Staff and Spears

[Jack]

Which is a more natural progression -- study staff and then spear or the reverse. Or does it matter?

[Hephaestus]

Traditionally, one studies the staff, and studies the spear later on (often with saber in between). The reason being, as far as I can tell, is that the spear is almost like a graduate to the staff. Many spear sets contain most if not all of the basic staff movements in addition to the specialized spear techniques. Thus, it was traditionally held that one must have a strong foundation in staff before learning spear.

[Walter Wong]

Training the staff first is the foundation to learning spear.

Training saber aka broadsword is the foundation to learning jian/gim/straight sword.

Though I don't find it hurt to learn either spear before staff or jian before saber. But this is of the choice of your teacher so do whatever your teacher tells you to do.

Spear and jian/straight sword being the higher end weapons to lower end weapons like staff and saber, in my opinion, learning higher end stuff first (although would take a long while) would enable one to use/learn the lower end weapons rather quickly.

[Artemisalive]

I believe that the rationale behind learning staff before spear and saber before sword is the admonition that Master Yang provides all of his students...large before small. Be it Qinna or Taijiquan, learning to master the large circles before attempting the small. If you cannot put power into the large, you will have none in the small. Spear and sword tend to use tighter spirals and specific targeting.

Every style has its own aphorisms regarding their approach to learning the "Big Four" but it is usually something like:

3 months for Staff
1 year for Saber
3 years for Spear
10 years For Sword

or

100 days Staff
100 days Saber
1000 days Spear
10000 days Sword

The techniques of Staff lend themselves to the practice of all other long weapons and those of Saber lend to those of most other short weapons.

Luckily in today's age, where we are not using them for combat, we have the luxury of studying whatever we are passionate about.

Enjoy your training!

Joshua Craig

[Phalanxpursos]

Which is a more natural progression -- study staff and then spear or the reverse. Or does it matter?

The savest is to begin with wooden weapons, as a matter of fact it is absolutely fine to stick to wooden weapons as basis for martial arts. So therefor it is quite obvious to first begin with staff and later switch to spear, the promotion of wooden weapons will set a good example towards the audience. It is best to practice martial arts in a dojo, with weaponplay it is utmost essential to be very careful and only preform this in public for an official demonstration.

Weaponplay is not exactly something to show off with.

[Dvivid]

This staff DVD answers these questions and illuminates the subject:

http://ymaa.com/node/572