Saber Forum

I recently got my first saberstaff, and decided that some traditional forms (from Taekwondo, although I've seen Karate also practice these) would be a great way to practice and hone my skills.

Form 1:
https://i.imgur.com/ZYd80BZ.mp4

Form 2:
https://i.imgur.com/RLJ58Ce.mp4

Form 1 and 2 consecutively:
https://i.imgur.com/JaIeZID.mp4

And some free-spinning:
https://i.imgur.com/ZfAVxzt.mp4
https://i.imgur.com/aOhMqYg.mp4

Rather cool, and fun to watch as well. Not going to lie, I planned on doing something similar whenever mine arrives.
Here's a point for putting some videos out for the community to enjoy.

Thank you. You still can when yours arrives. I'd be very interested in seeing some more martial arts incorporated into lightsaber use. As much as I love seeing the insane spinning exhibitions some skilled people are capable of, something just hits me different about martial arts demonstrations with lightsabers, even if they're not always particularly flashy and dazzling to most viewers. I guess maybe that's a product of my having more experience with traditional Taekwondo forms than with the faster paced exhibitions to music. Call me old-school if you will haha. But I plan on of course evolving and developing my skills to include both traditional forms as well as flashier moves and demonstrations, in the hopes of combining them to make a more holistic and functional form that is still exciting to watch.

The rest of Form 2, since I had previously only completed the fist half or so:
https://i.imgur.com/yfeXnhX.mp4

Here is a combination of Form 1, Form 2, and some freestyle spinning and Jar'Kai added in:
https://i.imgur.com/4RtMuE8.mp4

Like what im seeing. Great stuff. You have a fan!

I have an old set I recorded back in 2015 that is in the Combat section if your looking for a different take on it. Translated the forms using Kali ( Lacoste - Inosanto ) as the source material.

We were filming the new stuff before Covid hit. Seems like I should just suck it up and finish it on my own. Partner drills gonna be tough.

Thank you! I can't seem to find the video you are referencing, and it seems like a lot of the older video links to YouTube are unavailable. I did see a very informative staff flourish basics video I'll check out, and also a quick release demo video though, and those were some silky smooth couples and uncouples! So you most assuredly have a fan as well!

http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=44952.0 (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=44952.0)

Thanks!

Something with application has been in the works for a long time. Finally getting somewhere with it this year.

Awesome, thanks. Those are some silky smooth transitions between coupled and uncoupled. I'm also going to practice some of the basic staff flourishes you had in your tutorial. I am VERY out of practice in my martial arts work, but your videos give me some ideas and instruction, which I truly do appreciate!

I'm not sure where I posted it, but my background is in Taekwondo. I practiced seriously for about 10 years, but that was a handful of years ago, and I have had very little practice since then until the last few months. The majority of that time was spent under one of the four founding Grandmasters of Ko Am Mu Do. I'm a first degree/poom/dan black belt with Kukkiwon, but am VERY rusty. My primary focus was in traditional forms (won my age/belt at the Sunshine State Games a few times, and placed second in the U.S. Open), although I also started to become pretty decent at competitive sparring later on, although I think Sunshine State games was the highest I went/placed with sparring at the time.

But then I played football and wrestled, and fell in love with weight lifting, which has been my primary form of exercise since, which means my flexibility has taken a pretty considerable hit relative to when I regularly practiced martial arts. But now is as good a time as any to get back into things!

I will definitely continue to check out your videos for instruction and inspiration! Thank you again.

I just wanted to say thank you again for the instructional and inspirational videos. I've been practicing a few of the basic staff flourishes from your video. I still have a LOT of work to do, and plenty of room for improvement. I've more or less gotten the hang of the basic behind the back transition, although speed can still be greatly improved, but the behind the head "halo" transition is still proving challenging, but fun. Here's where I am at currently with a normal 5' staff. At least I think I have the basic movements down I hope, and it's just repetition and practice to become more comfortable with them, so consistency and speed will improve.

https://i.imgur.com/MCkhSAJ.mp4 (https://i.imgur.com/MCkhSAJ.mp4)

And some more practicing the flourish basics with the saberstaff:

https://i.imgur.com/k1Ba4qx.mp4

Looks like you got it to me. Like you said, Rinse and repeat.

