DBMA Staff question

[Dirty Rooster]

Seen the vid now,
I agree with AnnaT, might as well call it longsword-sized-stick fighting,
certainly nothing like I had in mind for the word STAFF, no matter.
Looked fun but I didn't see much more than horizontal wild swipes in the sparring,
of course it's a small sample from lots of fights.

[Jeff Gentry]

This is what Mark "Crafty Dog" Denny the DBMA head honch said.

Woof Jeff:

Thrusting certainly plays an important role in FMA staff in general and in DBMA staff in particular.

I agree that one fight, or even a couple of fights, is not a sufficient data base from which to draw a conclusion. That said, in our fights where one or both men have a staff, there has not been much thrusting. Generally, what seems to happen to thrusts is that the staff gets hit during the thurst, which knocks it badly off-course and momentarily out of control. Indeed, in my first staff fight when my opponent tried thrusting me, my simultaneous counterstrike disarmed him completely. (A very cool moment for me-- Just seconds before, a friend in the crowd had just called out "C'mon Marc Denny-- This is your house!" and then bam!)

I began staff fighting towards the end of my fighting days, but my sense of things is that with a bit more time I would have figured out to apply
thrusts on second or third motions of an exchange in fighting just as we do in DBMA training. Right now I suspect the problem is that people trying for Single Direct Attacks with thrusts.

Staff fights are scary things because the staff is scary powerful and scary deceptive. I am working on preparing DBMA fighters who will apply further the understandings that I started with. It can be tough finding opponents.

The WMA thing is very interesting. Some of our Euro members have good background in this and I look forward to the contributions that they will bring to all of this.

Woof,
Guro Crafty

PS: The thrusts in our aforementioned DBMA Staff DVD are shown more as part of a fighting self-defense structure "Keep the neighborhood Tank Abbot off of you" i.e. a big mean angry fcuk vs. ordinary citizen with a small light staff.

So i guess sionce he started fighting with the staff somewhat late he just didn't have alot of time to figure out how to realy apply thrust effectively, It sound's as though he does believe in them though.


Jeff

[Ryno]

Sorry for coming into this conversations so late, but here's my experience.

I use thrusts quite a bit when fighting with standardish length sticks. They are tough to detect, and really focus a lot of power into a small area. I've de-helmeted guys and knocked them down with thrusts to the face, which is one of my favorites.

With staff, thrusts can be even more powerful, but they can be quite a bit more difficult to actually land on someone. If you are holding the staff in a sword grip, at one end, getting good tip control for a thrust can be tricky. By it's nature as a straight line attack, you must be precise with it, and maintaining good tip control and placement can be difficult. As Marc was saying, even if the guy manages a late block, a minor deflection will make the attack useless, and can end up putting you in an awkward position. Since arced strikes don't have this drawback, lots of people use them, and the also allow for a little less finesse in placement.

If you use a middle grip on the staff, tip control becomes a little easier, at the expense of reach. You can level someone with a staff thrust quite easily with this grip. I personally prefer an over-over grip in which case, you've basically got a two to three foot punyo at both ends, which is easy to line up and penetrate with. It is a very secure and powerful grip for thrusting and defense. Of course there are drawbacks to this grip, as your hands are much more exposed, and your reach is shorter. But if you like thrusting, and pressing in, it can work nicely.