Jedi Academies

[GeneChing]

just getting ready for clone wars

jedi gym (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPsDDr0n9AE)

[GeneChing]

You must watch the video in my previous post along with this article...:rolleyes:

Around West County: Using the force: Martial arts studio trains Jedi knights (http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/08_27-22/CWC)
ANNAPOLIS
By DONNA M. FELLOWS For The Capital
Published August 27, 2008

In conjunction with the release of the movie "The Clone Wars," Shelton Martial Arts Studio in Odenton recently hosted an open invitation for students and non-students to experience what a candidate (padawan) in training might experience on the road to becoming a Jedi.

More than 40 students and guests filled the studio for this special event.

Master Larry Shelton and Master Samuel Slater, along with senior students, led the evening's events in full Jedi master regalia, and welcomed the young padawans to the evening training session.

"A Jedi, like a martial artist, has three main aspects (body, mind and guiding principles) to develop before he can become a Jedi," Larry said to the group. "Body development - the first aspect a Jedi must develop - conditions the body to be strong, flexible and as agile as possible.

"Both the Jedi and the martial artist have to prepare themselves to be able to handle any situation they find themselves in. The ability to move quickly without effort and to defend and react without thought is as important to the Jedi as it is to the martial artist."

The group was then led through a series of exercises and stretches to help them in their training.

The next aspect of their training was the development of their minds. Much like the martial artist, a Jedi maintains a clear mind.

"This training will help a Jedi and a martial artist discipline their mind to ignore distractions from external influences, making task completion more successful," Larry said. "And focusing on maintaining a clear mind should not only be done as a Jedi or martial artist, but carry over into every aspect of their daily lives (school, job, extracurricular activities, etc)."

By disciplining themselves to focus they could achieve anything they desire.

Guiding principles is the third aspect of a Jedi. These codes of conduct keep the Jedi and martial artist on the right path in life's journey.

Larry said that in Charter of Moo Duk Kwan, the style he teaches, reverence for life is very important - much like the Jedi code. "Our charter is to protect even someone who is trying to harm us. A martial artist, just like a Jedi, is tasked with setting the example for others to follow. This way of life will help us travel a life to peace, harmony and happiness," he said.

After Larry's lesson, the participants were divided into two groups to begin their training in the different aspects of being a Jedi.

The final test for each padawan was to embark on a journey through a maze that tested the skills they learned during the evening session.

In the end, all the young padawans completed their assignments and became Jedi in training.

On Saturday, the group traveled to the movie theater to see "The Clone Wars" to reinforce what they had learned the night before and to help them on their journeys to becoming a Jedi master.

For more information about Shelton Martial Arts, call 410-672-2955, visit the school at 1202 Annapolis Road in Odenton or visit www.sheltonkarate.com.

[Lucas]

ummmmmmmm

:eek:

[MasterKiller]

They have videos of the Jedi camp online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxzeYM6Zn-k&feature=user

[Lucas]

do i get a light saber?

ill do it if a get a light saber, or maybe ill go for a wookie sidekick.

[SimonM]

:D IF you can build one you can have one.

But first you will have to defeat George Lucas' lawyer in combat (his lawyer is a Rancor).

[Lucas]

Weak.

I wont go to a Jedi school that cant even supply a light saber!

I'll just feed his lawyer his daughter.

[ingchao]

These groups of individuals show more Wu De than most Kung Fu schools. And 1 of the reasons for this is that they refuse to engage in the politics involved in MOST martial arts.
They just want to share what they've learned and learn from one another. It's kinda weird that people who gather under the philosophy of a movie understand Wu De more than people who have trained under "Real" Grandmasters.

props to 'em :D

[Zenshiite]

These groups of individuals show more Wu De than most Kung Fu schools. And 1 of the reasons for this is that they refuse to engage in the politics involved in MOST martial arts.
They just want to share what they've learned and learn from one another. It's kinda weird that people who gather under the philosophy of a movie understand Wu De more than people who have trained under "Real" Grandmasters.

props to 'em :D

I'm not sure what you're talking about here. The attempt to promote their karate school by, most likely, illegally using a Lucasfilm property and benefitting off it? How much do you think they charged for their unliscensed "Jedi Camp?" Pretty sure the term "Jedi" is trademarked.

That school isn't gathering under the philosophy of a movie, they are profitting off a movie franchise to promote their karate school. I don't think it has anything to do with wude.

[Ben Gash]

Who wants a light saber then?
http://www.parksabers.com/

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPsDDr0n9AE&feature=rec-fresh

Watch the WHOLE thing !

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

OHMYG!!! That was the funniest thing I have ever seen!!!

At first I thought this was some wierd Jedi academy group (Or temple of then Jedi or whatever it is they call themselves).

Then about halfway through I started thinking it was some sort of acting school doing a Star Wars segment.

Then I sprayed my keyboard with scrambled eggs and toast at the end!!! (note to self, make more breakfast)

[SimonM]

That was hillarious. Good find SR.

[冠木侍]

I didn't believe that it was possible to find humor in something you didn't like but ****, that made me laugh.

[GeneChing]

We've covered Zombies! (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50475) here too. We got it all for troubled forum members who are handicapped by ADHD or ADD; overweight forum members; gifted forum members who find themselves bored by regular classroom activities; and forum members who struggle with shyness

Denver martial arts studio brings Jedi Academy to troubled youth (http://www.examiner.com/x-23103-Denver-Zombie-Examiner~y2010m8d3-Denver-martial-arts-studio-brings-Jedi-Academy-to-troubled-youth)
August 3, 12:18 PMDenver Zombie Examiner Jessica d'Arbonne

Agoge Integrated Martial Arts, the Denver studio that brought us Zombie Defense Tactics and Zombie Survival 101, is presenting a new program called Jedi Academy to teach life skills and self reliance to troubled youth.

The Jedi Academy is designed to serve children who are handicapped by ADHD or ADD; overweight children; gifted children who find themselves bored by regular classroom activities; and children who struggle with shyness.

The program is intended to increase a child's self esteem, athleticism, and confidence, while giving them the motivation they need to achieve better grades in school. Children ages 5-15 and of all athletic abilities are welcome at the Jedi Academy. No martial arts experience is necessary, only a determination to have fun in this summer day-camp style atmosphere.

Like the Jedi Knights of George Lucas's films, students of the Jedi Academy will learn the Jedi code: "Jedi respect life, in all its forms. Jedi defend and protect themselves and others. Jedi strive to serve their community, in harmony with the Multiverse. Jedi seek to improve themselves through learning, training and teaching."

Instructor Brent Bingham is booking classes for the Jedi Academy this week. Check out the Agoge Integrated Martial Arts website for more details on the Jedi Academy, or click here to enroll.

Stay informed, stay alive: Instructor Brent Bingham of the Agoge Integrated Martial Arts also teaches Zombie Defense Tactics classes and Zombie Survival 101 to all would-be survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Visit AgogeWarrior.com for more details!

[GeneChing]

Pardon my Huttese. I meant Jedi TEMPLE. :o

Star Wars School In Chile Teaches Children Martial Arts (http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/03/11/star-wars-school-opens-chile-teach-children-martial-arts/)
By Adrian Carrasquillo
Published March 11, 2011

This isn't a Jedi mind trick.

A Star Wars school called "The Jedi Temple" opened in Quilpué, Chile, to give children a unique way to study martial arts.

The school, which begins its second session on March 17th, is training 20 children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old and is split into a beginners and an advanced course, BBC Mundo reported.

Combining what it considers the values of the Jedi -- wisdom and nobility -- with yoga and tae kwon do, the school believes it is providing its children something valuable along with the fun and entertainment of living a dream.

In the classes, the children are given a chance to breathe life into a Star Wars' fandom (sometimes inherited from obsessed parents), by wielding light sabers made popular by Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, Vanguardia.com reported.

Related Links
Snore Loudly? You’d Be a Winner in Spain

A genuine Star Wars experience is provided by "an exact replica light-saber, that has the sounds and the light reminiscent of the movies," William Berrueta, the creator of the school, told BBC Mundo.

