Bo Staff Basics
Serafin Sonnier
Most bo beginners seem to overlook their stances. I get it, you think bo is all about the hands and upper body. But the stances actually create the foundation for everything your upper body is doing. A better long front stance means a more powerful thrust. A nicer cat stance means a more balanced, yet graceful uppercut. Here are the stances:
I found part of a branch of a tree in my yard a couple of weeks ago. I pretty much instantly deemed it my new staff. Actually I have never owned a bo, but used to spin pool cues in bars when I was younger. Basically some sloppy, improvised spins lacking any real direction or purpose. I have watched a few of your clips on the net, and I do appreciate your presentation, and have already learned some stuff. Hopefully I will keep up with my latest interest and do the bo some justice. Thanks for taking the time to post your instruction .
Thank you so much, this means a lot to hear. You can absolutely learn through home study with the right focus, discipline, and intent. Have fun training and learning along with us, have a blessed day as well! -Sensei Michael
It does make it easier to learn the staff, with prior traditional martial arts experience. However, it is not required. This is why I have an expanded, step-by-step section in my beginner level of the Ultimate Bo Course (the yellow chevron level). I will actually teach you the stances you need to know in order to master the staff; we learn the front stance, long front stance, horse stance, attention stance, and fighting stance. I have a student who just earned his red chevron a few days ago, who is a professor at a college, and complete beginner to martial arts. He walked in, not having any previous training with stances or other arts, and he looks outstanding.
So, prior training in a traditional art like karate will reduce the learning curve, but you can still learn the staff without it. Make sure and spend time on stances, though, at some point in your beginner training. Many novices skip over them, just because they want to do the upper body work, and end up missing the boat.
Hello Sensei Hodge.
I want to learn the bo, because I think its a pretty awesome thing to know, but I also want to be able to take those skills that I learn and help other students at the local Taekwondo dojo that I teach at, that might be considering learning the bo as well. Would you recommend going the DVDs, or going full on with classes and such?
Thanks
Hi Zach,
The bo is awesome, and would go well with your TKD training! If you are very interested (in actually earning rank and getting feedback from me as you go forward), definitely go for the GMAU Ultimate Bo student membership. If you are just learning for your own interest and training, the DVD set will be just fine. Either way, go for it, and have fun mastering the bo!
I have been practicing with the bo staff for several years, using the Jackson Rudolph FLOW system and purchased your curriculum to refine tradition striking and combat practices. Is there a way to log hours previously gained? I want to join the student / Instructor course so that I can offer my students the ability to gain credible ranks for staff. I want to proceed correctly but wonder if my past experience has any merit with where I can start?
Great to meet you and to have you with us. To be an officially recognized student that can earn rank (and eventually be an instructor), you will need to enroll into the GMAU Ultimate Bo student membership: . Yes, once you enroll, you can log the previous hours that you have trained, which will be attributed to your yellow chevron journal. You will be able to take you test sooner because of this previous training. Looking forward to it!
I do have a heavier steel staff. It is good for strength training. I prefer a nice hardwood oak for most training circumstances, but a metal staff can also do. Just be careful if you get a heavier staff, some techniques can be dangerous on your wrists.
However, whenever we as writers have the opportunity to learn anything that will give greater authenticity to our work, we should jump on it. So, if you have staffs in your work, grab a pole and give these moves a whack. It will help you get a literal feel for the movements, how the body shifts with the staff and will give you a better idea of what strikes work together.
The foundational portion of the process has begun for the New Orleans Saints offensively, and Coach Dennis Allen likes what he has seen early from coordinator Kliff Kubiak, entering his first year choreographing the Saints' offense fresh off a season in which he was passing game coordinator for San Francisco, which reached the Super Bowl last season.
The visual this week has been presented at the Saints' rookie minicamp. Kubiak, who also was offensive coordinator for the Vikings in 2021 and passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach for Denver in 2022, will have three days (Friday through Sunday) to get a first look at a collection of rookies and tryout players at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center.
