How to Measure a Bo Staff

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Missan Edwards and my husband Doug Edwards, we are the owners of ETO Martial Arts and Fitness in Kennesaw, Georgia. I have in my hands a collection of long fighting staffs called Bo. Now for beginning martial artists interested in weapons training which weapon do you choose? Okay, we're going to look at the various sizes. Whenever you order a Bo Staff, typically from a martial arts supply company, they come in various sizes. They typically start out about four foot and move in six foot increments until you hit about six and a half to seven foot. So if I'm looking at this Bo Staff, this one is pretty tall about six foot. It's also nice and thick and very heavy. So this is more for training instead of competition because it allows my muscles to get strong but at the same time, it restricts the speed that I have and a little dangerous if you knock yourself in the head with practice, okay? Now this particular Bo Staff is another six footer but it's more of a competition style, it's lightweight and it maneuvers easily and you can actually hear the whips of the spins on this particular Bo Staff. Now for someone small like me, I'm five foot tall, this is probably about enough, I've got about an inch over my head in height for this Bo. I can maneuver it with my spins, and my jabs and it's easy and light. Or I can get even smaller, just not too small and this is probably about a four foot Bo Staff. So if you need to measure, you don't actually have to get the tape measure, you just call the supply company up and say, "Hey, I'm this tall and I'm interested in a competition Bo or a strong training Bo," and then they'll get you set up with exactly what foot you need."