"It begins with Shii-Cho"

[Darth_Arkanus]

Hi guys!

Wow! this took all night, and then some (to find a place to host it that wouldn't cut it short or mute the music!). Finally though I can share it!

It's just a piece of fun, done at night using several performances and....well, you're gonna see what's gonna happen. (don't want to spoil the surprise!)

Enjoy!

ps. sorry for the site ads. They are annoying and I don't know how to get rid.

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[Wedge Sunrider]

Nice video!
Point for posting.

While the sabers look great against the dark background, it makes it a little hard to see the rest of your body movements.
For me, that's probably one of the hardest parts of duelling - making sure I'm not just moving the saber right, but my body as well.
To my eye, you may have been holding the saber a bit high, especially at the start - with the blue saber - but I may be mistaken.

Your saber technique looks good, and shows off the fundamentals of Shii-Cho well.
Nice, simple strikes through the centre of the body.
Did you make up those sequences, or get them from somewhere else?

Well done either way.
I look forward to what 'It' continues with...

[Darth_Arkanus]

Nice video!
Point for posting.

While the sabers look great against the dark background, it makes it a little hard to see the rest of your body movements.
For me, that's probably one of the hardest parts of duelling - making sure I'm not just moving the saber right, but my body as well.
To my eye, you may have been holding the saber a bit high, especially at the start - with the blue saber - but I may be mistaken.

Your saber technique looks good, and shows off the fundamentals of Shii-Cho well.
Nice, simple strikes through the centre of the body.
Did you make up those sequences, or get them from somewhere else?

Well done either way.
I look forward to what 'It' continues with...

Thanks for the compliments and the feedback too. To be honest, this was less of a technical posting (I know that night-time shoots are useless for those) and more of just a piece of fun. I know how hard it is to see the body at night, as in, impossible.

As for my grip, I don't feel like I'm gripping very tightly, just firmly enough not to have the saber go flying out of my hands on a strong Sai strike.

The sequence is from the TPLA Shii-Cho syllabus, which I'm currently following.

As far as where next, I'm still trying to perfect Shii-Cho, but I'm also working on Makashi too.

Again, thanks for the feedback.

[Wedge Sunrider]

Fair enough.
With that in mind, as I said, your sabre skills doo look good.

My comment about the grip wasn't about how you held the sabre, but the fact that you seemed to hold it higher on your body. (i.e. off the ground)
For Shii-Cho, I generally aim for a grip around my waist.
You looked in some shots like you were holding the sabre closer to your chest.
Again, might just be the bad light, etc., or maybe it was deliberate...?

Your actual grip of the sabre seems to be just right.
You've got good control, but it doesn't seem too rigid.

Keep it up.

[Darth_Arkanus]

Fair enough.
With that in mind, as I said, your sabre skills doo look good.

My comment about the grip wasn't about how you held the sabre, but the fact that you seemed to hold it higher on your body. (i.e. off the ground)
For Shii-Cho, I generally aim for a grip around my waist.
You looked in some shots like you were holding the sabre closer to your chest.
Again, might just be the bad light, etc., or maybe it was deliberate...?

Your actual grip of the sabre seems to be just right.
You've got good control, but it doesn't seem too rigid.

Keep it up.

Thanks, and you're right, sometimes the saber is at chest height, but in the system I'm studying, I believe that is correct for those moves. I'm sure if it's not the Masters will correct me.

I'm very grateful of the feedback, compliments and encouragement!!!

[Darth Nonymous]

Thanks, and you're right, sometimes the saber is at chest height, but in the system I'm studying, I believe that is correct for those moves. I'm sure if it's not the Masters will correct me.

I'm very grateful of the feedback, compliments and encouragement!!!

It does really comes down to personal choice, but technically, the middle guard is held at about waist level. A bit higher a lower wont make it or break it, in my opinion.

[Master Venturous]

Nice video fellow Sith. I always love me some Shii Cho because of its simplicity. You seem to be coming along pretty well with your training and it looks as though your individual techniques are pretty solid at this point. Well done.

