Types of Sticks

[jonhutton]

I have a question for the more experienced players out there, I see ad's for diff. type of traditional material for sticks. I was just wondering if they provide anything more than longevity in training sticks or do they actually bring something different to your training. I see the cost is more and wonder if the investment is worth it. If you have any info please pass it on

Hutton

[Chad W. Getz]

Jon,

Some sticks are better for demonstration and some are better for contact. Younger rattan where you can see the fiber, in my experience, last longer for stick to stick contact. There is a popular stick out now that is dark brown with alot of nodes that are very light. These are demo sticks and will probably break after a week(if they even last this long) of medium contact. Kombat Instruments, Limited http://www.bloodsport.com have an example of what I would consider to be great contact sticks. Heavy young sticks can really take beating, and so can light young rattan, although they will tend to fray after time depending on your intensity of stick to stick training. BTW, remember that the reason rattan was used was because they were training tools, cheap, and easily accessible, so expect rattan to wear and tear, buy a few.

Good Luck,

[sikal]

Originally posted by Chad W. Getz
There is a popular stick out now that is dark brown with alot of nodes that are very light. These are demo sticks and will probably break after a week(if they even last this long) of medium contact.

This is very true ... however, if you can find one of these types of sticks that actually has some density to it, it will be a very good stick. I had one that lasted several years of hard daily abuse. They seem to be about 1 in a hundred ... probably not worth the time, but if you get lucky like I did, it's pretty cool :-) For about 3 years, I had a "pretty" stick that could take a beating too :-)

Regards, Mike

[Chad W. Getz]

Mike,

Do you still have that stick? I do. I didn't mention it because out of the hundreds that I've looked at that are in stock at the various places here in HI, I couldn't find one as good. Actually James has one as well, but I'm not sure how it will hold up to the contact. He originally bought three, but two broke, so he decided not to bust out hi pretty stick against me. I'm notorious for switching sticks on people. Got Stuart's oak on once, too. Thanks for catching that, though.

Maybe I was exagerating a little about how long they will last. A week of really hard contact should do it for the averagely ones of heavier weight, but the light ones shouldn't last too long. Of course, it also depends on who's sticks you are hitting.

[sikal]

Originally posted by Chad W. Getz
Mike,

Do you still have that stick? I do. I didn't mention it because out of the hundreds that I've looked at that are in stock at the various places here in HI, I couldn't find one as good.

Nope. It died a couple of weeks ago. It started fraying and I taped it up about a month ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, I was doing a stick lock and when I applied pressure, it came apart ... kind of annoying but that's the way the rattan crumbles, huh?

Regards, Mike