The idea for "The Jedi Temple" was borne out of a visit to Chile by Star Wars: The Exhibition in March of 2009. It was the first time a display of props from the entire Star Wars series was made available for public viewing in Chile.

But not everyone is happy about the way of the Jedi being taught to precocious youngsters.

"You guys are completely and utterly stupid," a commentor named Sebastián wrote on the school's website. "What are you thinking making a school for Jedis? Do you have something wrong with your heads?"

But one thing is for sure. As long as adults are willing to teach the ways of the force, there will be children enthusiastically ready to learn.

Contact Adrian Carrasquillo at Adrian.Carrasquillo@foxnewslatino.com or on Twitter @RealAdrianC.

[Drake]

If it gets a nation that is mostly obese out and active, how bad can it possibly be? So what if they think they are jedi, klingon, or whatever? You have kids having fun, getting exercise, interacting with one another, and developing friendships.

Only a completely over the top hardass would have a problem with that.

[Lucas]

do jedi's accept challenge matches?

[GeneChing]

This is poached off the Star Trek vs. Star Wars thread (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44789). It really stands on it's own now.

There are more pix if you follow the link. Needs some bumping EDM and I'd play...;)

‘Star Wars’ fans become Jedi padawans at light saber school (http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/star-wars-fans-become-jedi-padawans-at-light-saber-school/#/0)
Feb. 21, 2013 | 1:16 p.m.
A group of San Francisco "Star Wars" fans called the Golden Gate Knights meet weekly for a light saber combat choreography class. Jim Collum, foreground, and other students work on their light saber skills. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

If you ever watched “Star Wars” and longed to wield a light saber of your own, you’re not alone, young padawan. A San Francisco “Star Wars” fan has created a combat choreography class for the Jedi and Sith weapon.

The class is the brainchild of Alain Bloch, a 32-year-old software engineer with a lifelong love of George Lucas’ epic space opera.

“There are a lot of really awesome costuming groups in the Bay Area, but there was no one that was doing reenactments of the light saber battles that you find in movies, which I find to be some of the most exciting parts of them,” Bloch told Hero Complex. “So I went around and was actually looking for somebody who could possibly teach me how to do this sort of choreography.”

http://latimesherocomplex.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/lat-bcpix-wre0008351590-20130210.jpg?w=285&h=450
Golden Gate Knights instructor Alain Block demonstrates a move for his class. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Bloch found Matthew Carauddo, a fencing instructor and martial artist who works on stage choreography and teaches fencing in the Los Altos area, south of San Francisco. Carauddo was also a self-professed “Star Wars” geek and taught kids light saber choreography to supplement fencing, Bloch said. He trained Bloch, and then the pair founded Golden Gate Knights to bring more padawans into the Jedi order.

Two years later, the class meets weekly, with roughly 25 people (many in costume) slicing, jumping, spinning, parrying and meditating for three hours every Sunday. Classes cost $10 and are open to adults and teenagers accompanied by parents. Bloch refers children to Carauddo, who no longer teaches with Golden Gate Knights and runs his own classes in San Francisco’s South Bay area. For the last few sessions, Bloch said, he’s had to turn people away due to the space constraints of the dance studio where the group meets.

“We have people who have their own light sabers and really want to learn how to use them and look cool flourishing them around,” Bloch said. “We have people who are into film who want to learn how to do some choreography for their film projects. And we have just a lot of people who are interested in fun weekend activities who want to come out and do something interesting. We have a lot of people are into ‘Star Wars,’ or at least curious about ‘Star Wars.’ And we have a lot of people come out on fun dates.”

Part of the appeal, Bloch said, is in the weapon itself. In the “Star Wars” films, the light saber is a sort of laser sword wielded only by members of the Jedi order and their dark counterpart, the Sith. It is, as Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker in “A New Hope,” an “elegant weapon” as well as a symbol.

“The light saber is a very iconic element to ‘Star Wars,’” Bloch said. “It’s the sword. You see that in all sorts of stories and movies — it sort of represents this force of change. And there’s a virtuous element to the light saber; it’s made of light, and only those who are keen to the Force can wield it effectively. Since I was a kid, I wanted a light saber. It would be very symbolic of being a hero, in a sense. So a lot of people come to our class, and they kind of want to live out that childhood or maybe adulthood fantasy of being a Jedi knight, so our class is sort of a dream come true to them.”

The class has grown to the point that it’s self-sustaining, Bloch said, but he’s not going to be quitting his day job anytime soon.

“It’s just something I do on the side,” he said. “Only on the weekends I get to don my Jedi robes and feel the Force.”

For Los Angeles-based “Star Wars” fans who want to learn the ways of the Jedi, Bloch recommends classes held by the Saber Guild, or instructional DVDs (co-created by Carauddo and martial artist Mark Preader) for sale at www.sabercombat.com.

[Lucas]

We should sith storm their temple.

[David Jamieson]

We should sith storm their temple.

No can do. There are only ever 2 sith at a time. Master/student.

Kind of hard to storm anything with2 guys no matter how powerful they can shoot the electric boo boos out their hands.

[GeneChing]

There are more images if you follow the link.


Martial Arts Lightsaber Paintings Slice Through the Dark (http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/08/light-painting/#slideid-31261)
BY JAKOB SCHILLER08.07.136:30 AM
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/rawfile/2013/08/Kata_2148_Patrick_Rochon-660x435.jpg

In his new Light Painting KATA series, Patrick Rochon makes fluid designs by moving around in a martial arts-inspired dance while holding custom lightsaber flashlights.

“The process is definitely a performance,” says Rochon, who lives in Montreal. “The movement I use is a way for me to express my feelings. I was like, here is my energy translated into an art form.”

Kata is in the title because it’s a Japanese word that refers to the kind of repetitive training or choreography that happens in martial arts.

All the photos are made in a completely dark room. Rochon says he moves, often to music, until he thinks he’s finished. Each exposure is between one and five minutes, and he usually has to do several takes before he’s satisfied. Occasionally, he only needs one.

“Sometimes I get into a different state of mind, and before I look at the camera, I know it’s going to be good,” he says.

[MasterKiller]

No can do. There are only ever 2 sith at a time. Master/student.

Kind of hard to storm anything with2 guys no matter how powerful they can shoot the electric boo boos out their hands.

Actually, there are periods during which Sith armies number in the tens of thousands. Count Dooku himself only agreed to join Sidious because he was promised he would be allowed to create his own standing Sith army to police the galaxy, as he felt the Jedi had become incompetent.

[GeneChing]

Meanwhile, check this out: Best Fencing Event Teaser Ever ! Fencing World Championships 2013 - Budapest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKS_FQYf_6c)

[GeneChing]

This is dated. I read it in one of those weird news 2013 in review articles. I'm delighted to know that TSA makes allowances for lightsabers. :D


Chewbacca's lightsaber triumphs over TSA (http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/10/travel/chewbacca-tsa-light-saber-cane/)
By Katia Hetter, CNN
updated 11:06 AM EDT, Tue June 11, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Chewbacca actor's lightsaber-themed cane received extra TSA inspection
The TSA check took less than five minutes, the agency says
The TSA allows toy lightsabers in carry-on and checked baggage, a spokesperson says

(CNN) -- May the force be with you, even in the airport.

We all know that's not always the case, especially when we're carrying something that raises concerns from the Transportation Security Administration.

The 7-foot-2-inch tall actor Peter Mayhew, best known for playing Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies, ran into a security line delay last week when he was stopped for his lightsaber inspired cane.

Mayhew, 69, was heading home from Denver Comic Con when his movie-inspired cane provoked a second look by TSA agents. Mayhew travels regularly to different conventions, meeting fans and tweeting photos. Next stop is London's Film and Comic Con in July.

Mayhew quickly took to his Twitter account to protest the inspection of his cane, and credits Twitter for its speedy release. He's seen in a Twitter photo sitting in a wheelchair, which he says he's also using because of a bum knee.

