I recently discovered there is an ancient martial art in my country called Portuguese Stick Fighting, or "Jogo do pau" (literally means "Stick game").
Supposedly, it played a major role in some major battles fought by the Portuguese, but after some research (1 google search), I discovered that stick fighting was common in Western European countries .
I'm assuming that a ruler of any rank would benefit from having peasants who he could instantly turn into an army with minimal weapons training because they play with sticks on their free time. But in the other hand, having the many peasants who you exploit being able to kill the few armed men who guard you with a stick is not something that would make a reasonable men sleep better at night.
So, what I'm asking is how did rulers see stick fighting? Were there masters or professors? Would people gather after lunch and stickfight for the hell of it or they have training with lessons and masters? Did stickfighting ever get so dangerous someone had to ban it? Did rulers sponsor tournaments or honored great stick fighters?
Additional questions for someone with extensive stick fighting knowledge:
Are the modern "masters" practicing anything resembling the original arts? How much stick fighting influenced battles and the outcome of wars?
If you don't know nothing about stick fighting anyway and/or are laughing at the concept, just youtube search "jogo do pau". It's mesmerizing.
This is something that I would love to see serious historians take on. Lacking that, here is the best I can answer, mostly in relation to the jogo do pau tradition.
"So, what I'm asking is how did rulers see stick fighting?" Very hard to tell, through history, very poorly equipped armies in Portugal are mentioned as just a bunch of people with staffs and similar tools, and that was not usually seen as a good thing, even if they were great fighters, would probably not have military training. Usually pike ends where attached to the end of a staff to make a proper weapon. and then removed at the end of the war, so that the peasant didnt keep it, just the staff. But effective spear use in war formations is very different from practical self defence with a staff, so while im sure it is usefull, it is not a direct translation of techniques.
"Were there masters or professors?" Since there is very little information in jdp, the best I can tell Is that in the XIXth century there were masters, some that travelled along the country, and some in cities too. Through Europe there are several fighting manuals, some include forms of staff fighting(I mean staff as a walking staff to designate a staff similar to the traditionally used in jogo do pau). Mair peasant staff seems very similar in nature, to Jogo do pau.
"Would people gather after lunch and stickfight for the hell of it or they have training with lessons and masters?" In portuguese literature, from the XVIIIth century until very recently, fights and brawls among rural people were common, being able to defend oneself in an open staff brawl was a way to test yourself, and a necessity, since there was very little police force.
"Did stickfighting ever get so dangerous someone had to ban it?" In Portugal that just happened in the XXth century, with the advent of the GNR policing the entire country, and breaking staffs on the entrance of large gatherings so that there were no more fightings.(would love to know more about how that happened in the Rest of Europe, probably much earlier.)
"Are the modern "masters" practicing anything resembling the original arts?" While there can be some differences in different sistems, I find little difference in the use of the staff in the European traditions, when the staff is of similar size. The iberian portuguese montante is also very similar to the jogo do pau traditionaly done today. So much so, that I could hardly distinguish passages of a XVIth from a XIXth century manual, since the ones we have deal with the exactly same situations, and with very similar solutions.
How much stick fighting influenced battles and the outcome of wars? As the staff is only a weapon, when you dont have anything better, in war, most decent armies would at least have spears(that are used differently), so I believe staff fighting, would have only minor influence in war, as in a last recourse thing.