[Darth_Arkanus]

It does really comes down to personal choice, but technically, the middle guard is held at about waist level. A bit higher a lower wont make it or break it, in my opinion.

Master, I'm not entirely sure which guards Wedge Sunrider was speicifically referring to when talking about me hold the saber too high, but just to clarify for him (because I know you've seen how I do my guards in daylight) The four guards of Shii-cho I do as follows;

High Guard - Above the head....I favour the Krayt's Horn position with that steep angle
Middle Guard - in front of body....I have the hilt at waist height, or roughly where my belly button is.
Low Guard - in front and pointing down.....I use roughly the same hand position as Middle Guard but reorient the blade to point down not up.
Jedi Guard - to the side, blade up.....I personally have my hands at around chest height in this one guard (from Shii-Cho anyway)

Would you say that is basically correct positioning?

[Darth Nonymous]

Master, I'm not entirely sure which guards Wedge Sunrider was speicifically referring to when talking about me hold the saber too high, but just to clarify for him (because I know you've seen how I do my guards in daylight) The four guards of Shii-cho I do as follows;

High Guard - Above the head....I favour the Krayt's Horn position with that steep angle
Middle Guard - in front of body....I have the hilt at waist height, or roughly where my belly button is.
Low Guard - in front and pointing down.....I use roughly the same hand position as Middle Guard but reorient the blade to point down not up.
Jedi Guard - to the side, blade up.....I personally have my hands at around chest height in this one guard (from Shii-Cho anyway)

Would you say that is basically correct positioning?

Yep that's aout it.

[Wedge Sunrider]

Master, I'm not entirely sure which guards Wedge Sunrider was speicifically referring to when talking about me hold the saber too high, but just to clarify for him (because I know you've seen how I do my guards in daylight) The four guards of Shii-cho I do as follows;

High Guard - Above the head....I favour the Krayt's Horn position with that steep angle
Middle Guard - in front of body....I have the hilt at waist height, or roughly where my belly button is.
Low Guard - in front and pointing down.....I use roughly the same hand position as Middle Guard but reorient the blade to point down not up.
Jedi Guard - to the side, blade up.....I personally have my hands at around chest height in this one guard (from Shii-Cho anyway)

Would you say that is basically correct positioning?

Arkanus,
I absolutely agree with your point.
As I said, the dark background made it hard for me to be able to pick out what the rest of your body was doing, and so if you were meaning to have such a high guard, or not.
The scenes I was referring to seems to be the High Guard, and so your implementation followed suit.
For my Shii-Cho, I prefer to hold the Middle Guard, focussing on making the motions through the middle of the torso.

I wasn't meaning to imply that your technique was wrong,  just that it's not what I was used to, and it looked a little awkward to me.
As you pointed out, there are a number of guards, and yours was deliberately chosen.
That being said, it's an interesting variation that I hadn't fully considered until now - you've given me something to think about for my own practises.

This discussion has been most interesting!
All of this probably just goes to show that your knowledge of Shii-Cho is more advanced than mine.
Keep up your efforts!

[Darth_Arkanus]

Arkanus,
I absolutely agree with your point.
As I said, the dark background made it hard for me to be able to pick out what the rest of your body was doing, and so if you were meaning to have such a high guard, or not.
The scenes I was referring to seems to be the High Guard, and so your implementation followed suit.
For my Shii-Cho, I prefer to hold the Middle Guard, focussing on making the motions through the middle of the torso.

I wasn't meaning to imply that your technique was wrong,  just that it's not what I was used to, and it looked a little awkward to me.
As you pointed out, there are a number of guards, and yours was deliberately chosen.
That being said, it's an interesting variation that I hadn't fully considered until now - you've given me something to think about for my own practises.

This discussion has been most interesting!
All of this probably just goes to show that your knowledge of Shii-Cho is more advanced than mine.
Keep up your efforts!

.

 Thanks Wedge.

I'm not more advanced & am still at the very beginning of a long, possibly never-ending, road. I keep plodding along though.

For what it's worth, this is a TPLA "kata" (we call them dulon) If you like I'll post my daylight version later, but you can also check out the TPLA youtube channel & watch Master Nonymous, if you want to see it done properly.