Does anyone spin dragon staff and how long did it take for you to get it down

i have only seen one person in person spin a dragon staff and im just wondering if anyone knows more about it. like where it came from and how long it take to keep all the heads rolling/spinning

how long it takes to learn how to keep the heads moving*****

I'm guessing it would really depend on what your skill set is normally. If your already an advanced contact staffer it would probably be quicker and easier to pick up than someone who's never used a staff before.

thats kinda what i was thinking, is that what u spin i just think they r so amazing

I was reluctant to post earlier, but found some useful things out:

*The spinning of the spines is from rolling the staff.*
*If you can roll a staff, you can use a dragon staff.*
(But you don't have to.)

1: Dragon staff makes it easier to do rolls that stay the same direction, e.g. prayer passes.
2: Because they take more time to get going and spin slower than a normal staff, some will says that rolls that switch direction are much easier, e.g. Steves. However, I have found a few people that would disagree, because those types of moves require more technique since the staff will spin as well as roll.
3: Over all, they work out much better if you mainly do contact moves and depending who you are, may actually help you because the extra weight and gyroscopic effects kick in.
4: Initially starting out, DS's may be awkward to handle but open a large enough door that makes learning new moves less frustrating.
5: Helps you break the habit of certain transitions, and certain transitions will require slightly different changes. This will probably help out a beginner more than someone who has spinning a while. For example: if you try conveyor belts and habitually transition to a halo, you may need to tilt your body more to avoid the spines, and this is a hard habit to break. So a beginner may get this down faster than someone who is experienced.

Tips:
- Start with smaller spines. (this should be obvious)
- Use flexible spines, i.e. use hoop spines rolled around wire.
- If lighting for the first time, get an experienced DS spinner and learn to pass it to them so you don't get tired, you don't have it the full length of the burn time, you get to use theirs, you get to watch them, they can give you advice, etc.
- Also, you don't have to light all 10 heads at once. Try to see if you can light just 1 corner, and once you get used to it light the rest. If you get to this level: with excess fuel ***NOT ADVISED*** you could light the other 6 spines from the fire tails of the first one.
- All other tips come straight from normal contact staff.

Ideas:
- When it falls it stays off the ground, so you can jump over it and kick it up to you and play it off like it was on purpose.
- Rolls are slower and more stable, so you can roll it to your ankle.
- With a practice set, you can grab the meteor hammer your friend launches at your face mid-Steve, have it roll down on to the meteor hammer rope, and when it starts to get off balance yank the rope hard so it pops the dragon staff in the air while you pull the other hammer toward you, neck wrap the meteor hammer and catch the dragon staff in a fish tail and catch the end of the meteor with one of the spines and while starting back into a Steve, send the meteors back toward your friend, or in my case the trees. (Purely accidental.)

Good luck!

I just wanted to add after some more work with it.
The dragon staff is now like cheating.
Moves I could not get before, I can now do with my dragon staves, but not my normal staff.
If trying to learn something that doesn't incorporate switching the direction off the roll, the dragon staff is about 10 times easier to use.
Learning the matrix, pivots, SNES's, and even Fishtails are much easier with a dragon staff.

To actually answer the questions above:
The original idea is credited to Gora and his imagination.
I have found that a complete beginner can get forearm, full arm, and static rolls in about an hour. Transitions in about 2 hours, and fully connected rolling moves like Minimal Steves in about 4 hours.
For non-rolling moves, I've seen beginners pick up wraps with a DS twice as fast as with a normal staff.