One Chewie tweet: "Magic words to TSA are not 'please' or 'thank you'.. It's 'Twitter'.. cane released to go home."

The cane was not detained, says the TSA, which e-mailed CNN.com this statement: "Because of the unusual weight of the passenger's cane, a security officer alerted a supervisor. Less than five minutes later, the passenger and cane were cleared to travel."

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130610100908-chewie-cane-story-body.jpg
Peter Mayhew at Arclight Cinema on May 19, 2010, in Los Angeles.

A check of the TSA's "prohibited items" list revealed this information about lightsabers:

"Sadly, the technology doesn't currently exist to create a real light saber. However, you can pack a toy light saber in your carry-on or checked bag. May the force be with you." (The TSA spells it "light saber.")

"Even if an item is generally permitted, it may be subject to additional screening or not allowed through the checkpoint if it triggers an alarm during the screening process, appears to have been tampered with, or poses other security concerns. The final decision rests with TSA on whether to allow any items on the plane."

"Star Wars" fans had a field day on Twitter.

"@TheWookieeRoars @TSA Just learned Star Wars lesson #1: 'Let the Wookie Win,' " wrote astronomer Ray Sanders.

Wrote ‏@milapajamas: "Peter Mayhew @TheWookieeRoars was stopped by TSA cause he had a lightsaber. I guess it is a weapon after all, which means Star Wars is real."

Sometimes a cane is clearly more than a cane. It's an icon, a symbol of a movie that's a cultural touchstone. And sometimes, it's a storage unit for a knife. The TSA blog reports that a passenger at Washington Dulles Airport was surprised when TSA agents found her cane concealed a knife. She had recently bought it at an antique store.

[Zenshiite]

Actually, there are periods during which Sith armies number in the tens of thousands. Count Dooku himself only agreed to join Sidious because he was promised he would be allowed to create his own standing Sith army to police the galaxy, as he felt the Jedi had become incompetent.

How could not respond with this Old Republic video of the Sith storming the Jedi Temple?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvW6G3Dlo90

[GeneChing]

Italian Jedi Get All The Best Lightsaber Schools (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131995-Italian-Jedi-Get-All-The-Best-Lightsaber-Schools)
Adam Gauntlett | 4 February 2014 11:51 am


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOnWgr63-9M

Ever wanted to be a Jedi? Do you live in Milan, Rome, Turin, Genoa, Varese, Pesaro or Vercelli?

Yes, Lightsaber School is a real thing, but if you want to be part of it then I hope you live in Italy. Gaze upon the shiny that is LudoSport, an Italian school for aspiring Jedi Knights. The fighting style's a mix of medieval, Kendo and film-based techniques, and the sabers are as real as the students can manage without actually making something that could sever limbs.

"It helps distract me after a hard day's work," says student Valeria Ricciardi, "and also keeps me fit!" The sabers aren't cheap, at about 200 Euro ($270) a shot, but thankfully the only other gear you need is a sweatsuit, indoor sneakers and protective gloves. There's no choreography involved; the whole point is to create a working fighting technique, and if you're wondering what that looks like, take a gander at the Shadow Team.

The school's already got seven branches, including its head office in Milan, with more on the way.


Official site for LudoSport (http://www.ludosport.net/en/)

[GeneChing]

Jedi Prisoner Accuses HMP Bosses Of Bigotry As They Refuse To Recognise His Faith (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/16/jedi-prisoner-accuses-bosses-bigotry-refuse-recognise-faith_n_5158168.html?1397643234&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067)
Huffington Post UK | By Sara C Nelson Posted: 16/04/2014 11:13 BST | Updated: 16/04/2014 12:59 BST

Prison bosses have being accused of “religious bigotry” after refusing to recognise an inmate’s faith as Jedi.

In a letter published on Inside Time – the national newspaper for prisoners and detainees – the unnamed prisoner writes: (http://www.insidetime.org/mailbag.asp?a=1462&c=return_of_the_jedi)

“I recently put in an application asking that I be allowed to practise my religion freely – I am a Jedi.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/855475/thumbs/o-STAR-WARS-570.jpg?2
Yoda was one of the most renowned and powerful Jedi Masters in the Star Wars films

“The written reply said: ‘…whilst Jedi is a recognised religion according to the UK census, it is not recognised by the National Offender Management Service and we cannot change your religious record because of this’.”

The 2011 census says the total number of people classifying themselves as Jedi Knights in England and Wales was 176,632. (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/business-transparency/freedom-of-information/what-can-i-request/previous-foi-requests/population/religion-classification---jedi/index.html)

The Jedi prisoner, who is serving time at HMP Isis in Thamesmead, adds: “This is an example of the kind of intolerance and religious bigotry faced by members of our faith on a daily basis, both within the prison service and without.

“Jedis have been portrayed very negatively in the media since the tragic battle of Yavin IV, when Luke Skywalker and a group of left-wing militants targeted the Death Star in a terrorist attack, killing thousands of civilian personnel.

“Please withhold my name in the paper as I fear retaliation from the Dark Side. May the force be with you.”

The Star Wars-inspired religion is still the most selected "alternative" faith in the census, and is practised by 0.31per cent of all people in England and Wales.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "The National Offender Management Service does not recognise Jedi as an official religion."

'fear retaliation from the Dark Side.' priceless.

[GeneChing]

One more thing for me to chide Emilio on...


May the (Wushu) Force be with you! (http://eastbaywushu.com/?p=354)

For many years, Wushu has been the martial art of choice for Hollywood’s top fight choreographers, been featured in many productions such as “THE MATRIX” and “STAR WARS” . In fact, Scottish actor Ray Park, best known for playing Sith Apprentice Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I, was an accomplished international Wushu athlete himself.

Recently, Coach Emilio Alpanseque has been invited as a guest instructor to the Golden Gate Knights, a San Francisco Bay Area group that offers instruction in lightsaber choreography, to focus on teaching a special set of techniques derived from Wushu to enhance their current repertoire.

For more information about the group, please visit http://goldengateknights.com/

http://eastbaywushu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ataru2.jpg
Coach Emilio having fun with the folks at the Golden Gate Knights

http://eastbaywushu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ataru1.jpg
With Golden Gate Knights co-founder Alain Bloch

http://eastbaywushu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ataru3.jpg
May the Force be with you!

[GeneChing]

...what with the Force Awakens on the horizon.

There's a vid if you follow the link below.


Martial arts dojo offers light saber classes for Star Wars fans (http://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/claremore/martial-arts-dojo-offers-light-saber-classes-for-star-wars-fans)
10:33 PM, Apr 6, 2015
10:33 PM, Apr 6, 2015

http://media2.kjrh.com/photo/2015/04/06/Weapons_Of_The_Future_2795500000_16279780_ver1.0_6 40_480.jpg

If preparing for a intergalatic war you are, then you might want to check out this martial arts dojo.

Beavens Martial Arts in Claremore offers classes on how to fight with weapons of the future: light sabers.

Master Beaven said he discovered the trend, which is growing in popularity in Italy, and decided to adopt his own version and teach it at his dojo.

"Jedis are martial artists. So who better to teach Jedi training then a martial artist?"

One Jedi apprentice, Jared Strain, has been taking the class for the past four months and loves it.

"Oh it's been a whole lot of fun so far especially with the sparring. I've really enjoyed it," said Strain, who is well on his way to schooling Jedi's such as Obi Wan.

While the path to becoming a Jedi seems fun, it's also a very difficult road to take. Those embarking on the journey seeking the power of the Force must be in peak physical condition and have strong mental focus if they are to succeed at eradicating dark forces with their skills.

The program does teach actual martial art disciplines, both trainers and apprentices appreciate the positive environment and fun that comes with it.

"I just like lighting the light sabers up and enjoying having fun. It's a relaxed environment. I bring my family in and they also do it so it's a good time," said Chip Sheppard, Jedi.

Darksiders beware: With all these soon to be Jedi in training you might think twice before messing around in Claremore.

The course last about nine weeks and cost about $70 a month.

