Staff is a long edgeless weapon, honored as the “Ancestor of all weapons”. It is made of simple raw materials and convenient to utilize, powerful and suitable for both offense and defense. Staff is appropriate for short-range fighting and has a wider attack range than the broadsword and spear. It is said that “The attack range of a spear is a line but that of a staff, an area.” Staff plays an important role in military training and martial arts practice.

With a simple structure, staff is an earlier weapon mastered by human beings. In the primitive society, people were able to use staffs to attack targets in hunting and wars. As the processing of staffs was getting more mature, people started to inlay stone slices in the staff, or sharpen one end of it. Therefore, the spear, lance and other weapons emerged on the basis of staff.

Staffs have various types according to length and thickness. In the category of long staff only, there are Big staff, Qi Mei (eyebrow-level) staff, Shaolin staff, Pan Hua (pattern-twisted) staff, Jingu staff, Shui Huo (water and fire) staff, Shaozi staff (two staffs connected together by iron rings), etc. Staff techniques include splitting, sweeping, picking, poking, smashing, clicking, turning, etc. Staff moves are strong and powerful, swift and changeful, and have a wide moving scale.

Staffs also include soft weapons, the basic structure of which is that several wood or iron staffs are linked by chains. Such soft weapons can bend flexibly, thus a very effective offensive weapon. Double-section staff (Nunchaku) and three-section staff are commonly used in martial arts.