# FMA and European staff fighting techniques ...Paulus Hector Mair



## geezer (Jul 22, 2016)

I was browsing online comparing our system's approach to staff fighting with some others in FMA and also from other nationalities. I came across this German historical treatise by Paulus Hector Mair from 1540 _translated by KPM from this forum_.

Paulus Hector Mair ~ Wiktenauer ~☞ Insquequo omnes gratuiti fiunt

I was intrigued by it since In my core style of FMA, when working in _close_ with the staff we often switch to a center grip with the palms down, much like Mair shows in this document. Or, if the staff is quite short, say around 4-5 feet long as shown, we may use this grip close to one end with both palms down as in Mair's illustrations.

Mair's short-staff
https://grauenwolf.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/image_thumb34.png?w=523&h=345
Paulus Hector Mair ~ Wiktenauer ~☞ Insquequo omnes gratuiti fiunt

Old photo of me doing PCE short-staff
http://www.vingtsunaz.com/site_media/images/escrima_staff.jpg

Far from limiting you to a brutish "pugil stick" alternating swing, this grip seems to be especially useful for short, tight, powerful movements and repeated jabs and stabs from the lead hand ...much like boxing. It works best for me in close quarters with plenty of forward intent and an aggressive attitude.

With a longer staff or when more space is available, I adopt the more typical single end grip with the lead palm up and the rear down ....perhaps reflecting my exposure to WC long pole.

Does anyone else also favor this double palm-down technique at times, or do you always go with the more common one palm up and one down grip?


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## geezer (Jul 22, 2016)

Here's a video showing some training based on Mair's treatise. The movement in the last minute or so is pretty fast and fluid, as are the grip changes.


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## Argus (Aug 13, 2016)

I always treat Paulus Hector Mair with a bit of skepticism, because he basically compiled and reillustrated/reinterpreted a bunch of existing manuals that he had collected, and in some cases did not fully understand. We can see some misinterpretations of existing sources such as I.33 among his material.

But, he was a fencing student/enthusiast of the period, so there's definitely some value to his work.

Both hand orientations are present in HEMA. I find that the reverse hand is better for shorter weapons and half-swording, whereas the forward hand orientation is better for longer ones. The reversed hand gives one better leverage and control, and is better for grapples and such, I find. But I've not done a whole lot of training staff or halfsword, so my experience is limited.

I've also not trained staff in an FMA context, so I'm quite curious about that! The little I have seen of FMA staff is very wide and circular, and didn't strike me as very efficient. I'm sure there are a lot of different systems, and there's more to it than that, though.


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