Editing Quarterstaff (section)

==History==
The oldest surviving English work giving technical information on staff combat dates from the 15th century – it is a brief listing of "strokes of the 2-hand staff", which shares terminology with the preceding "strokes of the 2-hand sword" in the same manuscript.<ref>''{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727104736/http://www.mymartialheritage.org/manuals.html Cotton Titus]}}''{{Clarify|date=September 2010}}.</ref>
[[George Silver]] (1599) explains techniques of short-staff combat and states that the use of other [[polearms]] and the two-handed sword are based on the same method. Later authors on the subject included [[Joseph Swetnam]], Zachary Wylde, and [[Donald McBane]]. Silver,<ref name="George Silver 1605. pp.115-24">George Silver, "''Bref Instructions Upon my Paradoxes of Defence''". London, 1605. pp. 115–124.</ref> Swetnam,<ref name="Joseph Swetnam 1617" /> and Wylde<ref name="Zach Wylde 1711">{{Cite book |first=Zach |last=Wylde |title=The English Master of Defence or, the Gentleman's A-la-mode Accomplish |location=Tork |publisher=John White |date=1711 |via=The Exiles - Company of Medieval Martial Artists |url=http://www.the-exiles.org/Manual%20Zach%20Wylde.htm |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528004121/http://www.the-exiles.org/Manual%20Zach%20Wylde.htm |archive-date=2018-05-28 }}</ref> all agreed that the staff was among the best, if not the very best, of all hand weapons.

During the 16th century quarterstaves were favoured as weapons by the [[Company of Masters|London Masters of Defence]].
Richard Peeke, in 1625, and Zachary Wylde, in 1711, refer to the quarterstaff as a national English weapon.
By the 18th century the weapon became popularly associated with gladiatorial [[Prize Playing|prize playing]].

A modified version of quarterstaff fencing, employing bamboo or ash staves and protective equipment adapted from fencing, boxing, and cricket was revived as a sport in some London fencing schools and at the [[Aldershot]] Military Training School during the later 19th century. Works on this style were published by Thomas McCarthy and by Allanson-Winn and Phillips-Wolley.

An informal tradition (or sporadic series of revivals) based on the late 19th century style persisted in England throughout the early to mid 20th century, being particularly associated with military and fencing exhibitions and with the [[Boy Scout]] movement. The quarterstaff is also one of the main disciplines of [[stage combat]] taught by the Society of American Fight Directors and the [[British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat]].