When training in Arnis, Ekrima or Kali what type of sticks do you prefer and why?
(Iron wood, other types of wood, plastic, rattan, skin on, skin off, laminated, etc)

That's kinda like asking a bunch of tennis players what is the best racket. Depends on what you like. Try a few diffent ones and see what works best for ya. I like rattan myself, or just something that won't slip out of ur hands. Avoid anything with a real slick finish. Just my opinion.

For partner work I prefer rattan. Its light, cheap and effective and doesn't splinter. If you want to work on solo stuff on a bag or tyres or whatever then kamagong or ironwood is a good weight training aid.

rattan gives off a nice burning smell...mmmmmmmm

For my students I always start them off with 1/2-3/4 inch wide 28 inch rattan sticks. These are best for safety as they are light which is good for untrained wrists, long enough that they get less bruised knuckles in partner work and since it is rattan there is no risk of splintering and injuries from the shrapnel.

For myself I have a pair of heavier sticks (still rattan for splintering) but significantly thicker and only 24 inches so that I have to use muscle to keep them moving rather than just momentum. I have also used oak sticks though I find that they tend to crush the skin on the rattan sticks my students are using too quickly costing them cash.

For stick sparring we use plastic sticks with a quarter inch foam sheath. These are inexpensive which is nice since we tend to lose at least one a night. As KJ63 said you get a very different energy from contact with these sticks than with proper sticks and it takes some getting used to so we stick with these only for contact work.

Good info WarblyDoo.

To give everyone an idea of what they were using here's a link.
http://www.coldsteel.com/91e.html

My preferences:
- Rattan (skin on) - best over all. The closer the nodes the better.
- Rattan (skin off) - these fall apart too fast
- Rattan (lacquered) - coating chips off with consistent contact leaving flakes all over the place.
- Ironwood (other natural hardwoods) - tend to be heavier and good for training to increase wrist/arm strength, but not so great for stick on stick.
- Plastic (like the cold steel ones) - a little heavy, seem very solid, do not like the way they feel during contact
- Plastic with Foam - tend to feel too light, and you get too much bouncy or springy action during stick on stick

Basically, nothing beats the original.

One other point...lacqured sticks can become slipery during a vigorous work-out (sweat).

Training.. = Rattan..
Sarring.. = Plastic. haha
.still hurts though.