Absolute Beginner Single Staff Spinning Tutorials

Definative version at: http://mcp.tepookatoys.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=216&Itemid=11


So you wanna learn to spin staff?

1) get a staff to practise with. Possibly you aready have one. Any bit of metal or wooden tube will do, it should be approximately your chin height, bigger or smaller doesn't have much of a difference. Weighting doesn't really matter at this point.

For learning contact however, the staff you use IS important. But we're not doing that right now so it's okay.



Learn this FIRST:

The Rotor
threeworlds gif animation
french gif tutorial - Rotation simple devant soi
japanese video clip
mot's gif tutorial
homeofpoi gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 3244

This is 'the rotor', one of the very basic moves of staff spinning.

Try it both ways... it doesn't need to be incredibly smooth and fast for you to move on, it'll come in time.


Then Learn this:

The Figure of Eight
threeworlds gif animation
french gif tutorial - Mouvement de bras
japanese video clip
mot's gif tutorial
homeofpoi gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1253


This is the "Figure of eight" (fo8 for short) it goes from one side of your body to the other, it's very important that you learn this both ways in both hands. Keep your grip quite light, and feel the momentum of the staff, rather than forcing it around.

These are the two BASIC's of spinning staff. After you have done these a bit, you can hop about in the rest of this tutorial if you like. Everything else is some form of passing figure of eights, or turning or doing one of the two behind the back, or in combination.

Or the Other way around!



At this point, you can skip around in the following sections, learning what you like, in whatever order. This is not an ordering of difficulty, or a heirarchy, it's just a list. Learn what you like.



Once you've got say, forwards f08 in your right, reverse in your left, you can move on to something like this:

passing around the body:
mcp firestaff tutorial


Everything else: (online that is...)

that's the way I teach anyway, if you're having trouble with the figure of eight, try learning this instead:

rotor btb pass:
mot's gif tutorial
threeworlds gif animation
homeofpoi gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1260


Passing behind the back is useful as it leads into moves like this: (passing behind the back, then behind the head.)

pinwheel
threeworlds gif animation
mot's gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1265


Passing continuously behind the back. (rotor behind the back)

continuous btb
homeofpoi gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial


Passing a figure eight between the hands:

figure 8 passing patterns
threeworlds gif animation
threeworlds gif animation
french gif tutorial - La Weave
mcp firestaff tutorial


Even simpler than a figure of eight:

one beats
mcp firestaff tutorial


Once you've got figure of eights, you can move them to the other side of your body, or turn around with them, or just go crazy!

turning figure eights
homeofpoi gif tutorial
mot's gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1262


Simple throws:

throws
homeofpoi video tutorial
fireninja video clips
french gif tutorial - Rotation, double tour
Imakokode YouTube Tutorial


Moving the rotor up to the horizontal (above your head) plane.

horizontal rotor
threeworlds gif animation
homeofpoi gif tutorial


Adding in extra beats to the figure of eight, this is called shotguns / snakes / double spins.

shotguns
mot's gif tutorial
french gif tutorial - Double rotation devant derrière
mcp firestaff tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1276
Imakokode YouTube Tutorial


passing a figure of eight behind your back.

BTB figure of eight passing.
mot's gif tutorial
mcp firestaff tutorial
feuershow.de - Quicklink-ID: 1268
Imakokode YouTube Tutorial


what it says on the tin, getting extra beats out of the staff using fingerspinning.

fingerspinning
mcp firestaff tutorial
imakokode's video tutorial


What it says on the tin, patterns you can make just by passing the staff from hand to hand.

passing combinations:
mcp firestaff tutorial


References: (and further study)


mcp.tepookatoys.com
www.motsplace.com
www.tete-en-lair.com - FRENCH
www.homeofpoi.com
www.threeworlds.com.au
www.geocities.jp/performerjin - JAPANESE
www.fireninja.com
feuershow.de + ENGLISH + GERMAN + SPANISH
Imakokode YouTube Tutorials - FRENCH + ENGLISH + JAPANESE

somebody PLEASE sticky this to the top of the page?

*Bows down to meg. Again*

Agreed. Thankyou Meg

I might even have a go... (I should probably get a staff first )

for someone that scares off newbies........

you certanly do alot for them

nice one meg

I am both bad cop and good cop.

