The Complete Handbook of Staff & Stick Weapons

As a martial arts school owner, I bought this looking for a replacement for the 'guide' I was basically writing myself from YouTube clips and forum arguments. It does consolidate a lot of useful information, and the maintenance chapter is genuinely helpful for keeping our school's bo staff in shape. My main gripe is that Chapter 6 on suppliers felt a bit thin; it names categories but doesn't give you a starting list of names to look up, which I thought the premise promised. It's a solid reference, but I expected a bit more depth on the business side.

Finally, a handbook that treats this subject with the seriousness it deserves. The material science section in Chapter 1 alone was worth the price; I now understand exactly why hickory performs differently than oak and how grain direction affects breakage risk. The troubleshooting guide for a warped shaft is something I've already used twice. The book is well-organized, dense with specifics, and free of the usual mystical filler you find in martial arts literature. I've been training with a bo for eight years and I still learned things. Highly recommended for anyone who teaches or trains seriously.

The book contains a lot of correct information, and I appreciate that it's written in a neutral, no-nonsense tone. I found the chapter on choosing the right weapon to be quite practical; the checklist for evaluating balance in a store is useful. However, I felt the book was a bit too focused on wooden weapons. I work in stage combat, and we often use carbon fiber or aluminum tubes for safety and durability, and those materials get maybe two pages total. Also, the section on compliance and regulations is general to the point of being of limited use. It's a good book for a beginner or a traditionalist, but I wanted more for my niche.

I'm a collector and occasional reenactor, and I got this to help me understand the differences between a quarterstaff and a bo, and how to buy better pieces at events. I found the opening chapter on the physics of leverage to be surprisingly clear and well-explained. The maintenance tips on how to fix a loose grip wrap were exactly what I needed. The reason I'm not giving it more stars is that it sometimes reads like a textbook, dry and academic, and it doesn't give you any 'googling' starting points for the specific suppliers it discusses in Chapter 6. It felt like it was holding back on the kind of practical leads a hobbyist like me would want.

I manage a small security company and we use expandable batons and long tactical sticks. I bought this book to see if it had any crossover value for my team's training. The chapters on basic stance, grip, and defensive positioning are very applicable, and the section on legal terms in the glossary was actually illuminating. The downside is that the book is clearly written with a traditional martial arts or historical focus as the default; the discussion of modern tactical stick technology felt like an afterthought. It's a good book to have on the shelf, but it didn't give me the modern tactical edge I was hoping for.