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!

Kip-Up- Martial Arts step of getting up

Some of you who follow and read my blog would already know about me, but if not, then I'll tell you that among the various things that interest me, Martial Arts, in any of its various forms is one of them.


At the age of 12, I had joined Tae Kwon Do classes and it was one of the best things that my parents suggested me to do. Remember, I am using the word suggested, because they never forced me to do anything and also because I am a bit too lazy or not ambitious enough to do something on my own, or think about joining a class or something.


It was one of the best experiences of my life and one of the most memorable year of my life. One, because such kind of things always attract me and the one year that I did this classes, I did it with utmost sincerity and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was always interested in learning new steps and doing various things on my own if required because they won't teach you too much in a year.


* See this other post of mine of Stick Twirling by clicking here


Whatever memories I have include first the warm ups, then the various kicks and punches that we were required to do with as much force as possible,the form steps and the push-ups (one of my favourites), the splits i.e. spreading of both the legs absolutely horizontally on the ground, the various official fights they used to make us have, tightening the stomach and after gauging how tight it is, accordingly they would deliver punches to it, and none of these strangely ever hurt. And perhaps as a culmination of all my sincerity for the one year, I stood in the first position for the exam of Yellow belt and was awarded a trophy! My first one.


I remember people always grumbling and grunting as the instructors would ask us to do 'a little more' of everything. I enjoyed the splits because as I was young, I was able to learn it quickly and do it with real ease, I used to learn by observing the seniors and trying out on my own various kicks with spin kick being my favourites among the limited repertoire I possessed.


Thus after 12 years of having a yellow belt, I still some times like to do a few steps, learn a few new things and one of them is the step of getting up on the feet from the position of lying down on the ground which is a very common step that you would have seen in almost all action movies. It is something that I have tried on my own and can do but never practise. It is very important to do it regularly otherwise it becomes very difficult. I try it once in a few months so I am not at my best in this and hopefully I'll put in the practice and put up an even better video!


I am sure most of you who are interested in doing various martial steps want to learn how to do it because it is a relatively simple thing with less chances of you hurting yourself even if you do it alone without any instructor or supervision. It is apparently called "Kip-up" and can fall in the gymnastics category too and in Chinese, the term is "Wushu". It can also be called "rising handspring", "kick-up", "kick-to-stand". From my experience, I'll tell you a few things about it. First of all you have to lie down on the ground and I would suggest to immediately raise your body meaning after you lower yourbody, don't waste too much time there because if you get into it as soon as you go down, you can carry the momentum and that is the most important thing here because you have to exert so much of force down on the ground for your body to go up in the air.

I would say that you need to use both your hands and legs as well as your complete body for this. Never neglect any one part here and use maximum force from both hands as well as legs. The legs are the most powerful though and the thigh muscles are used the most. I can tell this from my experience because I usually do it once in a few months and so after trying a few times continuously, the next whole day I become and remain aware of my thigh muscles (as they ache) :)

You lie down with your shoulders touching the ground, bring both your legs up folded, close to your chest, then push- the initial push has to be from your hips area and then your legs as you straighten them and finally your hands as you leave them from the ground. You just have to concentrate on exerting the maximum force down on the ground with each part of the body that leaves the ground by pushing downwards and thus the part going up. I find that harder the surface, the better it happens and even if you fall down trying it, it doesn't really hurt. So I do it directly on the floor.

Again practice is the key again and I can't tell you too much about it because I myself neglect it, but it sure is an attractive step and will keep you fit as well. Hope you are able to do it. Try till you can do it and enjoy the moment when you are able to do it for the first time. It is an achievement!