Editing Quarterstaff

{{short description|Type of polearm}}
{{About|the weapon|the video game|Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth{{!}}''Quarterstaff: The Tomb of Setmoth''}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2009}}
{{Infobox martial art
| image = Quarterstaff line drawing - Project Gutenberg eText 14315.jpg
| imagecaption = Quarterstaves in use, from ''[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14315/14315-h/14315-h.htm Old English Sports, Pastimes and Customs]'', published 1891
| name = Quarterstaff fighting
| focus = [[Weapon]]ry
| origin = [[England]]
| olympic = No
| creator = unknown
| parenthood =
| famous_pract =
}}
A '''quarterstaff''' (plural '''quarterstaffs''' or '''quarterstaves'''), also '''short staff''' or simply '''staff''' is a traditional European [[polearm]], which was especially prominent in England during the [[Early Modern period]].

The term is generally accepted to refer to a shaft of [[hardwood]] from {{convert|6|to|9|ft|m}} long, sometimes with a metal tip, [[ferrule]], or spike at one or both ends.
The term "short staff" compares this to the "long staff" based on the [[pike (weapon)|pike]] with a length in excess of {{convert|10|to|12|ft|m}}. The height of the staff should be around the same as the user plus their hand set upright on their head (approximately {{convert|8|in|cm}}).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.martialartsplanet.com/threads/picking-the-correct-weapon-size.25374/|title=Picking the Correct Weapon Size|work=Martial Arts Planet|access-date=2018-11-10|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The name "quarterstaff" is first attested in the mid-16th century.
The "quarter" possibly refers to the means of production, the staff being made from [[Quarter sawing|quartersawn]] hardwood (as opposed to a staff of lower quality made from conventionally sawn lumber or from a tree branch).<ref name="Etym05">[[OED]]; {{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=quarterstaff|title=quarterstaff |work=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=October 25, 2010}}</ref> English longbows were traditionally made from staves of yew or ash that were split into quarters. If the longbow was not in use, the 'quarter stave' could also be used as a weapon in the form of a staff. 

The possibility that the name derives from the way the staff is held, the right hand grasping it one-quarter of the distance from the lower end, is suggested in [[Encyclopædia Britannica]].<ref name="Etym02">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/486410/quarterstaff |title=quarterstaff(weapon) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref> While this interpretation may have given rise to such positions in 19th-century manuals, it probably arose by [[popular etymology]]. The [[Oxford English Dictionary]], in support of its explanation of the "quarter" in origin referring to the way the staff was made, points to an early attestation of the term, dated to 1590,
"Plodding through Aldersgate, all armed as I was, with a quarter Ashe staffe on my shoulder." 

[[George Silver]], an English fencer who wrote two books (1599, 1605) including lengthy sections on staff fighting does not use the term "quarterstaff", but instead calls it a "short staff" (as opposed to the "long staff"). [[Joseph Swetnam]], writing in 1615, distinguishes between the "quarterstaff" of {{convert|7|or|8|ft|m}} in length and the "long staff" of {{convert|11|or|12|ft|m}}.<ref name="Joseph Swetnam 1617">Joseph Swetnam, "The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence". London: Nicholas Okre, 1617.</ref>

==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]].

==Historical practice==
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2011}}
[[File:Robin_Hood_and_Little_John.jpg|thumb|upright|Robin Hood and [[Little John]] fighting with Quarterstaffs as illustrated by [[Louis Rhead]]]]
[[Paulus Hector Mair]] in his martial arts compendium of the mid-16th century, details techniques of fighting with the staff in the [[German school of fencing]] of the [[German Renaissance|Renaissance]].

There is some variation as to the proper way to hold a quarterstaff. According to the 16th to 18th century writings of Silver,<ref name="George Silver 1605. pp.115-24" /> Swetnam<ref name="Joseph Swetnam 1617" /> and Wylde,<ref name="Zach Wylde 1711" /> the quarterstaff is held with the back hand at the butt end of the staff and the other hand about {{convert|1|to|1.5|ft|cm}} above it. According to the 14th to 16th century writings of Johannes Liechtenauer<ref name="Johannes Liechtenauer">{{cite web |url=http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/dobringer.html#.VNEYwS5z7f1 |title=Dobringer Manuscript |publisher=TheArma.org}}</ref> and Paulus Hector Mair, the quarterstaff is held with the back hand a hand's breadth from the butt end of the staff, and the other hand up to the middle of the staff.<ref name="Compendium of Paulus Hector Mair">{{cite web |url=http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Mair/Mair.htm#.VNEVCS5z7f0 |title=Mair Manual |publisher=The Arma.org}}</ref> This is likely because of the transition of techniques from quarterstaves to polearms in Mair's compendium.

