Three section staff kata and more

I recently commented about my fear of the three section staff but only remembered today that a blogger I read regularly had just recently posted a kata with that weapon.

His name is Clint Leeung. He is from Montreal and from his profile, has been studying and training in martial arts for over 32 years. He has been competing at a very high level for many years, especially is such highly regarded circuits like the NASKA circuit, the NBL circuit, and the WSKF circuit.

He has title his kata a "kung fu three section staff kata" and I sense a bit of chinese (wushu?) influence in this one. Let's take a look at it:



After watching it, I sense that this kind of weapon has a couple of use. First it could definitely be useful to keep an attacker at bay, as you can swing it with a lot of amplitude. But then, you can also use it in short distance, because of the sectional side of it. Kind of interesting, if still a bit scary weapon to me, :)

He's also posted a video of his bo staff kata, with which I understood he did most of his competing in the last year:


I like it very, very much, but I'm biased toward the bo. It's got some spin, some strikes, very good strikes and speed. It's almost a shame we can't hear him kiai though. I like feeling the power in a bo staff kata.

Clint has posted some comments he has received about his two kata on his blog. You can read them here. I agree with what he says, now that I've read the comments. I honestly don't feel good enough with my technique to be any kind of critique to one of his kata...

Anyway, I doubt I'll ever get to his level, but he gives me something to look up to. And he scores bonus points for training with these forms inside his house...

FM