Using the staff - thumb or no thumb?

[Keng Geng]

An appendage to the lap sau discussion. Or is it the lap sau that is the appendage?

[TjD]

not using the thumb while gripping the pole seems like a very good way to get your weapon knocked out of your hands.

[Da_Moose]

Depends,

I presume you're using it as a long, one-sided tool? Or as a double sided one?

I was taught to use the long pole with my rear hand (on my hip) with a firm, grip, thumb wrapped around the weapon. I was then taught to hold with my lead hand palm up, finger wrapping around the pole, but my thumb tucked under the pole along with my fingers. The reasoning being that the thumb is more vulnerable to breaking than my fingers (1 vs. 4). I did not find a loose grip however on the pole, it felt quite natural that way.

As a double sided weapon, I wrap both thumbs around the pole for better control with both ends.

[anerlich]

For the 6.5 point pole, TWC has two thumbed grips.

Some techniques, most notably a fok kwun, or overhead strike would IMO be almost impossible to perform with a heavy pole at full power otherwise. Even if you rely mainly on gravity to hold the pole in the grip, the grip would IMO still be vulnerable to an upward strike, eg, a til kwun, like a reverse jut kwun.

Some philipino and similar dos manos systems, with much shorter and lighter weapons, have you holding the blocking end in a cupped palm with fungers and thumb tucked behind the impact surface, so the impact drives the stick back *into* the grip rather than out, but my experiences with it have it being a bit too fiddly to use effectively.

When pro baseball players start hitting homers with thumbless grips, I'll start thinking about using them on weapons.

YMMV of course.

[anerlich]

I tried the "thumbless" grip out during this morning's workout. I found that when doing a fok kwun, the thumb being on the same side of the pole the fingers of the lead hand impedes the movement. You cannot get the same radius of movement, as the thumb actually acts as an obstacle to smooth movement.

In TWC, that lead hand acts for many moves as a fulcrum, sometimes the pressure is on one side of the grip sometimes the other.

Thumbed grip all the way for this boy.

[Keng Geng]

Originally posted by TjD
not using the thumb while gripping the pole seems like a very good way to get your weapon knocked out of your hands.

Exactly. When doing a lap sau, if you're worried about getting your finger broken, you've got a problem with the structure of your lap. Train more staff.