Single: Making contact look better. 

Discussing some theory of Contact Staff, and learning how much extra movement you can put in while still successfully completing the movement. Adding character to your tricks and working on good footwork. 

what your other arm is doing. staff isolation while in contact. theory of walking. you stay under the staff. And maybe you go with the staff as it walks over you. relaxing. symmetry. adding character to the movements. the big circle. influences from CJ, illusions, arm positions. footwork.   

hat of different characters to choose from. Favourate contact move work it in. 

comedy staff: gorilla neck wraps. tummy covering matrix. yawning floor steve. illusional steves and fishtails. relaxed matrix. stern SNES. hands behind back throat wraps and stops. arm waving in general... prayer steve intermediate positions.  

The LINE. 
the big circle. 
the spot. 
the spiral.... 

smoothness.
timing
shoulders and body position. 




What is good-looking contact staff? 

At the least, it's controlled, smooth, with deliberate body movement. Even in a drunken master knows exactly what's going on with his body. 
At the best, It's controlled, smooth, with the person having thought about what his body is doing at all points, and how to use the body to make the trick look better, or to add some value to it. Either with dance, illusion, character, story, forms from martial arts or whatever takes your fancy. 


So first of all we're going to do some exersizes to get you used to thinking about what the rest of your body is doing during a contact move. 

Firstly posture. If you can keep your head up, back straight. Ephasize the body movement required to complete the movement. Then try and keep it to a minimum. 

Next arm positions. What are your other arms doing? Dinosaur arm? can you keep it by your side? Does that look good? Can you mirror the other arm? Is the arm position that makes the move eaisest the one that looks the best? 

Footwork. Take a move which turns 360. Snes / halo, halo 360, jesus etc. Try it turning on a line. Try it turning on the spot. Try it turning like a breaker, or turning on one leg, then the other. What's your other leg doing during the turn? Lazy turning, and isolated turning. as well as spotting. 


Theory: 

So the staff is turning like a wheel. When you roll a wheel on the ground it travels along the ground, it doesn't skid on the spot. The same is true with the staff, it's moving across your back, it changes place from one side to the other. And if it subsequently doesn't change direction, then it wants to keep going in the same direction, not stay on the spot. 

Angel rolls are a prime example. An angel roll starts at one side of your outstretched arms and ends at the other side. When I to do another angel roll connected to it, I should really move to standing beside myself, as if the staff is going to roll over both our backs. 

Obviously in practise this doesn't happen. Instead there's an element of you moveing under the staff, and sometimes just plain moving the staff to a new position. See the isolated angel roll for an example. the staffs center stays still, while you move underneath it.