Yin Shou Gun — The Hidden-Hand Staff | The Shaolin Staff Form Almost Nobody Still Teaches

Yin Shou Gun — the Hidden-Hand Staff — is one of the oldest staff forms still practiced. Watch the grip. You don't hold it at the end like a broom — you grip the middle, both hands close, the way you'd hold a katana. Now both ends are live: you're not swinging a stick, you're working a two-bladed sword, cutting and thrusting off either end. That short, centered "hidden hand" is what lets you step inside a longer weapon like a spear and finish before its length ever matters. It's no accident. Yu Dayou — the Ming general who wrote a "Sword Classic" that was applied to the staff — trained the staff with sword theory. Around 1560 he taught two Shaolin monks battlefield staff work, and that exchange reshaped the temple's staff for generations. This is a form I studied independently and brought into my own weapons curriculum, separate from the Kuk Sool lineage I earned under Master Sang Soo Kim. These aren't only staff principles. The angle, stepping inside, treating the weapon like a blade, taking the center — the same ideas live empty-handed too: in grappling, in jujitsu, in the aiki arts that became Aikido. If you train any of it, how do these principles show up in your techniques? Drop it in the comments — I read them all. New to weapons? Beginners welcome. Comment TRAIN and I'll send you the free printable form guide. Instructor Anderson · Martial Arts USA · Huntington Beach