Forums > Social Chat > Heavy Staff?

Posted: 14th Dec 2000
Depends on your strength and also preference - try both to start with and see which you like.If it is for fire then you might want to consider a long but light pole...for practise without fire a heavy short one!Experimenting is the name of the game...hope that helped!Sammie.

Posted: 14th Dec 2000
Agree with Sammie about experimenting to find what's right...and if you're used to poi and going to staff...midlength is a good place to start....about a meter or so.I, myslef, practice with one the same length and weight as my fire one (I wrap socks around the end instead of wicks) so that there is very little difference between how I perform when I rehearse and when I perform cause let me tell you, in my opinion, even the slightest change in toy can throw me off. But maybe that is just me.At any rate...haapy happy joy joy!!!!!Hope it helps. ------------------PeleHigher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

Posted: 16th Dec 2000
hey Amanda I like my staffs to be light, but with most of the weight near the ends. The lightness makes it easy to move, the weight distribution seems to make it a bit easier to control. If you try spinning with just a plain stick, you have to work a lot harder to keep it moving than you would if it had weights or wicks on the ends. I find the basic aluminium tube staff seems to work pretty well, and the wicks are enough weighting to make it controllable. I use tubing about 17mm in diameter. If you're making your own, check out several suppliers, there is a but of variation in the thickness of the aluminium. I know in NZ that Ulrich makes nice light stuff, but the hardware stores tend to sell thicker, heavier stuff. But I guess that's not too relevant to you overseas. Also, if you're making a non-fire staff, try using those foam bike handlebar grips, just slip one over each end. This is quite good for learning, (or practising new tricks) cause the foam doesn't hurt so much if you hit yourself! Then when you get better, you can take the grips off and put wick on instead.All this is personal choice though, really. Whatever you start with, you'll most likely get used to. I'd reccomend not starting with anything too heavy though, as it does take a little while to build up the strength you need for staff...you don't want to get discouraged by aching arms have fun, and let us know how you go with your new staffx[This message has been edited by xaeda (edited 16 December 2000).]

the memories fire, the rhythm falls slow....

Posted: 17th Jun 2003
I prefer heavy staffs myself, cos then you can do some nice contact stuff. the problem with light staffs is that if you go too fast, the staff has the liability of flying out of your hands.