[GeneChing]

...what with the Force Awakens on the horizon.

I got a bad feeling about this.... ;)



Singapore’s Jedi Academy: Real World Sword Fighting Skills With Lightsabers Because Yes (http://www.themarysue.com/singapore-jedi-academy/)
by Jessica Lachenal ( ) Monday, August 31st 2015 at 3:54 pm


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7brzQsokyww

If you’ve ever found yourself needing stunt fight training with a little bit of flair, you can get yourself down to Singapore’s very own The Force Academy, a sword fighting academy focused on teaching real-life combat techniques with… lightsabers. Yeah. You can see for yourself in the video of one of their dueling sessions that they’re quite fun and that they move pretty darn quickly. No, nobody loses any limbs or anything (that might be for the advanced class), but judging by everybody’s faces, it looks pretty fun.

The Force Academy follows on the heels of other lightsaber/sword fighting combat classes, including one in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Knights. While these classes have drawn the judgement and ire of a lot of people, it’s nice to see folks defying the “sedentary nerd” stereotype by indulging themselves in some exciting training.

Here’s the million dollar question: if one of these was near you, would you sign up? If so, what would your saber color be? Because mine’s totally purple.

Back off, Windu.

Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64710-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens)
Star-Wars-Rogue-One (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68803-Star-Wars-Rogue-One)

[GeneChing]

I was going to run a story on our ezine on our local Jedi Academy for The Force Awakens (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?64710-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens). I even had one of our writers look into it. But with the overwhelming media blitz, it wasn't even worth coat-tailing upon, like shining a light saber at a sun. So I went to Spain (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?46834-Which-flan-does-Gene-Ching-consume&p=1289789#post1289789) instead.



Martial arts studio trains future Jedi at winter camp (http://www.theadanews.com/news/local_news/martial-arts-studio-trains-future-jedi-at-winter-camp/article_046702e4-ce17-58e4-a1d3-031eaee01621.html)

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theadanews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/0e/e0efe8d6-f336-5cba-b3a9-88e2ee0abbfa/56876ef865fc2.image.jpg?resize=300%2C201
Integrity Martial Arts in Moore co-owners Kevin Listen, left, and Bridgette Crocker show off their lightsaber skills at the dojo’s Jedi Martial Arts Winter Break Camp.

Posted: Saturday, January 2, 2016 7:15 am
By Sidney Lee Community News Content
Posted on Jan 2, 2016by Randy Mitchell

MOORE — The Force is strong with Integrity Martial Arts in Moore.
A three-day Jedi-themed day camp kept children entertained and productive during winter break this week.
Children played a variety of Star Wars themed games and participated in some basic self-defense training during the camp. They also learned how to use a lightsaber.
Don’t worry, no hands were lost during the camp as the lightsabers were made of pool noodles and different colors of tape for the handle.
While the sabers might not be exactly like those in the popular films, the training is based on curriculum for weapons training at Integrity Martial Arts.
“It’s a lot easier for kids to grasp when they’re holding a lightsaber than an escrima stick,” said Kevin Listen, one of Integrity Martial Arts co-owners. “It’s something safe so they can have fun with it.”
Listen ended the second day of camp with students dueling each other with their lightsabers. Each bout was ended when a student managed to score a hit on their fellow camper.
Bridgette Crocker, one of the other co-owners of the school, said they see weapons as an extension of the body so students of the dojo do not begin weapons training until they have mastered a certain level of control of the rest of their body.
This was reflected in the camp as well.
Even though the children were only using modified pool noodles, they spent the first day learning basic blocks and strikes without a saber. On the second day, they began using their sabers and on the third day they learned how to block blaster fire, or Nerf gun bullets, using their sabers.
This classic Jedi ability is often seen in the Star Wars universe.
All of the campers enjoyed the lightsaber training, but Listen said they seemed to enjoy the different games as well.
One of the games was called “Sith Raid.” The variation on Red Rover makes students sneak across the room and try to avoid the “siths” in the middle.
Crocker said they also had a Jedi obstacle course and had different training exercises like Yoda led Luke through in the original trilogy, with army crawling and side kicks.
The camp also had an hour of self-defense training that follows their school’s curriculum so those who are students get points toward their goals.
Crocker said they hope to do other camps in the future and plan to do a summer camp again this year.
Lee writes for The Moore American.

[GeneChing]

Lightsaber Weapons Competition (https://www.facebook.com/TigerClaw/photos/ms.c.eJwzNDA0NTEzsjA1NTY3NjI3NNUzhIuYmhmbA0UAfusHF w~-~-.bps.a.10152264947612715.1073741826.140138252714/10154628555637715/?type=3&theater), USA Winter Internationals, January 30, 2016, Westgate Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV. http://usainternationals.com

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12510406_10154628555637715_3527882426632124181_n.j pg?oh=675c14d911fad5ecb549cd2d77d68a12&oe=56FFF94E


This is way up there in the 'Why didn't I think of that for our competition (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68985-2016-Tiger-Claw-Elite-amp-Kung-Fu-Tai-Chi-Day-May-21-22-San-Jose-CA)?' column... ;)

[GeneChing]

If they used traditional metal lightsabers instead of those plastic wushu lightsaber toys, they'd get a better workout. :rolleyes:

This made the New Yorker no less... :eek:

JANUARY 11, 2016 ISSUE
Sabers Up (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/sabers-up)
BY CORA FRAZIER

At New York Sports Clubs’ Chelsea branch one recent Tuesday, employees were rushing to remove toy lightsabers from their plastic packaging. Amira Lamb, an exercise instructor, took her place in a brightly lit mirrored studio and explained that instead of her usual cardio-kickboxing class she would be leading a “Star Wars” workout, which she’d designed at the behest of Disney and Lucasfilm. Lamb, who is petite and has dark eyes, had her crinkly hair pulled back with two clips. She has a devoted following and is beloved by her mostly female students for her distinctive playlists and her efficient full-body approach.

Many regulars seemed confused about the new workout, which was called Awaken Your Inner Force. One young woman said that she wasn’t really a “Star Wars” fan.

“It’s still cardio,” Lamb explained. (She had designed a movie-themed workout before, in 2012, for Disney’s animated film “Brave.”)

Lamb made sure the twenty or so exercisers had the right equipment: one yoga mat; two Frisbee-shaped “gliding disks,” for sliding along the floor (these, she said, were “a nod to the ice planet”); one toy lightsaber. A latecomer with a tattoo on his calf ran in. “I need a sword!” he cried.

An electronic dance remix of the “Star Wars” theme started. Imitating Lamb, the class began with wide-legged plié squats, lightsabers held aloft. When they pulled the lightsabers down in front of their faces, the toys unexpectedly lit up and emitted tinkly battle sounds. “Oh!” Lamb said. Smiles spread around the room, in recognition of the universal truth that it’s really fun to wave around a long stick.

The names of the rapid cardio sets, each lasting about sixty or ninety seconds, were written on the mirror in blue and red marker. They included Light*saber Leaps, Skywalker Press, Jedi Jacks, Padawan Pushups, and “Help Me, Obi-Wan!” A few were variations of Lamb’s usual exercises. (The Chewbacca Chop, in a non-“Star Wars” context, is the Wood Chop.)

“I’m still kind of new to this whole ‘Star Wars’ thing,” Lamb admitted. “I watched all the movies within, like, a week.” She had not yet seen the new film when she designed the workout, but “ran to the theatre” as soon as it came out, she said. “I changed some of the names of the exercises after I saw it.”

Lisa Hufcut, the director of P.R. for the company that owns N.Y.S.C., said that the partnership is ideal, because Disney “is looking for a way to incorporate their brand into the fitness demographic.” She added, “We’re seeing people come in who may not be regular exercisers, but who love ‘Star Wars.’ ”

In the studio, Lamb led the group into Lunge Like Luke. The exercisers assumed the lunge position, light*sabers held high, then brought their back knees forward while lowering their sabers, and reassumed the lunge, light*sabers lifted, as fast as they could. Between exercises, the class did plié squats, guided by breathing. “I think of the Force like Chi,” Lamb told them.

