I find Joe Varady’s approach to martial arts completely relatable. He loves weapons, specifically sticks and staffs. I’m kind of the same, except my passion is swords. While most martial artists pursue a particular style, like Shaolin or Wing Chun, we’re looking at a specific weapon through multiple styles. This is the way to discover universal concepts. It’s like being a chef, but instead of studying Chinese cooking or French haute cuisine, you pursue everything pork across as many cultures as you can find. It’s not about the culture of the meal; it’s about the fundamental ingredient.
Joe is the author of three books and two instructional videos: The Art and Science of Staff Fighting and Double DVD, The Art and Science of Stick Fighting and Double DVD, and The Art and Science of Self-Defense: A Comprehensive Instructional Guide.
When chatting with Joe, I couldn’t resist calling him out on our mutual love the movies.
GC: What is your martial arts background?
JV: I was first exposed to the martial arts as a kid in the 80s, watching Black Belt Theater. I was enthralled, but my parents scoffed when I asked for lessons. For almost five years I practiced on my own, receiving instruction from books and movies. When I was old enough, I got a job, a used car, quit high school football and track, and enrolled in Tae Kwon Do. Later, I went to Gettysburg College where I began training in Cuong Nhu, an eclectic Vietnamese-based system founded on the idea that a well-rounded martial artist needs to be effective in all ranges of fighting: kicking, striking, and grappling. Training combined aspects of different martial arts, each selected for specific skill sets, such as Karate for powerful, long-range striking and kicking, boxing and Wing Chun for in-fighting, and Judo for throwing and groundwork. To expand my knowledge in these key areas, I cross-trained in each. I joined the college boxing team, studied Wing Chun, Judo, and Eskrima. This emphasis on versatility and maintaining an open mind greatly influenced how I have trained for the last 35 years.
I have also practiced Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), first with instructors from the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms), and later at Live Steel Fight Academy. Both were combat-oriented schools that focused on full-contact armored fighting. There I learned how to fight with a longsword, sword and shield, and halberd.
Those are just some of the high points. Like pieces added to a giant puzzle, each new piece deepens my understanding of the “big picture” of the martial arts as a whole by allowing me to identify the underlying universal principles.
GC: From which martial arts style do you draw your staff techniques? Which are the most influential in your practice?
JV: My personal staff style, which I outline in my book and video series, The Art and Science of Staff Fighting, is a mix of techniques I have found most useful from every style that I have studied. If I had to list the top three, in no particular order, I would say Chinese Shaolin staff for speed and fluidity, Okinawan/Japanese bojitsu for structure, focus, and mental poise, and English/German quarterstaff for combat application. Successfully combining these key elements: speed, structure, and technical application, is vital to consistent success when it comes to staff fighting.
GC: What do you think the Chinese martial arts have to offer staff fighters that some of the other styles overlook?
JV: Most everyone who trains with the staff has heard that the weapon must move as though it were an extension of your body. However, Chinese stylists seem to cultivate a oneness with the staff supersedes what I have encountered elsewhere. This is readily apparent in the speed, power, and fluidity of Chinese staff forms. Skilled practitioners move with blinding speed and yet keep the staff under full control, flowing seamlessly between techniques. This is an obvious reflection of many hours of solo work with the weapon.
While I am nowhere near as fast as those that inspire me, I attribute many of my wins to adding this flavor to my fighting. Light, fast footwork provides a mobile platform, staying just out of range while delivering quick, focused strikes from unexpected angles.
GC: What do you think the other styles of martial arts offer staff fighting that Chinese style practitioners miss?
JV: Practitioners of historical European martial arts often armor-up and test their techniques in full-contact matches, not something I’ve seen much of in the Chinese arts. This sort of pressure testing demonstrates which techniques work consistently well, while weeding out the more ineffective moves. Many techniques look good in solo forms, but it is important to have a realistic idea of what makes a solid technique versus one based in martial fantasy. Therefore, techniques must be repeatedly tested in free fighting with a non-compliant opponent who is actively working against you. Only when a technique has demonstrated a high percentage of success against a variety of skilled opponents can you consider it truly functionalized, dependable, and worthy of adding to your arsenal.
GC: What do you think most intermediate staff practitioners overlook in their training?
JV: Probably the most tangible difference between an intermediate and advanced staff fighter is footwork. Footwork seems like a small thing, but footwork wins fights. Control the range, and you control the fight. A competent intermediate level fighter should already know to hover just outside of an opponent’s effective striking range, then quickly move into range to score when the opportunity presents itself.