Of these the low guard is considered the central guard. Blows were primarily delivered downwards either directly or at angles. Parries of blows to the legs were done either by lifting the leg away from the line of attack or by thrusting one end of the staff into the ground and releasing the foremost hand which was in danger of being struck. Thrusts (called "darts" by Wylde) were often performed with the release of the forward hand and a step with the forward leg like a [[lunge (fencing)|fencing lunge]], stretching forward the back hand as far as possible. Longer thrusts were delivered with a full step forward with the back leg accompanying the back hand. It was recommended that when delivering a blow that at the end of it the back leg and foot should be compassed about so as to fall roughly into a line with the front foot and the point of the weapon. The same circling round of the back leg was applied to parries also. Singularly among the three authors, Swetnam recommends preference of thrusting over striking. Silver and Wylde describe striking and thrusting as equally valid attacks.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/paradoxes.html |title=Paradoxes of Defence, by George Silver (1599)|website=www.pbm.com|access-date=2018-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/swetnam.htm#.W8US8ntKjcc |title=Joseph Swetnam -- Part One|website=www.thearma.org|access-date=2018-10-15}}</ref><ref name="Zach Wylde 1711" />

The position with one hand held at the quarter and the other at the middle of the staff is not found in these early modern manuals, but it is described in the quarterstaff manuals published in the late 19th century, e.g. McCarthy (1883): "both hands should be {{convert|2.5|ft|cm}} apart, and the same distance from each end".

The quarterstaff is also mentioned in England's legend of [[Robin Hood]]. In ballads and tales of the famed yeoman, the quarterstaff is often mentioned. For example, in "[[Robin Hood and the Tinker]]" and several other tales, the quarterstaff is the weapon in hand as the two engage in a duel, as the Tinker was apparently sent to bring Robin Hood to justice at the hands of the Sheriff of Nottingham. This implies that the quarterstaff was in use before and during the 16th to 18th centuries, as the tale of Robin Hood is mostly written of during that time frame.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanliterature.com/author/howard-pyle/book/the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood/robin-hood-and-tinker|title=The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Robin Hood and Tinker|website=americanliterature.com|language=en|access-date=2018-10-15}}</ref>

==See also==
{{wiktionary|quarterstaff}}
* [[Stick fighting]]
* [[Bō]]
* [[Paulus Hector Mair]]
* [[Joseph Swetnam]]
* [[Johannes Liechtenauer]]
* [[George Silver]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite book|title=Tools of War: History of Weapons in Medieval Times|last=Ramsey|first=Syed|publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd|year=2016|isbn=978-9386019813}}
*[[George Silver|Silver, G.]] ''c''. 1599. ''Paradoxes of Defense''.
* Thomas A. McCarthy, "''[http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2001/jmanlyart_mccarthy_0901.htm Quarter-staff: A Practical Manual]''". London : W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1883.
* [[Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley|Allanson-Winn, R.G.]] and C. Phillips-Wolley, "''Broadsword and Singlestick - with Chapters on Quarter-staff, Bayonet, Cudgel, Shillalah, Walking Stick, Umbrella and other Weapons of Self Defence; [http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2001/jmanlyart_a-wp-w_0901.htm The Quarter-Staff]''". London : George Bell & Sons. 1st edition, 1898.
* Author unknown, "''[http://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2002/jmanlyart_scouts_1102.htm Boy Scout Quarterstaff]''". c. 1914 - 1920.
* Tony Wolf, "''[http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/quarterstaff.htm The Manly Art of Quarter-staff: Origins of a Victorian Combat Sport]''".
* Frank Docherty, "''[http://ejmas.com/jwma/articles/2001/jwmaart_docherty_0501.htm A Brief History of the Quarterstaff]''".
* [[George Silver]], "''[http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/paradoxes.html Paradoxes of Defence]''". London: Edward Blount, 1599.
* [[Joseph Swetnam]], "''[http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/swetnam.htm The Schoole of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence]''". London: Nicholas Okre, 1617.
* Zach Wylde, "''[https://web.archive.org/web/20090614205350/http://www.the-exiles.org/Manual%20Zach%20Wylde.htm The English Master of Defence or, the Gentleman's A-la-mode Accomplish]''". Tork: John White, 1711.
{{refend}}

{{Polearms}}
{{stick fighting}}

[[Category:European martial arts]]
[[Category:Medieval polearms]]
[[Category:Polearms]]
[[Category:Stick and staff weapons]]