The music transitioned into a remix of “Starships,” by Nicki Minaj. The group dropped the lightsabers on the floor and jump-squatted over them to perform Lightsaber Leaps. For the Skywalker Press, the participants assumed a downward-dog position, moved into a plank, brought the left leg forward, returned to a downward dog, and then repeated the sequence with the right leg.

Lightsabers clattered against each other, and one knocked over a water bottle. Even the regulars had trouble keeping up with Lamb. The playlist was punctuated by sound bites from the “Star Wars” movies, such as R2D2 beeping and Leia calling out, “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi!” The class divided into two groups and faced off, in an approximation of the dark and light sides of the Force. Lamb said, “At some point, switching to the dark side is allowed!”

By Saber Push/Combat Burpees, many in the class were breathing heavily. The exercise involved jumping with both arms in the air, rolling along the floor, then standing and jumping again. To motivate the huffing stragglers, Lamb said, “If you feel like you’re dying, just think about the breath. The breath is the Force.”

The class ended with a cooldown move called Yoda Flow, which Lamb said was inspired by Tai Chi. Afterward, a regular named Katherine Huala pronounced the new workout much harder than the usual cardio kickboxing. She is a “Star Wars” fan, but doesn’t love the more recent prequels. “Too much C.G.I.,” she said.


This ‘Star Wars’ themed workout has very little to do with ‘Star Wars’ (http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/276367/star-wars-workout/)
In News by Jordan Freiman / January 9, 2016

http://static.deathandtaxesmag.com/uploads/2016/01/star-wars-640x420.jpg

The marketing behemoth we know as the Star Wars franchise (now somehow even larger after being acquired by Disney) will not rest until every conceivable aspect of your life has some sort of official Star WarsTM variant, and not even exercise classes are safe.

Since December, a New York Sports Club location in Chelsea has been offering a class called “Awaken Your Inner Force” which is, in the loosest sense of the term, Star Wars “themed.” This isn’t the work of some random instructor. This was apparently specifically requested by Lucasfilm — the idea presumably being that maybe they could squeeze out a few more dollars by subliminally weaving the idea of Star Wars into the brains of people who enjoy exercise but were maybe somehow on the fence about the concept of a new movie from one of the most successful film franchises of all time. The NYSC, on the other hand, figured maybe they could rope in a few Star Wars fans who were similarly on the fence about the concept of exercise.

The program was designed by Amira Lamb, who is the woman on the right of the photo up there. All of this is fine and harmless, the only issue is none of these exercises really have anything to do with Star Wars. Check out these descriptions provided by The New Yorker:

In the studio, Lamb led the group into Lunge Like Luke. The exercisers assumed the lunge position, light*sabers held high, then brought their back knees forward while lowering their sabers, and reassumed the lunge, light*sabers lifted, as fast as they could. Between exercises, the class did plié squats, guided by breathing.

I don’t ever recall Luke doing anything that looked remotely like that description other than holding a lightsaber.

The group dropped the lightsabers on the floor and jump-squatted over them to perform Lightsaber Leaps.

OK, see, again, this is just exercising in the vicinity of a lightsaber.

For the Skywalker Press, the participants assumed a downward-dog position, moved into a plank, brought the left leg forward, returned to a downward dog, and then repeated the sequence with the right leg.

Now we seem to have abandoned all pretense of this having anything to do with Star Wars.

Both this article and one in Men’s Fitness assure the reader that regardless of its association with Star Wars, it’s a pretty intense workout. That’s great, but don’t you think a Star Wars workout should have a little more to do with the movies than just “occasionally you hold a toy lightsaber”? I sure do. Since I feel so strongly about this, I’ve taken the liberty of concocting my own Star Wars routine. Check it out! (Ed. note: the creator of this routine has not exercised in nine years and has no idea what he’s talking about).

1. Empire Back Strikes
Despite its name, this exercise has nothing to do with hitting or your back. It just sounded vaguely fitnessy. In any case, find a weird cross-shaped pole and hold yourself up on it. First using just one hand, and then eventually transition into an upside-down hanging position hanging on only by the back of your knees. Try not to pass out or fall.

2. Yoda Runs
Find a baby, strap it to your back, and go on a jog through a very dense forest. If available, swing from as many jungle vines as possible. Try a running front flip every now and then.

3. Vader Choke Lifts
Try lifting a fully grown adult male up over your head using only one arm and grabbing by the neck.

4. Chewbacca Pulls
Play a game of Risk. Lose. Rip your opponents arms out of their sockets.

5. Solo Sprints
Grab a gun and start chasing people. Scream at the top of your lungs the entire time. If the people you’re chasing turn around and start chasing you, that’s perfectly fine. Just run away from them. Never stop screaming.

[GeneChing]

MartialArtsMart.com should have added hooded Jedi cloaks. We've already got the basic robe (http://www.martialartsmart.com/45-001.html). ;)


Lightsaber Academy melds ‘Star Wars,’ martial arts (http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/local_story/Lightsaber-Academy-melds-Star-_1452905000)
By RYAN TRARES rtrares@dailyjournal.net
Daily Journal staff writer
First Posted: January 15, 2016 - 7:45 pm
Last Updated: January 15, 2016 - 7:48 pm

http://d1bdhkmqqz901h.cloudfront.net/200x0/smart/hnedata.net/assets/local_story_media/Lightsaber-Academy-melds-Star-_1452905000/20160109dj_lightsabers9.jpg

The red glowing sword came slashing in from the left, a diagonal blow aimed at my torso.

Using the training I had received, my own blue sword came up to meet it crosswise. Attack blocked.

“Good,” said lightsaber instructor Brian Hartz, before making his second attack horizontally across my right side. Alas, my Jedi skills couldn’t defend quick enough. I was done for.

Thankfully, this was only practice.

Inside the spacious practice area of the Indy Lightsaber Academy, trainers have melded the fantastical world of the “Star Wars” universe with authentic sword-based martial arts.

Participants learn to attack and block from varying angles and situations. Led by southside resident Michael Tucker, students employ fighting concepts that are hundreds of years old, all while using a weapon inspired by what Luke Skywalker used.

“Even if you don’t like ‘Star Wars,’ who doesn’t like a sword?” Tucker said. “The biggest thing is, in my heart, I’ve always loved swords. I’ve always loved the idea of a knight. If you think of one weapon that encapsulates human history, it’s the sword. The lightsaber is essentially a futuristic sword.”

At the academy’s first class since the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” close to 50 Jedis-in-training worked on their attacks and parries. Men and women, older adults and young children all gathered waiting for their first lesson.

Tucker and his team were profiled in GQ magazine in December, and the result has been a massive spike in people wanting to learn to use lightsabers.

Acting out dreams

Some had been to class before and had their own flashy models to practice with. They lit up in shades of red, yellow, green and blue, with some making the signature “whoosh” like in the movies.

Other people used the more basic weaponry provided by Tucker and his staff — wooden training swords for adults, padded versions for children.

The Force was strong among participants.

“You spend so much time growing up watching lightsaber fights, thinking that is so cool,” said Taylor Cox, a student and Indianapolis resident. “Now, you can actually do it.”

Cox, an actor from Indianapolis, found out about the class from Hartz. When he checked it out, he loved the depth of instruction that ran parallel to his fandom of the “Star Wars” universe.

“I like how it takes something that’s super-fantastical, something you see on the screen and read about, then takes a practical application to it,” Cox said. “Everything is based on real martial arts and a real application of the fantasy aspects that you see.”

The academy was born in late 2014, when co-founder Doug Trefun posted on Craigslist his idea to start a lightsaber academy. He was a huge fan of “Star Wars,” as well as a certified exercise physiologist and health coach.

But he needed an expert in stage combat to help lead the training. Tucker, who has extensive training in sword-based martial arts and stage fighting, contacted him about the idea.

“I was confident it would go over pretty well. But I never thought we’d be where we’ve gotten today,” Trefun said.