"It's been real fun, it's been really rewarding to work with really good people, starting with Coach Allen. We've got some really good coaches on our offensive staff, so we're gelling together as a staff as well as getting our players better."
"This time of year, it's all teaching," Kubiak said. "Installation and trying to slow it down, starting from scratch and not assuming anything, just trying to be really good with the details and understanding that there's first-year guys and there's rookies, and we've got 13-year veterans. So we're just going to keep it simple initially and just make sure it's detailed."
Helpful to the process is the fact that New Orleans has a veteran quarterback returning. Derek Carrwill be entering his 11th season, and finished last year by completing 131 of 176 passes (74.4 percent) for 1,343 yards and 15 touchdowns and three interceptions in the last six games, with the Saints winning four of them.
"It helps tremendously (that Carr is a veteran). Derek has had a really good offseason thus far. He's putting in the work, he's here after hours, just really studies his tail off. His teammates see how hard he works and he brings their level of play up as well."
"We're just stressing to players this time of year to be smart, tough and dependable," he said. "Regardless of the scheme and what that brings, if we can just start with that we'll be in good shape come training camp as we keep working."
I cut sections of the thin PVC pipe and used a heat gun and some heavy metal wire to shape them into the appropriate curves. I drilled into the insulation foam using a broad Phillips-head screwdriver and inserted the tubing between each arm of the headpiece. (Sorry, no photos of this step, but you can see the unpainted tubing in later pictures.)
The same technique was used for the finial, though I cut and applied the Worbla to run a couple of inches higher on the wooden dowel, as it was going to be permanently attached. (The staff and headpiece come apart for transit.) I reinforced the tip of the finial with six to eight layers of Worbla to make it SUPER strong, since that is where all the weight and impact would be focused as it was set on the floor/carried/leaned against things.
Once the front and back of the headpiece were covered, I cut long one-inch-wide strips of Worbla (the same as the thickness of the insulation foam) and carefully applied them around all the curved edges. This was one of the most time-consuming steps, as each piece had to be laid out, heated, smoothed, blended at the edges, and measured and cut carefully to fit around the PVC tubes. Since Worbla fuses to itself, the edge pieces adhered easily to the overlap from the flat side pieces, and patching around the tubes was easily done using little scrap pieces.
Once that piece was attached, I copied designs from the CLAMP artwork and cut out each tiny curve and jewel setting using scissors. (DO NOT use your best scissors for this; cutting plastic will damage the blades and hinges. I utterly destroyed two pair of scissors and a set of kitchen shears for this project.) Where the designs overlapped or had more dimensionality, I cut multiple layers of Worbla and stacked them. These pieces were also heated and applied to the base layer of Worbla.
Since I knew I was going to be suspending the crystal from the staff points, I glued the threads in when constructing the crystal so they were solidly anchored. I used pale blue thread, which would show less in photos than a bright white. (Note: After a couple of cons, I swapped this out for transparent jewelry cord, which is more durable.)
There are six points of support (two at each of the top corners and one at each bottom corner), with the threads pulled taut. This tension keeps the crystal from wobbling too much when the staff is carried.
The round blue gems were cast in epoxy resin, using a custom blend of dye and glitter for tinting and effect, and were backed with aluminum tape to reflect light. I used plastic measuring spoons to create the graduated sizes. Please refer to my resin tutorial for more information on casting.
I had to shorten the staff slightly, as it was initially too tall for indoor use, but now it measures a touch over 8 feet in length. The headpiece slides off for transport, leaving the pole at 6 1/2 feet and the headpiece at around 2 1/2 feet (the overlap is about a foot).
Hello, I currently have a store that is on the Pause and Build plan. We are working on getting it activated and upgraded to the basic plan, but it's telling me my staff accounts will be deactivated. I was under the impression that we were allowed up to two staff accounts for the basic plan, but it seems like that is no longer the case. When I asked the Support Chat Bot, it confirmed that we do get staff accounts, but the actual help center page says I don't get any. If someone could please confirm one way or the other, that would be great!
c80f0f1006