In Asian martial arts, the Bo-staff has long been recognized as a potent weapon. In Europe, the staff also has a distinguished history. For centuries starting before the Middle Ages, it was the weapon of choice for farmers, herders, and middle-class travellers. During the Renaissance, the staff was included in the curriculum of Europe's finest fighting masters, including Jacob Sutor, Joachim Meyer, George Silver and Joseph Swetnam. Aside from these great masters, who can forget Robin Hood and his band of merry men, whose use of the staff was to cause such havoc for the Sherriff of Nottingham? With the resurgence of interest in European Martial Arts, David Lindholm presents a synthesis of techniques preserved in the historical record, a useful guide for both novice and experienced combatant, including translations of the most important texts, analysis, and photographic interpretation of each technique. Mr. Lindholm, a recognized expert in the European martial arts based in Sweden, is a founder ofthe St. Mikael's Gille, and a frequent lecturer at Symposia throughout Europe.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating book, annoying production values,
By Heteromeles (somewhere, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fighting With The Quarterstaff (Paperback)
This is a good introduction to the historical manuscripts that deal with quarterstaff fighting, and as such, it is well worth the price. If you are interested in the quarterstaff, I recommend it, despite its flaws, which I will get to.
This book covers the neglected art of the quarterstaff. It starts with some historical overview, goes on to provide about 50 pages on the principles and basics of staff fighting (probably my favorite part of the book and worth the price on its own). The final chapter talks about training, conditioning, and making your own staff. The 180-odd pages between beginning and end probably deserve three stars. These cover the texts from period martial arts manuals, translated as necessary and with a commentary. While some of these texts talk about principles, the bulk of the book details particular techniques. The problem is the illustrations. Photo quality varies from quite decent to hideously murky, and many of the images reproduced in the text (particularly from Thomas McCarthy's work) can be found in higher quality online. Given that the text explanations are fairly sparse, the poor quality of many of the images is a major problem. A few of the pictures (I counted three) don't follow the captions, leading me to believe that the wrong picture got put in. This is a comment on editing and production values, which leave much to be desired. Both the author and editor should have done a better job on quality control. In sum, this book is a mix of good (5 star) and bad (three star), hence four stars. Personally, I definitely think it is worth buying if you want to learn more about this traditional European weapon. Hopefully, the author or the editors at Chivalry Bookshelf will read this review and improve the quality of the next run. If the illustration quality was uniformly good, this book would have had an easy five stars.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Proper Instruction in the Renaissance Technique of the Staff for the Modern Scholar of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defense.,
By
This review is from: Fighting With The Quarterstaff (Paperback)
The use of the staff is an important part of European martial heritage, well deserving to be practiced side-by-side with the sword. In Fighting With The Quarterstaff, David Lindholm presents an excellent study both in the historical use of the staff and offers proper instruction in the Renaissance technique for the modern scholar of the noble and worthy science of defense.
The book is divided into 11 chapters: 1 - Introduction 2 - A Few Fundamentals 3 - Foundations of Staff Combat 4 - The Earliest Masters 5 - Joseph Swetnam, 1617 6 - George Silver, 1599 7 - Zachary Wylde, 1711 8 - Thomas McCarthy, 1883 9 - Christian Egenolph, 1558 10 - Joachim Meyer, 1570 11 - Exercises, Training & Making a Staff Mr. Lindholm includes copies of drawings from original manuals and modern photographs showing demonstrations of the traditional staff fighting techniques. Instruction on proper size and construction of a fighting staff is also included allowing one to make himself a staff for studying this fighting art. Overall, Fighting With The Quarterstaff is very well researched and written. It is illustrated with drawings of the original masters and photographs from the modern making it easy to understand the techniques discussed. Entertaining and Informative. Highly recommended for the scholar of the art of defense.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite what I expected,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Fighting With The Quarterstaff (Paperback)
At first, from the excellent review above me, I expected to find much use in this book, as far as learning the basics of the quarterstaff. I was disappointed to find very little basic information. What information was there was very intelligently and keenly written. You had to really dig deep to discover and learn what could have been explained in very fewer words.
I found the information on the different masters and practioners in the majority of the book very annoying in the fact that, I do not really care who did this and who did that, but more of a general use among the two different nationalities. I feel that the middle of the book could have been avoided, and/or worded different. Like the reviewer above me, I also found many publication errors. Nothing too major to really throw one off, but I myself am very nitpicky and found numerous errors, that could've been corrected with another editor/editing. Some of the pictures are very good, others are extremely poor, seeming to have been just pulled off of the internet, no matter the quality. Good points - The book does give a very BASIC rundown on the strikes and guards, as well as information to back them all up, and the use in both German and English traditions. I did enjoy the extended explanation on the Staff itself, and how to make one. I feel that that those were necessary and very well included information. Overall, I believe it is a very well written book, that includes, some valuable information that could be valuable to some, but not to many. I feel that the title, does not quite fit what I had in mind and the reason I had bought this book.
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