‘A cool alternative’

By early 2015, they had a small group of devotees and started attending events such as Indy Comic Con to garner attention. With enough people, they moved to a small training space in Irvington.

In less than a year, the academy has grown large enough to move to bigger locations. The group’s new home is the Circle City Industrial Complex, a massive open area with room for dozens of people swinging lightsabers.

The instruction is good-natured but serious. Tucker and his team demonstrate each move before asking students to do it themselves. They go person to person, making sure each one’s form and stance are correct.

Tucker assembled a program borrowing from martial arts around the world, distilling them into seven forms, Tucker said.

All participants in the academy start with what is called Form 1, Tucker said.

Based on the ancient art of Shii-Cho, it helps teach control of the body and blade. The twin components of a powerful attack and a stable defense help lay the foundation for other more complicated fighting forms.

“It’s a cool alternative to going to the gym,” Trefun said. “It takes a few classes to do it right, but you can get a good workout especially when sparring.”

Participants who stay in the academy long enough move their way up though three levels of initiate status, eventually becoming a padawan — signifying they have the fundamentals and are ready for more complex lessons.

At the highest rank and mastery of the concepts, students become Jedi masters.

‘Can’t lose control’

The idea is to create an atmosphere of amusement and learning, and the people who come to classes are obviously amped up to start slashing away.

But the academy trainers are serious about safety. Everyone has to sign a waiver to take part. They take great care to make sure people aren’t wildly swinging their lightsabers, have everyone stretch before the classes and work individually with each student.

“I know this is fun, I know this is goofy, I know this is something you don’t do every day,” Tucker said. “But you can’t lose control.”

For many of the participants, the academy is a chance to live out their science-fiction dreams.

Indianapolis residents Diana Cox and Kobi “Kobi-wan” Walden found out about the class on Facebook. The two are huge “Star Wars” fans and were among the many who packed theaters on opening night for the new film.

With the chance to do something so closely related to their fandom, they couldn’t wait for new classes to start up.

“We want to be Jedis,” Waldron said.

The pair got their friends Jadrian Berry and Kasey Schwartz to join them.

“When my sister and I were kids, we wore out VHS tapes of ‘Star Wars,’” said Schwartz, also an Indianapolis resident. “It’s always been something that I’ve loved.”

Katie Angel has worked with Tucker, Trefun and the other members of the academy through events with her performance group, Angel Burlesque.

For the fun of it

Watching them work with lightsabers, she wanted to try it herself. Her husband purchased a five-class pass for Christmas.

“I’m tired of sitting and watching cool things. I wanted to stand and do,” she said.

With the growth, the academy has tried to become entrenched in the central Indiana community. They staff currently is sponsoring a food drive, with every participant who brings five cans of food getting to take a class for free.

The group has also worked with Indianapolis Public Schools to offer scholarships to its students, giving them an after-school extracurricular at a steep discount.

“Our biggest thing now is using all of the momentum we have with the release of the new ‘Star Wars’ movie,” Trefun said. “We’re using that popularity to springboard into other things.”

Throughout my first full class, my form was ... poor. A Sith lord would make short work of me.

But making cross-body blows with a glowing sword was still exhilarating. With each new move gained, it was easy to get lost in a potential science fiction fantasy.

And that’s the whole point, Tucker said.

“It’s not just for ‘Star Wars’ fans, but for swordplay fans, fitness fans, people who want to do something unique,” he said. “It’s supposed to be fun.”

[GeneChing]

Not quite a Jedi Academy, but it looks like you can get lightsaber lessons on board...


Star Wars Day at Sea aboard Disney Cruise Line (http://allseastravel.com/star-wars-day-at-sea-disney-cruise-line.htm)
Register Profile

https://mlsvc01-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/5cb4e4d7001/1febef21-dc8c-4da7-8b93-d7ab143494f3.jpg (https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=918076268217008&set=p.918076268217008&type=2&theater)

One Epic Day, 8 Select Sailings
Whether you're a Jedi-in-training or the Jedi Master of the family, you're in for an out-of-galaxy experience when you sail on the Disney Fantasy in early 2016!

Occurring one day during each of eight Disney Fantasy sailings, Star Wars Day at Sea will transport you to a galaxy far, far away — in the Western Caribbean. Departing from Port Canaveral, the seven-night Western Caribbean itinerary includes Cozumel, Mexico; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands and Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay.

Star Wars Day at Sea marks the first official appearance of the heroes and villains of Star Wars aboard the Disney ships. The Event features a full day of Star Wars celebrations for the whole family, including:

Force-filled Fun for Everyone

Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Boba Fett, Stormtroopers and other characters from across the Star Wars galaxy will be onboard for scheduled meet and greets, as well as roaming on deck and elsewhere around the ship. You're also are encouraged to dress up in your own stellar costumes!

A shipboard version of the popular Jedi Training Academy experience invites young Jedi hopefuls — known as "Padawans" — to learn lightsaber moves from a Jedi Master. They can then use the Force and face off in a final test against the evil Darth Vader.

Kids and families enjoy friendly competition during Star Wars trivia games, covering fun facts from the film and television sagas.

For Younglings, Star Wars-themed arts and crafts, games and activities will be offered throughout the day in Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab youth clubs.

In the evening, adults entering the night club will feel like they stepped into the Mos Eisley cantina scene. Characters and cantina music set the mood as Star Wars-themed specialty ****tails are served.
Film Screenings and Celebrities

You can watch the first six Star Wars films and follow Darth Vader, Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke and Leia along their epic journey.

Also showing will be episodes of the new Disney XD animated series, Star Wars Rebels.

On each of the special sailings, celebrities and insiders from the Star Wars galaxy will share their experiences, meet fans and sign autographs.
Star Wars Deck Party and Fireworks

There's intergalactic fun when the Star Wars deck party blasts off to an exciting evening filled with music, dancing and games.

Star Wars characters converge on the deck stage for a celebration of the Star Wars saga in a show featuring special effects and Guest participation.

The deck party culminates in a spectacular display of themed pyrotechnics, lighting, sound effects, lasers and Star Wars music.
Sail Dates:

Star Wars Day at Sea will be available only aboard the Disney Fantasy on select Western Caribbean sailings, January through April in 2016. Star Wars Day at Sea is available on:

January 9
January 23
February 6
February 20
March 5
March 19
April 2
April 16
The Star Wars Day at Sea is scheduled to be the 'At Sea' day following Grand Cayman.

[GeneChing]

There are even nerf swords (http://www.martialartsmart.com/weapons-soft-foam-weapons.html) being marketed by a major martial arts distributor now that are lightsaber-like (careful not to tread on any royalty-demanding copyrights). :rolleyes:


The force awakens in Springfield martial arts class (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/mar/11/the-force-awakens-in-springfield-martial-arts-clas/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS)
By GREGORY J. HOLMAN - Associated Press - Friday, March 11, 2016

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - In “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Luke Skywalker gave up on training new Jedi knights, but closer to home, Theron Sturgess is just getting started.

Sturgess told the Springfield News-Leader (http://sgfnow.co/1RBv6pd ) that he’s taught martial arts like jiu-jitsu and kenpo for 30 years, but his effort to teach Star Wars-style martial arts, Springfield Jedi Arts Academy, is “brand-spanking new.”

Academy sessions - including free monthly events for kids and families and paid sessions - are held at Dynamic Edge Martial Arts, where Sturgess is lead instructor.

The academy blends fitness, Star Wars movements like lightsaber fencing, with philosophy and meditation.

“It’s kind of growing faster than I’d even hoped for,” Sturgess said. About 80 people came to one of his first free events, he said. He’s taught kids as young as 5 or 6 years old up to adults in their 60s.

And despite old stereotypes of Star Wars fandom, the academy is not a boys’ club: Sturgess guesses about 40 percent of the latest round of attendees were girls and women.

He also does private lessons in Star Wars-style martial arts, with coaching much like that of a personal trainer at a gym, he said.

