At about black belt level, I learned a form that was called “wushu staff”. I had always thought it was a cool staff form, and initially presumed it was imported / incorporated as the curriculum progressed from the hard ‘karate’ arts into the softer and more circular ‘kung fu’ aspects of the curriculum. Why not, as the sign outside said “karate – kung fu – tai chi” at the place I started. Later the more knowledgeable / cynical me figured it was a ‘made up pretend Chinese’ form like most of the upper level curriculum forms seem to be. Well, knock me down with a feather, it’s actually a wushu staff form. See here – anything look familiar?
If I had only asked the right someone before, I suppose this was an easy question to answer, but it seemed that nobody within the system had the answer ready at hand. I’m guessing any intermediate contemporary wushu student would identify our form in no time. If I had to guess, I would say it was imported during the time Steve Demasco studied wushu or through one of the many Kempo seniors that studied with Yao Lee as he has been, and continues to be an influence on kempo practitioners from the Boston area.
Most references are to the 32 move wushu staff, but it also goes under the names: gunshu basic taolu, 32 staff form, and fourth dan / level staff form in the contemporary wushu curriculum.
Does your school teach this form? For your interest, I’ve embedded a few more examples of the form after the jump.
You asked the wrong people, haha. I believe it is from Yao Lee. Hope all is well, DVD is being shipped tommorow.
I never was taught nor had seen this form until you posted it. Here is a clip of one of my students practicing in his back yard to give you an idea of the bo form in our curriculum. He will be so mad that I posted this cuz he said he was just goofin off, to bad 🙂
Justin,
where did you pick that form up? What is the background of the form?
It was always in our curriculum. I had no idea the background of the form until one afternoon at Mr. Rebelo’s studio he was showing me footage of Prof. Cerio on an American Masters DVD and the next part of the DVD had a guy doing a staff form, and I said “hey I have that form” to which Mr. Rebeloo replied”really?”, yup. I can’t remember the gentlemans name, Mr. Rebelo would know, but he was Mike Bernardo’s instructor. If you don’t know who Mike Bernardo is he was tearing up the national tournament circuit in the mid 90’s with his staff work. So as to background that is all I have, I don’t know how it got to Tom Sullivan and Villari’s , but he taught it to me. Great form though, I thought it was common in all the Villari / Masters schools….guess not.
Yeah, the youtube clip you showed doesn’t ring a bell. I’ll have to quiz Mr. Rebelo on that one. I judged a few Masters Centers tournaments and never saw that one, so I’m guessing it wasn’t a typical MSDC form. They typically taught Shushi no kon sho at below black belt, and Wushu staff at black belt.
I know I went all the way to 2nd degree before I learned any weapon forms that were required for rank. And those were added in after I was already a 2nd. The only weapon Sigung Duncan taught us was the Kali.
Yup this was standard in Riverside, Ri in the 90’s, well still is. The first half of the form was taught at 3rd brown and the “long form” or rest of the form was taught at 1st brown.
i love the 32 movement form. I have got to get that private in master Dwire!! and Justin that form looks goodalso. Jesse,did you learn all the applications for it as well?
my master has the 32 wushu staff form, sho shi no kosho, and 3 jo-staff forms(the smaller staff like only 4 feet long.)