So this past weekend up at fire drums I spun dozens of times. For just about the entire event, my personal contact breakdown staff was down in the vending area. I didn't get a chance to spin with it once.
Instead, I spun with everyone else's staves. Rif's, Michael's, Maria's, Poje's, Lily's, Aileen's, Ian's, Sage's... I didn't discriminate. I even used some of Jade and Lester's fuzzy staves.
Somehow I managed not to burn myself once. I even landed some moves that I've never done before.
I'm mostly mentioning this because I have been practicing over a year now with irregular shaped staves, sticks, pieces of bamboo, rattan, broomhandles, burls from the beach, or just about anything thats long, heavy, and reasonably straight. I almost never use grip, none of them are end weighted, they're usually off balance, and not really straight at all.
Each one has its own range of movement, and learning all those gave me the ability to spin with just about any stick I came across. If anyone notices that they're unable to get moves to work for them with anything except their perfectly balanced, end weighted, lightweight aluminum piece of machinery, I highly recommend you pick up a piece of eucalyptus or rattan or just a stick on the side of the road and practice with that. You'll get all your moves down tighter, smoother, more fluid, and it will help you to be more versatile in case your stick breaks.
Instead, I spun with everyone else's staves. Rif's, Michael's, Maria's, Poje's, Lily's, Aileen's, Ian's, Sage's... I didn't discriminate. I even used some of Jade and Lester's fuzzy staves.
Somehow I managed not to burn myself once. I even landed some moves that I've never done before.
I'm mostly mentioning this because I have been practicing over a year now with irregular shaped staves, sticks, pieces of bamboo, rattan, broomhandles, burls from the beach, or just about anything thats long, heavy, and reasonably straight. I almost never use grip, none of them are end weighted, they're usually off balance, and not really straight at all.
Each one has its own range of movement, and learning all those gave me the ability to spin with just about any stick I came across. If anyone notices that they're unable to get moves to work for them with anything except their perfectly balanced, end weighted, lightweight aluminum piece of machinery, I highly recommend you pick up a piece of eucalyptus or rattan or just a stick on the side of the road and practice with that. You'll get all your moves down tighter, smoother, more fluid, and it will help you to be more versatile in case your stick breaks.
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Los Angeles
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Re: Perfect Staff
Thu, May 8, 2008 - 9:11 PMGreat post! I build all of those space-age staves all the time and it's so easy to forget what you are saying. It is our personal relationship with whatever we spin that matters most. I have had some amazing sessions with nothing more than a bent stick on some South Pacific beach. I also found that sometimes the bent stick will teach you more than anything else about body awareness.
Unfortunately I get super lazy and tech weenie out too often and try to rely (or blame) on the equipment too much. I'm sure this sounds odd coming from me who builds all of these tech-weenie toys, but it is true. It's just easy to forget...
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Re: Perfect Staff
Thu, May 8, 2008 - 10:39 PMI'm not at all surprised. The day I met you, a little over a year ago, you had your shillelagh and that's what you were spinning.
That being said, I had Michael make me the titanium staff you were using, changed the grip the minute I got it home, and still absolutely have to, have to, have to add weight to the ends. So um, ya, you go Nick, I'll stand over here and cheer you on. -
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Re: Perfect Staff
Fri, May 9, 2008 - 2:07 AMOh, and thanks guys, as well as Noelski and Brandon, for letting me borrow your staves. I had an amazing time, and I feel like I learned a little something, and even changed my moves a bit, for each different staff. Almost like their owner's personalities rubbed off on them or something... -
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Re: Perfect Staff
Fri, May 9, 2008 - 7:22 AMSpeaking of staff sharing, it was funny everytime someone picked up my......lesser staff.....because the thing weighs a TON. it's 1" aluminum with really thick walls. Hard to spin for more then a few minutes.
Another thing thats kinda on topic is one of my very first spins on friday night i had let someone use my "good" staff so i was going to spin my lesser one, didnt expect much but it was one of my best spins of the weekend...weird.
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