Friday afternoon, Sturgess coached Springfield resident Jamie Diamond in a private lesson. Diamond said she’d practiced a variety of martial arts before, but this was her first encounter with lightsaber basics and the three basic pillars of Jedi studies (which are, per Sturgess, the Force, knowledge and self-discipline).

There are also group “intensive” lessons. A two-hour Feb. 28 event, “Academy Force Focus Intensive,” cost $25 and included meditation, exercise, stretching, fundamental stances, strikes and blocks, fight choreography, stage combat punching and Jedi combat rolling.

If it sounds intense, Sturgess keeps it light during lessons. “What’s the biggest room in the world?” he asked Diamond during her session. “Room for improvement!”

He said his Jedi academy is really about connecting people with fitness and mindfulness.

“(Lightsaber training) is not quite as hard-core as some of the Olympic fencing, or the Japanese sport of kendo,” he said.

“This is for people nervous about trying actual martial arts or jumping into a fitness routine,” Sturgess said. “I like to say, they go from playing the video games to living the video games.”

Some of Sturgess’ students are using Jedi martial arts to work through obesity issues, he said, finding it a “legitimate form of exercise.”

Along with exercise and meditation, Sturgess said the “third tier” of Springfield Jedi Arts Academy is “community.” Participants have helped raise funds for National Public Radio and other causes, he said.

He hopes to develop a group of “core members” who will demonstrate and even teach Jedi arts. He’d like to put on tournaments.

“My personal time is limited,” he said. “But I hope to train the 10 Jedi that will train the hundred, and who knows, maybe the hundred that will train the thousand.”

The next hour-long Springfield Jedi Arts Academy free event is March 19; potential attendees need a doctor’s approval for physical training.

[GeneChing]

I crossed paths with the Light Saber Team (http://www.lightsaberteam.com/) at Silicon Valley Comic Con. I confess that I had to struggle to conceal a smirk when they described their light sabers as 'combat ready'.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/t31.0-8/12322879_10154127203169363_5839222702417194450_o.j pg

Saw a lot of cool light sabers tho...

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/t31.0-8/10636764_10154127208899363_2009395367543352165_o.j pg
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/t31.0-8/12593770_10154127223554363_747873653924244506_o.jp g

:cool:

[Cataphract]

boeder - Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. An elegant medium for a more civilized age.

[GeneChing]

'Star Wars' themed martial arts class is perfect for young Jedis (http://mashable.com/2016/04/19/star-wars-jedi-academy/#JlelP57Ce8qp)
BY DAVINA MERCHANT
1 day ago


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3hAY_tXIbA

Working out would probably be more fun if we could do it with lightsabers.

One martial arts instructor is now teaching kids how to be at one with the Force. Using a lightsaber to combine traditional sword techniques with the twirls and turns you see in the movie series, kids can now get into martial arts and become a Jedi, too.

The kids can also design their own costumes, allowing them to get the full experience from a Star Wars-inspired martial arts class.

I've heard the powers that be at Star Wars are now endeavoring to shut this sort of stuff down. :(

[GeneChing]

I was corresponding with Ben Judkins (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68867-The-Creation-of-Wing-Chun-by-Benjamin-N-Judkins-and-Jon-Nielson) on a different matter entirely, when this came up. Ben gave me permission to share it. :cool:


Is Lightsaber Combat a Martial Art? (Episode I) (https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2016/03/18/is-lightsaber-combat-a-martial-art-episode-i/)
POSTED BY BENJUDKINS ⋅ MARCH 18, 2016

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/golden-gate-knights-instructor-alain-block-right-leads-a-class-jeff-chiu-associated-press.jpg?w=650&h=418
A meeting of the Golden Gates Knights. Instructor Alain Block (right) leads a class. Source: Associated press, image by Jeff Chiu.
***This is the first half of two part article. However, readers may actually want to begin by reading my recent post What are “martial arts,” and why does knowing matter?***

“It [Ludosport] started in 2006 in Italy. A few friends got some lightsabers as gifts and being into martial arts and re-enactment fanatics they decided to see if there was a way they could make it into a sport, and they did. They spent hundreds of hours consulting many different martial artists and fencing coaches to make sure that they got a really good sport.

It’s not a martial art. We’re not trying to teach people how to cause physical harm, in fact that’s exactly the opposite of what we’re trying to do. We want something that’s fast and fun, that people can enjoy.”

Jordan Court, Instructor of the Ludosport England, Lighstaber Combat Academy in Bristol (UK) as quoted in the Bristol Post, January 29th 2015.

“[Flynn:] People laugh at us and say, “That’s not a real martial art!” I say, why don’t you pick one up and try.

[Damon Honeycutt:] They can say all they want…you know what I mean. But the fact is we are practicing and they are not.”

“Flynn” and Damon Honeycutt. Reclaiming the Blade, DVD2. Bonus Feature: New York Jedi. 2009. Min. 4:14.

Introduction: What are Martial Arts?

Is lightsaber combat a martial art? This seemingly odd question may have important implications for how we understand critical concepts within the field of martial arts studies. It also promises to shed light on the fundamental processes by which the traditional martial arts have been revived, reimagined and invented in the modern era.

As both a relatively new and radically interdisciplinary research area, martial arts studies is currently enjoying a period of rapid conceptual development. Nowhere is this more evident than in attempts to define the term ‘martial art.’ While it is in many ways synonymous with the field, only a minority of the foundational texts in our literature have attempted to define this concept or to explore it in ways that would point to new avenues for research. Nor has the existing literature coalesced around a single definition.

In a previous post we saw that researchers have adopted at least three discrete strategies when attempting to craft their understanding of this concept. The first, and most widely used, might be referred to as the “sociological strategy.” It simply accepts the social or cultural consensus on the question as it has arisen within a tightly focused research area.

Given that everyone in 21st century Japan simply “knows” that kendo, karate and aikido are martial arts, there may not be an urgent need to further explore the matter when discussing some aspect of Japanese martial studies. This is especially true as so many works currently being produced adopt an “area studies” approach which calls for a deep examination of the historical, social or even linguistic forces affecting developments in only a single region or state. It may seem beyond the bounds of a given research project to deeply explore what characteristics make both kendo and karate “martial arts” given their many historical differences. The existing consensus is simply accepted as a social fact.

Nevertheless, future theoretical development within martial arts studies requires a greater emphasis on comparative case studies. This research strategy often necessitates comparing practices that have arisen in very different times or places. For instance, what makes both capoeira and kendo martial arts, and how can both be understood in light of the economic, political and social changes that swept the globe in the 19th century? In cases such as this it is no longer possible to avoid definitional discussion. For better or worse, classification and categorization are at the heart of the comparative enterprise.

Towards this end scholars have attempted to define the martial arts in at least two different ways. First, they have advanced short “universal” definitions meant to identify those activities deemed to be “martial arts” within the broader category of all social practices. Further, most of these authors have attempted to advance relatively abstract definitions that can be applied to any society, time or place.

As we saw in our previous post, such efforts can be challenging. And while identifying “martial arts” in the abstract, most of these discussions provide no way of knowing where one style ends and the next begins. Are wing chun, weng chun and white crane three different styles, or simply three interpretations of the same regional fighting tradition? Scholars need a concept that can help us to address questions such as this.

A second group of authors have developed definitions that seek to classify the wide range of observed martial arts along different metrics. Some authors, such as Donn Draeger, sought to separate the truly “martial” from the “civilian” fighting systems. Unfortunately his system seems to be based on a now dated understanding of Japanese military history. And in any case, it is not always possible to draw a clean distinction between the military and civil realms.

