i was wondering if everyone out there tapes their sticks for training, and if so what type do they use.. it was recommended i use hockey tape, but didnt have any handy, although i do seem to have an abundance of duct tape. think it really matters?
It depends on why your taping. I typically tape my ends both as a visual reference for where I want to be striking and as a precaution to protect from fraying. I typically use medical tape. If you're taping to give yourself a better grip then you definitely want to use a tape that will help with that. - Matt
I tend to only tape my sticks when they start to fray. I tend to find that i dont get as much feel from the sticks when iv covered them in tape, especially sparing in armour. Peter
Ahhhhh - Duct Tape!!! Duct Tape is like "The Force." It has a light side and a dark side - and it holds the universe together
actually matt has a point but i tape my sticks for a different reason (retinal retention seems to be a happy side effect). in the philippines, though there is an abundance of rattan (for now) they are considered endangered. so to prolong the longevity of my bastons, i tape the business end of the bastons. i used to tape grips on them but found out that they cause (unnecessary) blisters and they give you a false sense of grip. so much so that when you hold and untaped baston, you find it hard to grip.
yah my brother used duct tape ... but they don't have much of a grip anymore ... when i use them (which hasn't been for awhile) they always slipped out of my hand ... i say leave the taping alone until its definitely needed =)
<Runs in and applies flying head butt to Peter and is rebounded back by his mass of girl like curly hair> Hey, Peter you don't train hard enough to warrant taping your sticks Mind you we do make sure you get the weakest ones from the bunch, but even then . No really, once they start to frey, start to tape, This gets a few more weeks out of them, unless your Peter that is, then you get a whole year from them . I find electrical tape seems to last the longest and it's the cheapest too, well over here anyway "PETER, GET BACK TO YOUR HOME WORK" Regards Pat
we did sticks at my old club because it was really a big mixture of martial arts i was young so i dint find out exactly what but my teacher used to let in my dads old house so it worked out well. He taped mine. He changed the wood type to something stronger then the usually used for escrima sticks as it tended to break, i actually may be getting the ones i had (i had two pairs so that i could *practise* with friends, well actually foolishly fight) back from south africa soon hopefully. We taped ours because well i dont know much it added grip, colour, taping them was fun and we used regular coloured tape but the kind DIY stores sell (if you know what i mean, coz i dont), colour was because the club was big and everyone more/less had their own pair buti had 2 Sorry about my really bad knowledge on the subject. EDIT: anyone know of a stick drill called double flow, it goes: open (one stick facing opponents, one behind, behind strikes at 45, front goes under the opposite armpit, striking stick goes to your neck, armpit stick strikes and you are back at the beggining. I bet that made no sence at all oh well
Good Rattan as used by all good Eskrimadors, Arnisadors, Kalistas etc, does not break, it frey's and splinters hence the taping of sticks. If what you got in the beggining broke, then they guy supplying them was either stitched up or he just wanted you to buy more sticks. That's what we are here for It sounds a little like a simple version of what we would call 4 count, a very early double stick drill used for various reasons as well as co-ordintation. Regards Pat
Thanks I found that the wood had been changed from a older student, the new sticks he got were good quallity (better then the wood nunchakus he bought), like i said a mix of stuff
actually, you'd get more out of it if you tape before you start using them. electric tape is very good for sticks though i find that some types of duct tape (the thicker ones) provide more protection to the baston becaus eit absorbs some of the impact.
tape! i personally dont tape up my sticks as i like the clicking sound from a nice stick pattern, that must be the drummer i me but they are starting to get a bit butchered although i dont practise as often as i used to . i remember a real fraid pair setting on fire once with the friction, that could nearly have burnt the place down as it was smouldering away in a tub with a load of others!!!
probably a good reason to warrant taping, but hell that sounds cool. maybe fighting with burning sticks is the way forward?
I tape mine with electrical tape to help prevent fraying. I find it's more effective if I tape a new pair immediately, before they've started to fray at all. I tried duct tape, but it didn't work well for me. Incidentally, last time I bought sticks I got ten decent ones for $30 US off of eBay.
brown packing tape Hi All, When my sticks start to go, I use brown packing tape. It holds the stick together, doesn't add much weight, you still get the nice clicking (pingki!) sound and its very cheap. I find that with duct and electrical tape you sometimes get the adhesive seeping onto your hands, not a major problem but can be distracting. Bill
If you live in Canada, the best tape for arnis sticks are the kind you can buy in Canadian Tire that they use on hockey sticks. They're a bit thicker than electrical tape and have a softer finish on them so its not so slippery when you have to grip them. Also, the transparent ones don't ruin the natural beauty of rattan. Canada produces the best tape for arnis? Uhm.... Coincidence? I wonder.
Yup, same ethno-linguistic group But something tells me we'd better keep that joke to another thread. In any case, I tell my guys to tape their sticks at the beginning so that they last longer. You really learn the value of a peso living here in the Philippines. (BTW, this is the same reason I tell my guys to pick up their feet and not drag their steps during our footwork drills. It ruins their shoes!!!) Having said that you can get decent rattan sticks here for 50 pesos a pair (1 Canadian dollar) and a really good pair for 100 pesos. (And an okay pair of fake Nikes for 10 Canadian dollars) My teacher Guro Jun started me on this habit when we bought sticks at $15 per stick in Canada. Later on I keep the really damaged, soft rattan sticks and tape them up heavily to use as my target sticks. Sometimes I think that my family was originally from the Illocos and not Pasay. (Illocanos, people from Illocos, can be likened to people from Scotland. That's their image anyway. )
