Tai Chi Staff

The staff is the original long weapon for all long weapons among Chinese martial art weaponry. One can trace its origin back to pre-historical time when people used tree branch or tree to defense beast and for hunting. Later, in order better used these tree branch and tree, people modified them for size, length, weight and hardness according to each individual.

Traditionally, Tai Chi Chuan system does not have staff form. The common form of staff one read in Tai Chi Chuan books are referring to the traditional Big Spear Form without the metal spear. For this reason, in the last several decades, experienced Tai Chi Chuan practitioners have begun choreographed staff form based on their experiences.

Staff is a weapon shorter than spear and longer than sword and broadsword. It is not like spear in which it is highly emphasized on thrusting technique, cutting and cleaning of the sword and chop and splitting of the broadsword. Although staff does not have any sharp blade, it does not restrict the technique and variation base on the nature of its characteristics. The technique in the staff form is the combination of other weapons' characteristics. Therefore, the technique is very profound. The most obvious one can see in staff technique is the ability of incorporated both ends of a staff as a weapon. Therefore, the staff techniques are connecting and quickly change into other variations.

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