Thank you! Your video was very helpful.

Dang, I took a little beak from checking back and a lot of links got posted, I'm excited to watch all of it and pick up a thing or 10 hopefully. You guys are great, now I have additional interesting training materials... Not having a local dojo/ the right training gear for this COVID madness is absolutely detrimental to finding training partners. I'm in such a dead zone for lightsaber groups, I get the people that voiced frustration at such over the years. It's not as enriching training solely in solitude past a certain point/ duration.

Now that you have your saberstaff, I am sure we would all love to see your progress as well!

On that note, here is probably my best run of my routine yet. Still room for improvement, and a few slight missteps that may well be much more noticeable to me than to others, but I am pleased with it so far:

https://i.imgur.com/tDN2NcQ.mp4

Funny enough the flag in the background makes for a nice touch.

I'm still warming up, my body is sore just from 2 days of light practice. Plus the dang weather keeps getting gloomy with patches of rain, and I won't risk getting my new acquisition wet and short it out. It's killing me not being able to rock and roll outside yet, but I'd be way more upset frying my lightsaber. I have to film something in the next 2 weeks for Spin Wars anyway, so I'll get something up "soon". Sadly the only thing getting owned are the light fixtures, I thought I had enough clearance setup, but the reach on this is intense (I knew this going in but stubbornly wouldn't wait to take her for a test drive). I'm getting cleaner in movement again, and refining my control. So far getting comfortable with this new beast is fun, glad for the 32" blades, even though a lamp or 2 wouldn't agree. Hopefully tomorrow will be a clear day so I can try it. I'm realizing hand position pre-coupler disconnect makes all the difference in instantaneous attacking options. And trying to iron out that reconnect. This double bladed lightsaber configuration was the perfect choice for what I wanted in my 1st "training lightsaber". I'd probably freak out holding yours with like 7" less on each blade, but God you must be able to bring it around so horrifyingly fast. I've seen the videos, but sparring against that would be intense.

I've gotten to the point that (for the most part) I wouldn't sear my fingers off or cut myself in half. I chastised myself the 3 times it grazed my shoulder, calf, and back. Retraining the mind to stay in only the center of the staff is killing me, but I mostly have it down (and haven't tucked the blade into an armpit). I'd say I'm getting the feel of it again quickly. I wish I'd been harder on myself training so I could go for more than an hour straight, but I guess I'll use the pain as motivation to train harder. I've already killed my batteries in a day though so I guess that's a good sign.

It is the neighbor's flag, but I agree, it is a nice touch. Soreness is to be expected with a heavy staff I'd say. I know I still have to be mindful of the length and frequency of my sessions, since my delts can end up pretty sore from extended sessions paired with heavy lifting. I know people probably wouldn't think a ~3 pound staff is really heavy, but it's over twice the weight of a lot of wood bo staffs, and even up to around 3x the weight of some of the thinner competition graphite bos. On the plus side, if/when you go back to using a standard light bo, it feels super light, and moves very fast, sort of like how you see some old photos of Babe Ruth warming up by swinging multiple bats, so when he gets up to the plate to swing only one, it feels lighter and faster.

And don't sweat clipping yourself with the blades. I still do it pretty regularly, particularly when picking up a new move, or trying to put moves together in a new sequence, or just trying to push the speed a bit. Particularly the occasional clip on the knee/thigh area when turning my body when spinning, and clipping my shoulders while doing the new over/behind the head spin. I assume that with a "real" lightsaber, one would dedicate years of training with a practice staff first, or at least practice new moves and combinations with a practice staff before attempting them with the real staff. Unless they could just obtain a Beskar suit of armor haha.

