Stick twirling or Staff Wielding

This is a video available on YouTube as well.

You all would have seen the video. Now I don’t really know what you might have felt after seeing it. Personally my experience of showing it to others has been that first of all my friends, relatives etc none have been able to identify that it is me in the video in the first place. One another comment I got is that it is too short- just 5 seconds. Also some have suggested that it is some real fast twirling and even wondered whether it is a trick of technology etc. Generally everyone has been impressed by it.....

So to clear it all, it is me and I have really, actually done it although what you might not know is that the stick fell out of my hands just after this. But it is allowed I guess for what came before it!

So how in the world did I get into it? I will start by giving a brief history. As a child, I have been fascinated by almost all aspects in life. And I can safely say that I have tried my hand at almost everything that I was exposed to or that which was within my reach. So till now I have practiced my hand at drawing, mainly portraits (which you all who have seen my whole blog would know), even tried my hand at cartoons like the ones that come in newspapers making fun of the political situation etc, writing poems, and now obviously blogs, tried my hand at making a novel or story book whatever you call it at the age of 14. I still have it with the pictures that I had drawn in it. Sports too, my true love being Cricket since as long as I can remember and am still so crazy about it. Also online games of all sorts, reading lots and lots of stuff from books, websites etc, Making things from clay etc, playing the piano, also dancing and even tried singing when I converted my poems into songs, composed and played music, sang it, recorded it, edited it all by myself at my home with just my PC and head phones! An achievement in itself I guess. Also Taekwon do which was an amazing experience and for which I got a trophy, the only one I have I think, learnt and loved swimming, learnt skating by myself on the terrace of my home, falling innumerable times, juggling etc.
So as you can see, I have tried many things.

I was also a huge fan of Akshay Kumar, Bollywood actor, whose movies were mainly action-oriented and consisted of stunts he performed himself. He was an inspiration. So too is Arnold Schwarzenegger and I have done various kinds of exercises through my life and am deceptively strong for someone with a weight of 50 kgs (110 pounds)

So this whole stick twirling thing started with a single glimpse of Daniel Goddard in Beast Master on Axn. He did that stunt of jumping from a height and somersaulting in the air and landing on his feet. I have been fascinated by it but never tried it full-fledged. It is a dangerous thing to do without an expert or instructor and there are serious chances of injury. Since then I was hooked to Beast Master and what a great show it was. Really commendable! It is there that I saw him wielding the stick or his staff so gracefully and easily and at least that was something I could try without getting seriously hurt. Fortunately at home we had a bamboo stick but it was a bit too long I guess as you can see from the video. It must be 6 feet long, me being 5’ 10” and it wasn’t really straight. It had a bent shape which might be visible.

The show itself was so wonderful, the people selected fit the bill perfectly. The combination of Dar and Tao was great. The combination of physical and mental strength. It also had emotions and well thought out characters. Click the link below is an introductory video of the show Beast Master : BEASTMASTER VIDEO

Now I cannot really teach or tell someone how to wield the stick. It would be very difficult. You can only learn by trying it yourself. Maybe you can watch in slow motion, try various things and experiment and if you are really interested and have a desire to learn it, you definitely will. There are lots of videos out there on YouTube as well.
Happy stick twirling!
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Fact- Bruce (Jun Fan) Lee was a Chinese-American martial artist, philosopher, instructor, martial arts actor and the founder of the Jeet Kune Do combat form.