The majority of the short-stick dances I have seen/danced are from the Headington tradition. At the time that Sharp collected the dance, the side was made up mainly of people from the building trade. The sticks are about the same size as the handles of hammers/mallets etc. The Headington dances are generally small, brisk and tidy, with crisp movements suited to using short sticks.

There are no long stick Headington dances.

Most other traditions use long sticks, which are about the right length to reach the ground easily, or to hold with both hands and still clash safely. There is a certain length of stick that feels right for doing the dance. Too long becomes unwieldy; too short is fiddly. By coincidence, that is about the right length for the "sword fighting" and "staff fighting" type choruses to look right.