I'm glad you are pleased with the blades you picked. I'd probably be freaking out using much longer blades, particularly about hitting it on the ground doing some low spins and strikes, although I've seen some really impressive moves with longer ones, as the longer blades can look really sharp when they pick up speed. I just checked and it looks like my hilt is ~5 inches longer than yours, but you have 16" total of blade length on me, so you have 11 inches of total length on me, or 5.5 inches of reach per side. Although I suppose I could potentially mitigate that a little bit by using a more offset grip, and holding it further back towards the rear-hand blade, to push more of that long hilt towards my opponent. But I am very glad for the longer hilt, as my grip when I'm using a double overhand grip is often pretty close to the end of the hilts. But you mentioned being a bit taller than I am, so longer reach paired with a longer saber would mean I'd really have to capitalize on that increased mobility and maneuverability to close the gap. What are the rules on kicking? I assume it's frowned upon in lightsaber sparring for pretty obvious reasons, but in an actual lightsaber fight, kicking could be a very useful option, especially with a staff, as evidenced by Maul's fight in Episode 1, which is likely due to the actor's martial arts background.

Not to mention that people who only practiced against traditional lightsabers may not be prepared for it. Going up against a saberstaff is it's own challenge for someone only used to going up against single-bladed sabers, so they may think they succeeded when they manage to account for both blades, but that can leave them particularly vulnerable to a kick.

Be sure to keep us all updated with your progress!

Funny you mentioned a bat, I was using my wooden sword for getting back into cutting drills, then a weighted baseball bat for strength training. Probably why the staff feels light as heck through the air, but yep it's a great way to condition the muscles for sure.

For SW universe EU (pre lightsaber training) the Sith used my favorite version of a training saber to date, a metal rod covered with venomous barbs. The pelko venom from them enters whatever part of the body it contacts and instantly paralyzes the nerves. I'm pretty sure it leaves the pain but takes away mobility, so it's brutally effective training...

That's why I am so stringent on not "making any mistakes" in movements or blade contact, so I'll look good faster on camera; but more importantly muscle memory to "never" even graze myself. Perfection is always the goal, but training my wrists and arms to their new allowed ranges of motion should help in the long run. So I don't o anything stupid in the heat of combat, like killing myself along with my opponent scoring a point. My way of training my brain out of all those potions right out of the gate, so every evolution of movement from here is more pure. I remember someone saying on that 7 forms post (and I'm paraphrasing here) "gotta tear the building down to the foundations some times and rebuild technique up from there if necessary", so I'm just cutting myself no slack since I don't have people here to say "that cut was off in angle, re position your foot" or some other thing I'm used to from a club setting. Really missing that right about now, but I'll endure and advance.

If it were me, I'd let you kick, since if I leave myself open to it I deserve it (in my opinion); also it's used enough in SW (as you say) for me to be cool with it in full contact sparring. Obviously assuming it's more so a reasonable one, not a reverse heal spin to my head. A front kick or two seem logical enough, but prepare to loose that leg if your timing is off! They really would need to use the Force to manage such a thing without an amputation occurring. "Don't try and kick me, I have the high ground!" followed by "Tis but a flesh wound..."

Funny you mention Sith training strategies. I was just reading the Book of Sith, and they seem to view pain as a good teacher, with Darth Bane saying of the saberstaff, "novices are likely to injure themselves while training, which will expose the flaws in their techniques. Punishment can be a great teacher."

Longer sessions can be good exercise for sure, both for the muscles and even some cardio. I consider myself fairly strong in a traditional/lifting sense (I managed 6 reps with 100lb dumbbells on incline presses recently), but weapons work is a different type of strength and endurance for sure.

I respect your strategy of building a solid foundation and ironing out kinks before advancing further. In the words of Bruce Lee, "I fear not the man who has practices 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." And speaking of kicks, yeah, I meant more just like a quick front kick, or maybe a side kick, after a block to knock the opponent off guard and/or create space. The kick would be more to open up more options to strike, not meant to be a decisive blow itself. I do agree that it would only be suited for full contact sparring with heavy gear, and of course it would only be fair if I had some form of martial arts padding on my feet, not kicking with steel toed boots or something like that. Although foot pads are really only for roundhouse type kicks, as the heel and bottom of the feet are unpadded. But kicking with a lighter soled shoe as opposed to some of the heavier/harder Star Wars style boots would probably be more ideal in a sparring session.