As with all traditional Indian martial practices, proficiency in staff fighting implies the ability to use the weapon while surrounded by multiple opponents. This requires the practitioner to master free movement in any direction while simultaneously spinning the staff in arbitrary patterns. In this context, two key details are important.

First, the spinning of the staff is independent of the direction of the practitioner’s movement or the rotation of their body. Second, all actions with the staff, whether defensive or offensive, are directly linked to foot placement, or more specifically, to the rhythm of the practitioner’s steps. These actions must be executed precisely at the moment the foot lands. However, the actions themselves can be completely arbitrary. Because the practitioner can move in any direction — along a circle, or spinning in place — simply by walking, an interesting effect emerges. This effect, present in both armed and unarmed work, is that an attack or defense appears to be initiated not by the weapon or hand, but by the feet and steps themselves, which set the rhythm and pattern of the fight. The only elements the practitioner consciously controls are the distance and direction for performing the techniques. Ultimately, however, even the responsibility for these choices can be transferred to experience and intuition.

Thus, two fundamental skills can be formulated: (1) the practitioner must not interrupt the spin of the weapon; (2) the spinning weapon must not restrict or determine the practitioner’s movement and actions.

During training, it becomes apparent that the staff moves almost independently due to its own inertia. This movement is powered by the practitioner’s motion through a skill referred to as “pentra”. As a result, total control of the weapon is reduced to controlling its center of rotation. In essence, the practitioner operates not with the staff itself, nor with its end or its first third, but with his own hands. It is important to note that the initial skill of gripping the staff tightly, and even rigidly, eventually evolves into the ability to maintain a firm hold with relaxed, “live” wrists. Subsequently, all of these skills can be applied to the use of the saber and to unarmed techniques as well.

For natural reasons, the staff’s possible trajectories and the movements one can make with it are limited to a finite set. By practicing all feasible options and combinations separately, while incorporating the previously acquired skill of correct footwork, the practitioner will eventually achieve the desired result.