Oooh! I LOVE a woman in uniform!

you are so straight!

no thread is safe..............

not one

I'll drag it back on track it then...

This'd be really good for me to unlearn everything I know to get a new perspective on the whole process of learning...

Especially being someone who can do a Jesus but not an Angel Roll...

Cheers Meggy Moggy Owly...

now i have to wait for the weather to warm up, cause i am a wimp and have a hard time with staff wearing gloves

Thanks Meg

damn fine work from meg again can you do an intermediate one for me

Thanks very much.

I wanted to learn the staff, but lacked tutorials of any kind. I had some poi and began spinning those... but staff twirling is what interests me. I'll pick up my bamboo stick and get to work on all this!!!

Thanks Meg

Edit:
Heh, mastered these pretty quickly! Time to buy myself a staff DvD methinks.

ditto...

a staff what??? is there such an item worthy of the name?

not yet but from what i understand there will soon be more than one available.

So I shouldn't buy the Staff DvD from HoP? Alright, you're the experts, I'll wait around a little while and keep surfing the internet and practicing.

I'm gonna miss finger twirling when I get a bigger staff... it adds so many more beats. :-(
I'm sure there is a less newbish way to do that though...

Whoo hoo, Fabulous, Just got my first staff (my poi are takin a back seat) and all enthused to learn new things. Thanks for all the details, time to get to practising

This is fantastic! *bows down to teh awesomeness*

Up for introduce more basic staff tutorials.

I did some short videos from basics spinning movements, transferts, throws and more to come.
There is 3 languages avaliable on you tube:

English :

Tutorial I : Spinning movements part. 1


Tutorial II : Spinning movements part.2


Tutorial III : basic transfers


Tutorial IV : Basic throws


Français :

Tutorial I : mouvements de spinning 1er partie.


Tutorial II: mouvements de spinning 2eme partie


Tutorial III: transfers de base


Tutorial IV: lancés de base


Japanese

Imakokode staff tutorial I

Wow nice videos! I've been looking for tutorials such as these, very clear!

As a very beginner to staff, I totally appreciate videos like these!

Thanks

That's are all great guys!

I downloaded pretty much everything that I could get my grubby little hands on, and I've started organizing it into groups that I can learn from. I really like the basicness of Imakokode's Tutorials, and I just tried my first ones tonight.

I've noticed a few problems that might not be affecting others. For one, I'm 6'4, and trying this in a basement. Bad idea, considering the height (or lack thereof) of the ceiling. In addition, it seems that my "girth" is causing my pathing to be a bit wider than I would like. Guess this is good motivation to keep me wanting to slim down.

But I tried the first four moves in the first video - man, it took me a bit to figure out the mechanics of the extra wrist beat, but once I got it, it was like a shot to the head. I can DO this!

BUMP!

Okay, updated to new forum format, added quicklinks into feuershow links so they go directly to the tutorial.

Added Imakokode's tutorials and added his youtube page to the references.

Oh what's this? A cheeky plug for my basics DVD: http://manipulation.firestaff.net

Thanks for the posting and sticky, I'm picking up my first staff from the post office in the morning. *missed the delivery man today traveling back from VA for Thanksgiving*

I went with the full length mistletoe (5ft 1/4in length since I'm 5'9", should be about right to get started) from the shop on here and can't wait to get started.

Hope to get better acquainted with you guys soon and studying up on all of the preceding straight away

i just started and this site helped me a lot, good job mate and thanks

I really like the tutorials by Imakokode. (sp?)
I'm currently working on the two and three beat forward. Basically I am doing something, but I'm still trying to analyze wether it's good, wrong, or another move entirely^^.

I guess it's a sloppy two beat, because I think I do bend my wrist a little but extra, but instead of a three beat, it just makes a two beat that goes a different angle than yours.

I'm wondering, is a 'proper' two beat allways... 'flat'? I'm not sure about the corrent term, but I've noticed that your two beat is always almost parallel with your arm. My 'sloppy' 2-beat really isn't.

Oh, and is the Figure 8 wich is in the 'learning' section basically also a 2-beat variation?

Thanks a lot!