Yu Family Southern Staff Methods 俞家棍

Yu Family Southern Staff Methods - 俞家棍

--General Information:
Yu Dayou was a famous General of the Ming Dynasty. He was very influential in preserving the Ming Dynasty by defeating the Wokou (Japanese Pirates). Its said that he studied the Book of Changes, later Millitary Strategy and Millitary Strategy based on the Book of Changes and 5 Element Theory.

Of course he studied Martial Arts as well. There seem to be varying accounts of if he studied at Shaolin Temple or if he brought Martial Arts to Shaolin Temple.

Nonetheless he had several teachers outside of Shaolin Temple he studied Martial Arts under. Propably very important were Longsword Methods and the Yang Family Spear Methods.

During his Millitary Career he was known to be very righthous and loyal. The Ming Dynasty was already troubled by corruption. Leading to people stepping over Yu admists his Millitary Achivements.

Yet Yu kept asking to serve. In the process he devolped a set of staff methods, he taught to Locals to defend against the Wokou when the Army isnt present. So they could serve as first line of defence.

The Staff Methods are propably a combination of his knowledge in Longsword Technique as well as Yang Family Spear.

--Specific and Detailed Information:
I looked at every Yu Family Staff I could find. In some notes its described as Short Pole/Staff Methods. It also must have some resemblence to Millitary Material.
Also I have seen really a lot of Northern and Southern Staff and Pole Methods.

In my opinion these methods above are the closest to what the original methods should have looked like. Allthough, I am not sure if some of the execution was already invented this way or got changed during the process of evolvement of Southern Martial Arts and its Pole Methods.

Furthermore, its my personal theory that this Yu Family Staff Methods may laid the groundwork for the Southern Pole Methods as they came from the Southern Shaolin Temple.