it's horizontal axis (easier to hook it with thumb as it rotates once round the wrist and getting it horizontal)
- You now roll it back down the dorsal surface of your forearm (in it's slow spin) and do the same on the other side.. I guess you could keep it going but I can't yet (practice)
- An easier version is to either just do transfer without spin, or roll it down arm to forearm but instead of flicking it over your head you aim to get it off centre so you can get ~ 2 good spins as it fies over your head and then catch it on other side

This can be done with longer staffs but is much harder not to smack your body with it.

Short staffs are harder for wraps though, as mentioned above! (I should prob post this in new moves; I haven't seen it described yet...)

Back to revision

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Posted: 12th Mar 2004

Quote:

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note: comment does not apply to White RaveN who used the handy IMO clause

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thank you ; o))

Smile.. It confuses people..:)

Wonders never cease as long as you never cease to wonder.