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Author Topic: Leading/blade end transitions  (Read 1423 times)
Abyss
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« on: March 05, 2016, 05:05:35 AM »

Greetings.

   I come from a contact staff background when it comes to saber spinning, and while I don't have a double-bladed saber yet, I've been learning and practicing the single bladed saber spinning. Some stuff is the same, some stuff is different, and other stuff is the same by another name. Been fun so far.

   With a staff, one end leads and the other end follows. Often it's the end closest to the thumb, but sometimes it's the pinky end, sometimes called forward and reverse [insert move here]. With a saber, the blade end is the de facto leading end, and while you can lead with the pommel that's rather awkward. As well, the blade is nearly always associated with the thumb side of the hand. The reverse/upside down/mantis grip is rarely used, though there is one or two occurrences in canon.

   But it seems to me that transitioning the leading end, the blade end, from thumb-side to pinky-side and incorporating that into spinning could be a nice expansion of technique. I spent some time this night focusing on experimenting with that, flipping the hilt in hand to change the flow. It may also have use in fight choreography as well; observe the fights with Bucky in The Winter Soldier. He flips and spins the knife so the blade is thumb-side sometimes and pinky-side other times, often mid-attack. But I don't have experience choreographic yet...

   I'll admit that I haven't delved deeply into saber spinning yet, though I have watched a variety of videos and such from this forum. This seems to be an underused technique, at least from what I've seen so far. Have you experimented with transitioning the blade and leading end in such a manner (or transitioning the blade but then leading with the pommel)? Any advice, or other ramblings even tangentially related?
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Neither Light nor Dark are superior. Rigid denial of self and blood obedience to dogma is just as oppressive as abandonment to base passions and unchecked pursuit of power. Do the good you can for whom you can, but do not succumb to either extreme.

I may be Gray, but I lean Light, so those points are appreciated.

SRD Apprentice v4, BR Dark Apprentice v4

Darth Cephalus
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« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2016, 05:49:18 AM »

So first off, it is nice to have another person on here who does contact staff. I have been working on transitioning a lot of those moves to saber with varying degrees of success for the last year or so. As to reverse grip, I have a few videos on it but they are old ones. The primary person who used it was a guy named CH3M15T, unfortunately, he does not show up on the forums a lot anymore. His channel can be found here though.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCwiHzcMCb8ZLLlSWd_iMdGg
I have a discussion about it here as well
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_McUxm2XY" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_McUxm2XY</a>


Though I don't spend much time in reverse grip, I do transition in and out of it a lot; these transitions I think are the crux of your question. Basically I have found a few ways to get there.

The simplest is a hand pass from one hand to the other with a half rotation of the saber so that it ends up in the off hand in reverse grip. It can then be passed off to the dominant hand keeping the reverse grip.

The second way (which is I think what you are talking about) is to do half of palm spin. This is quick and dirty with no hand switch needed. Just open your hand, press your palm against the spinning saber, let it go a half rotation, and close your hand. If you do this repeatedly with both hands, it actually has a very interesting look. It is slow and odd and looks like this
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iazhwjWw7IM" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">www.youtube.com/watch?v=iazhwjWw7IM</a>


The next is an assisted hand roll with a switch. see it here
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mi0S2XFb4" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">www.youtube.com/watch?v=43mi0S2XFb4</a>

and here
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVJECXz7k8" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVJECXz7k8</a>


The next is a flip version of the same. Here I use a hand pass and a 1.5 flip to reverse the grip. This video is the close version. You can loft them a couple feet in the air to do the same thing.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5CkKAxvBw" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ5CkKAxvBw</a>


The final is just like the last but without the hand switch. This one needs a bit of air space.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9ryhBmoZP4 (Embedding disabled, limit reached)

These are what would call the basics to the intermediates. You can also do a halo 360 or some other complex contact moves like a neck wrap and arm roll to do the same job. I have videos of those but  don''t recommend them. Hope this helps.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2016, 05:55:56 AM by Darth Cephalus » Logged


Abyss
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« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2016, 05:47:12 PM »

Ah, nifty. I had hoped that someone would have lots of experience with what I was asking about. The open palm spin and something similar to the hand rolls where what I have been experimenting with. I've thought about the flips, but I haven't got those down yet; I haven't yet gotten the trick to spinning the saber so the hilt is the fulcrum and the blade moves, most of my flips last night involved the whole saber moving around the balance point, on my Apprentice several inches forward of the hilt.

I'll watch through your discussion on the reverse grip in a little while. It's been a busy weekend so I haven't been able to peruse everything online as I'd like to. Thanks for the information!
Logged

Neither Light nor Dark are superior. Rigid denial of self and blood obedience to dogma is just as oppressive as abandonment to base passions and unchecked pursuit of power. Do the good you can for whom you can, but do not succumb to either extreme.

I may be Gray, but I lean Light, so those points are appreciated.

SRD Apprentice v4, BR Dark Apprentice v4

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