What takes more time and experience to understand is how footwork allows for simultaneous attack and defense. Most opponents are forced to make assumptions, mounting their offense (or defense) based on where you happen to be when the action is initiated, but well-timed footwork can adjust your position, changing the angles just enough for you to simultaneously check their weapon while circumventing their defenses and scoring. In HEMA, this is commonly referred to as a “master cut,” but you can’t pull it off without good footwork.
GC: I’ve noticed some of your training devices are derived from contraptions seen in Kung Fu movies. Can you talk about this?
JV: I have always enjoyed training, so I suppose it’s no surprise that my favorite parts of martial arts films are the training scenes. As a boy, I could relate to the idea of the young untrained initiate working hard to become a strong fighter. As a kid, everything I saw, I tried to mimic. I’d train in my room, watching Kung Fu movies while standing in low horse stance on paint cans with a staff across my arms. In the basement I hung up a dozen old socks with fist-sized rocks in them, then used them as slip-bags, swinging them before moving through and avoiding them. After getting clobbered in the head one time too many, I replaced them with slightly softer potatoes, but that didn’t work well either because, after a few weeks, roots started growing out of the socks!
In the yard I planted short logs in a plum-flower pattern to fight on. Similarly, I placed a long board (about 8 inches wide) across two logs to create an elevated fighting board. My friends and I then spent hours trying to push each other off. I built my first mook jong (wooden dummy) from an eight-foot length of telephone pole which a planted in the ground. Wherever I could, I hung tires and basketballs to strike and dodge. I made makiwaras out of bamboo and duct-taped bags of beans to trees to punch and kick. I remember watching The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and seeing the pinwheels in the staff chamber. It didn’t take long before I had made up my first spinners from a plastic lid, two paint stirrers, and a 12’ gutter nail. Now-a-days I have upgraded to a sleek design cut out of plywood. I have them mounted in my dojo and around my yard, which, to this day, is still full of training equipment.
GC: Do these movie-inspired devices really work? What do they add to your practice, and which is your favorite?
JV: They sure do! The more you train at anything, the better you get. When it comes to staff training, if you twirl a lot, it will help you move in concert with the weapon, but it will not help you learn how to fight with it. Fighting skill can only be gained through fighting, but when you have no one to spar with, training equipment can help fill the gap. Different pieces of equipment help develop different attributes. Some provide good power training, which is necessary since you generally should not be developing your power on your training partner. Other equipment helps develop speed and/or accuracy. Whatever the exercise, training equipment provides me with immediate feedback on my technique, which keeps my mind focused on improvement. Of course, you get out of it what you put into it. When I can see my skills improving, the countless repetitions cease to be monotonous work and actually become rewarding and, dare I say, even fun. Later, when these skills contribute to success in fighting, it motivates me to train even more.
GC: As a fellow Kung Fu movie fan, I must ask - what are some of your favorite Kung Fu movies?
JV: My first exposure to the martial arts was through Saturday afternoon Kung Fu Theater on television, so I have a nostalgic affinity for the Shaw Brothers classics. My favorite was, and still is, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. The effect that the training scenes had on me as an impressionable young teen cannot be overstated. Five Deadly Venoms might come in second. Bruce Lee’s films were also incredibly inspirational for me, and anything with Jackie Chan was, and still is absolutely mind-blowing. More recently, Kung Fu Hustle was surprisingly fun, and then there’s Donnie Yen in the Ip Man series… wow. I’d better stop, I just keep thinking of more and more.
GC: What advice might you offer to a martial arts novice eager to pursue staff training?
JV: Get a staff, then twirl it until you feel comfortable manipulating the weapon. Once you have smooth and fast twirls, learn how to strike by making a target board and tracing the lines. Then I’d recommend hanging things up and start hitting them. Just about anything can be used. Old car tires are perfect for learning to generate power. A ball on a rope moves differently and can help develop timing and accuracy. Eventually, you’ll want to work your way up to sparring with a partner. It is the only way to know what really works, and what doesn’t. From there, you can begin to develop your own style of staff fighting. The exciting thing is that, as you accumulate experience with the weapon, your personal staff style will naturally develop, increasing in effectiveness and sophistication. All you need to do is put forth the effort!
For more on Joe Varady, click here.
Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.
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