Twelve staff counter attacks - technical demostration

[Frederico Martins]

Hi everyone, just posted this video from an old demonstration my jogo do pau master made, added some descriptions and slow motion so hope it is easy to follow. hope you like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukTeaIHe1kQ

Let me know what you think.

[Stacy Clifford]

Nice stuff. I was just working with Joachim Meyer's staff this evening and there are definitely some strong similarities. However, as I think I've mentioned before, the staffs we use for German & English play are longer, heavier and stiffer than the ones I see in the video, so there are fewer wide circling movements (but there are certainly some nasty ones), strikes tend to be more powerful, and there's a greater emphasis on thrusting, and these things affect movement accordingly. That closing maneuver & butt strike on #10 was nice though, I'll have to watch the video again later.

[Sripol Asanasavest]

that's very nice! that's Portugese is that correct? Kindda reminds me of Krabi Krabong, except they like use heavy javelin...usually with a long rectangular shield. That's very nice...escrima!

[Steven Ott]

That is good stuff there. Seems like a lot of the techniques would work well with the big two-handers. Does your martial art have a belt-ranking system?

[Sripol Asanasavest]

I thought everybody knows that.... No, we don't! We just get a long fine outside the boxing camp...like closed friends. No one has any power, or sovereign, over the others. You might pay respect to your teachers, but other than that everyone is treated the same. that's what great about it! You can joke to your teachers like they were your friends! Obedience to laws, country, religion, and being a good moral and ethical person is what they teach people, not just fighting and how to kill people.


I'm sorry! YOu were talking to him...not me!

[Sripol Asanasavest]

Did you know Siam, well Ayothaya, used to by armors from your country? Top notched armors.... the kings were a billionaire by today standard! He would still be rich even for today standard.

[Frederico Martins]

Hi,

Stacy, I've heard more people working with Meyer, it is very nice to see other people taking the staff work seriously. For me it makes sense what you say, with a longer and heavier staff, rotational strikes start to be much slower and became less usefull, so for that staff a thrust attack would be much more efficient.

As a discaimer: p We use full wood staffs (usually quince or lotus), those are not rattan or lighter substitutes so our strikes are still very powerfull and if any lands without control is almost guaranteed a broken bone.
as you can see in the freeplay most strikes aren't controlled at faster speed, and there is only control when it is clear that the opponent will not be able to parry, so not to hurt him, sometimes, that is not so clear.

I personally prefer a shorter staff, no much longer than the size of a man, to be able to do rotational strikes including ascending ones but still at a safe range, but a good understanding of different sizes and weights is definitly a great study, i've worked mainly with staffs from 60cms to 80cms (at one hand) to 120 to 145cms that still need slight changes in technique, but would like to try longer ones too.

hi Sripol, it is a portuguese art yes, but I like to emphasize that it is of european origins in general because of all the similarities with other arts and material, we just had luck that it was continually practiced until today in Portugal. and in portuguese we say "esgrima" not "escrima" same thing anyway, the word not the relation with filipino martial arts.

Steven, we have a rating system yes, developed by my master in the video there, related to the technical program so it is all well "synthesized" and documented.

thanks for your comments everyone, Cheers!

[Sripol Asanasavest]

It looks very good! I wonder if people were still practicing other martial arts in Europe, how will fare against the Portugese version and also other hard martial arts like Krabi Krabong. It'd be interesting to see....

[Stacy Clifford]

Meyer does have a few single-hand rotational strikes like the ones in your video, just not very many. They are very, very powerful though, enough to kill instantly or cause devastating injuries. Someone once did some calculations on the force of one of these overhead strikes and figured out that the force generated at the end of the staff was roughly equivalent to that of a .45 caliber bullet! They may seem uncontrolled, but with the right footwork they are surprisingly easy to recover from. The extra mass of the staff requires both hands to control for most techniques, however. For a lighter staff though I can see why you would favor a style like JDP, it does look very effective. If we had the chance, I think we could very easily learn from each other considering all the similarities.

[Gene Tausk]

It looks very good! I wonder if people were still practicing other martial arts in Europe, how will fare against the Portugese version and also other hard martial arts like Krabi Krabong. It'd be interesting to see....

Well, considering the Spanish and Portuguese conquered half the world, with the English and French running a close second, I'd say their martial arts worked just fine, thank you very much.

[Frederico Martins]

Sripol, I don't think they would have much problem, the European always fought with similar weapons until the appearance of fire weapons, so if many traditions continued to develop in a martial environment they wouldn't be many difference other than the weapons specific requirements. I don't think jogo do pau is much different in it's essentials to what people in the HEMA community are doing by the old books and we surelly can practice together.

I don't know much about Krabi Krabong and couldn't find much good videos and don't know in what terms it is practiced today, but that would be interesting to see indeed, there should also more african traditions that are still in a very rough form, and that is great and would be nice to see.

stacy, I agree, I just don't like to call it different styles, I see it as staff fencing in general, so you have a different staff, your strategy will change, if with a similar weapon you have a very different way of fighting, that I would call a different style, anyway this is too theoretical to be interesting you can forget about it, just to state that we are basically doing the same thing, fighting with what we have the best way we can.

Gene, thanks for your support even if a little exaggerated:) but that is the Idea, actually all Europe were fighting for centuries with this kind of weapons, and our tradition is surely, internationally, one of success, even if later more by the cannon:)