“This book is a result of an interest that I have had for a long time, when I was seven years old I watched a cartoon version of Journey to the West on the telly and was awestruck by the Monkey King and his staff. Ever since then I have been in love with this weapon, and that is why I decided to write a book on the European staff fight. There are today some materials published on the Asian styles, but not that much there either, and none on the European material. The sword holds centre stage in the Renaissance Martial Arts community today, with other weapons studied on the side. It is my opinion that this is in part a reflection of easily accessible material to work with; there is a lot on the sword today and very little on other weapons. This was the second reason for why I wanted to do a book on the staff fight. So what is this book then?

Well it is intended as a book on how to practice and fight with the staff, drawing on English and German material from Hanko Döbringer in 1389 and up to McCarthy in the 19th century. Sad to say it is impossible to include everything in a book no matter how much I desire to do so. In this book I have included the following; some notes from Döbringer and Fiore dei Liberi, the complete staff section from Egenolph, selections from Meyer, all of Silver, Swetnam, parts of Wylde and McCarthy’s staff. My reason for this selection stems from the fact that they do all display some differences in their approach to the weapon and the selection makes it (hopefully) easier you when you pick up a translation of Maier for instance or some other material. I have included the original text as well as the translations were such have been needed so that you have access to the original material at the same time as the interpretation. That way you can mull over the finer points yourself.

I go through the basics of guards, steps, attacks and defences, the techniques are then illustrated with photos, mainly to indicate a specific point rather then illustrate what a technique looks like in action. I have taken more of a didactic approach here, since it is my intention that the book will help you in training more than anything else. I have a brief discussion of the staff in history with some interesting notes on the situation in Germany and England, included are some interesting illustrations of the staff as seen and used in everyday life.

The European staff art is wonderfully complex and simple at once and it has been a pleasure to write this book, I hope that you find something interesting between its covers as well.” - David Lindholm April 2006