Last weekend I had the opportunity to build practice staves with my kids, and one of their friends. We had a blast in this process, as documented in my previous update. At the end of the weekend we had our first lessons in how to use these staves.
It did not take too long for me to understand the basics (and I mean basics) of how to spin a staff in my hands. It felt like I really accomplished something. Then my instructor showed us some of the more advanced moves she could do, and I had an “I can totally do that!” moment. But before we get ahead of ourselves we should understand the process through which you properly spin a staff. I have not found an online video that shows the same style she uses, so I will explain below:
1. Holding a staff parallel to the ground you hold it to the right of centre with your right hand.
2. You then rotate the staff clockwise, while also taking your left hand and crossing it under your right hand to catch what was the left side of the staff in the palm of your left hand, which will be facing up to receive the staff.
3. You continue on with the clockwise rotation, turning your left hand from facing up to facing down, and crossing your right hand over the top of your left, with your palm facing down to receive the staff in your right hand. This has put you back to where you started from, but with a moving staff. If this part looks awkward it is because it is. I cannot hold the staff and get my hands into this position so I had to take a still image out of a video, hence why the staff is practically floating.
It was explained to me that everyone develops their own spin on these steps, so doing it exactly as shown is not important, but if you vary it too much it becomes harder for you to transition to other moves. The example here being that I allow the staff a full rotation over my right hand before catching it in my left. It is a little off, but that would up being the natural rhythm that I was able to get myself into. With a little bit of practice I was even able to throw the staff in the air and catch it again without having to lurch too far in any one direction. Unfortunately the photos of our practice session were taken at night, so most of the photos and videos did not turn out well. Seems like I need to either hire a new photographer or remember to take photos earlier in the process.
Along the way I probably smashed the staff into my own shins at least a dozen times as I was naturally trying to keep it away from my head, after hitting myself in the head at least thrice. Whoops. The trick is to keep it pretty much vertical the whole time.
We were shown a routine of how to rotate it behind your back, around your neck, spinning it above your head on a flat palm, and rolling it from one wrist across your arm, shoulders, and other arm again. I tried a few of these, but decided the around your neck and down to your other arm would be the routine I could do. My first attempt was far from successful. I took a six or seven pound staff and basically smashed it into the side of my neck, repeatedly. There is a key point on the staff that you need to have make contact with your neck in order for it to smoothly rotate around. There is also the important concept of letting go at the appropriate time. This took me far longer than I want to admit, but I was eventually able to do it. Because bloopers are amazing, I will share some that I have made using a really speedy GIF creation method directly on my phone, which I will share in the 336 tech room.
All told the first lesson went well, and I will be back to Port Alberni for another one within the next few weeks, this time with a flaming staff of my own, if it arrives on time. This next week I plan to learn the basics of “flow” so that I can transition from spinning the staff in front of my body to either behind me or to rotate its spin 90 degrees. Right now I am capable of spinning it infront of me, and mostly capable of rotating it around my neck, but really nothing else. I have learned that this is not something that you can just pick up and be good at, a move as simple as “flow” takes tens or hundreds of hours of practice to do quickly, and the techniques that let you shift from one movement to another take a lot of practice and understanding to make happen smoothly. Not to mention the idea of rolling a staff down the length of your body requires a level of physical dexterity I have never tried before. So this process may not be as graceful and fluid as I had hoped it to be, but I am certainly going to figure it out before I turn 90. Next post will hopefully include an audio file of the sound of spinning fire. I won’t lie, its an amazing sound and has inspired me to buy my own fire staff.
I shall end this post with a successful set of motions with a fire staff. This took many attempts and definitely involved my arm hair being slightly singed and my foot getting covered in soot. Yes, I hit myself in the foot with a flaming staff, which then bounced towards the children who were present and sent them flailing backwards. Sebastian (8) nearly leapt into the lake to avoid being burned down. However, this is the beauty of being the one in control of the media. I can choose to show you a successful spin instead of my litany of failed ones, which thankfully were not all recorded. You can see Alana (my tutor) jumping in excitement in the background because I finally did it and can stop throwing her staff into the ground.