Other students have looked at the specific goals motivating individuals to practice the martial arts. Perhaps the most common division in the literature is a three part typology separating the competitive combat sports, traditional arts (focused on self-development and health) and self-defense or combat arts. While this cuts to the heart of the ways in which the martial arts are often discussed in popular culture, this approach has trouble dealing with the huge amount of variation found within any single tradition. In China it is not that hard to find Wushu coaches who approach the Taiji forms as competitive sports, while some of their students will go on to teach similar forms as traditional health practices.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

Lastly, Sixt Wetzler has proposed that we move away from efforts to definitively place certain practices in one conceptual box or another. He argues that we should instead acknowledge that the martial arts owe much of their popularity to their fungiblity. The fact that a single set of practices can play many social roles in a student’s life gives them great practical utility. The social functions of a children’s afterschool Tae Kwon Do class might be very different from those pursued in the adult Saturday afternoon session of the very same school. It is precisely this multi- vocality that allows these hand combat systems to function as central organizing symbols in the lives of their practitioners.

Wetzler suggest that the best way to understand what a martial art is, and to compare various schools or approaches, is to examine their impact on five dimensions of social meaning. Briefly these are:

1. Preparation for violent conflict
2. Play and Competitive Sports
3. Performance
4. Transcendent Goals
5. Health Care

Unfortunately this is more of a framework for analysis than a traditional definition. And Wetzler freely admits that future researchers may find it necessary to add additional categories to his list.

Nor does his approach solve the problem of sociological relativism. The flexible nature of Wetzler’s concept opens the field up to a wide range of activities that not all researchers might be willing to accept as martial arts. For instance, would realistic combative movements learned from a video-game count as a “martial art” if their practitioner claimed them as such? What about the many apps currently on the market to help students learn taiji or wing chun? Is this simply a novel way of teaching an old art, or is it something very different? Do we simply accept as a martial art anything that claims to be one?

The problem of relativism can also be seen on the other end of the spectrum. Because the martial arts are often seen as somewhat “odd,” “eccentric” or “socially marginal” some individuals may try to evade the label all together. Students taking a “boxing essentials” or even kickboxing class at the local YMCA might claim not to be studying a martial art, even though any martial arts studies conference will include multiple papers on participation in amateur boxing and kickboxing activities.

It would seem that self-identification might be a poor metric to judge what activities qualify as a martial art, or how we as researchers should structure our case studies. Indeed, this has always been a potential weakness of the “sociological approach.” Lacking a universally agreed upon definition, how should we move forward?

This puzzle is a useful one in that it helps us to clarify our goals. When we ask “Is lightsaber combat a martial art?” we must be clear that this question does not intend to establish a value hierarchy in which the researcher draws on their expertise to offer a binding opinion on what does or does not qualify as an authentic combat system. Nor are we even asking whether a given activity is worthy of consideration in martial arts studies as a research area. After all, our interdisciplinary literature routinely tackles a variety of topics and sources (including novels, films, community festivals and public rituals) that are not the product of any specific training hall.

What this question really points to is the relationship between our object of study (in this case Lightsaber combat) and the theoretical toolkit that we have developed to explore these sorts of systems within martial arts studies. Put slightly differently, do we expect that our core concepts and theories will help us to make sense of lightsaber combat in the same way that they might be useful when thinking about the rise of judo or wing chun? And if they fail in this specific case (as theories often do), will the lessons learned improve our understanding of the traditional martial arts as well?

Within the social sciences progress rarely comes from theoretical development or empirical observation in isolation. It is the triangulation of approaches that is the most likely to lead to the development of a successful research program. Do all martial arts arise from authentic combat activities? Must they be historically grounded? Can an activity be a martial art even if its students and teacher do not claim it as such?

Ultimately these are all important questions as they help us to expand the borders of martial arts studies, and demonstrate the broader utility of our field. They are also the sorts of issues that deserve to be empirically examined rather than simply accepted or dismissed by definitional fiat.

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/lightsaber-darth-vader-concept-art.jpg?w=750&h=371
Concept art by Ralph McQuarrie showing an early version of the lightsaber.

Getting a Grip on the Lightsaber

Towards that ends, the current post investigates the case of lightsaber combat. Any attempt to define these practices as an authentic martial art will face a number of obvious objections. The typical lightsaber class usually introduces students to some combination of forms training, practical drills, competitive fencing and stage combat/choreography. The emphasis on each activity varies from school to school and depends in large part on the goals of the instructors.

Yet the lightsaber is not a historical, or even a real, weapon. The idea that one might be able to systematically study “lightsaber combat” is a relatively recent notion inspired by a successful film franchise. In that sense we are dealing with a “hyper-real” martial art. By this we mean that it is an “invented tradition” that everyone acknowledges is based on a fictional text rather than a more or less accurate transmission of some historical practice.

Lightsaber combat presents students of martial arts studies with a set of theoretical fighting systems coalescing around the image of a (wildly popular) fictional weapon. Nevertheless, many of the individuals working to develop lightsaber combat programs are traditional martial artists with extensive training in both Eastern and Western fighting arts. Their historically grounded skills are being married to the mythos and world view of the Star Wars franchise and then marketed to the public. Finally, the resulting synthesis is presented to new students in classroom environments that practitioners of the traditional martial arts would find very recognizable.

Nor is the practice of lightsaber combat limited to a few isolated individuals. The renewed popularity of the Star Wars franchise following first the release of the prequel films in the early 2000s (Episodes I-III), and the Force Awakens (Episode VII) in 2015, has given rise to a dramatic increase in demand for “practical” lightsaber training. With a number of additional films already in the works, we may be well positioned to watch the birth of a substantial new hyper-real martial movement. But are these systems true martial arts?

What does the answer to that question suggest about the various ways in which the older and more established systems can also be understood as “invented traditions?” Should this change anything about the way we view the relationship between media portrayals of violence and the creation (or practice) of actual combat systems? How will our understanding of the relationship between the martial arts and the historical forces of ethno-nationalism and culture need to be adjusted when we see individuals turning to hyper-real martial arts to pursue their need for self-development or transcendence?


continued next post

[GeneChing]

Using Wetzler’s five dimensions of social meaning I explore the various ways in which lightsaber combat functions as an authentic martial art for its practitioners. Some of these may be obvious, others will be less so. Ultimately this discussion suggests that a set of activities functions as a martial art not because of their historical authenticity or connection to “real-world” combat. Rather, the martial arts have always been defined primarily through their modes of social organization and the individual, group and systemic roles that they play. At heart they are social institutions rather than collections of isolated techniques. More specifically the modern martial arts are a social project by which individuals hope to secure multiple aspects of their personal and social destiny, and not simply their physical safety.

This should not be understood as a new development. We see this same pattern at the very moment of the genesis of the Asian martial arts. Japanese warriors did not need formal sword schools organized as ryu-ha to ply their trade or survive on the battlefield. They had succeeded in these tasks quite nicely for hundreds of years without them.

Rather, as Alexander C. Bennett has cogently argued, these social institutions were created as a means of demonstrating social sophistication and self-discipline when Bushi warriors found themselves transitioning to political roles in urban areas which brought them into direct contact with Japan’s highly cultured aristocracy. The original Japanese swords arts functioned just as much as a source of social legitimization as martial capital. These schools again saw massive growth under the later Tokugawa government, a period of protracted peace in which they once again served mostly social, cultural and economic functions.

While history is not unimportant (indeed, we will see that it is deeply implicated in the creation of even hyper-real martial arts) researchers may ultimately wish to pay more attention to how ideas and beliefs about the martial arts, as a social project, are created and transmitted from one generation to the next. Nor is this set of conclusions unique to the world of lightsaber combat. Instead the existence and rapid growth of hyper-real martial arts requires us to reevaluate what we think we know about the invention of the traditional martial arts more generally.


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Luke receiving his fathers lightsaber in Episode IV: A New Hope (1977). Its interesting to compare Luke’s lightsaber in this shot to the original concept art above.

Creating the Seven Classic Forms of Lightsaber Combat: A Very Brief History

While various 20th century science fiction stories had mentioned weapons like the lightsaber, the image of this now iconic weapon seared its way into the popular consciousness in 1977 with George Lucas release of his first Star Wars film (Episode IV: A New Hope). Luke Skywalker igniting his father’s arctic blue lightsaber (“an elegant weapon for a more civilized age”) in the presence of the mysterious Obi-Wan Kenobi became a symbol that defined the hopes and aspiration of an entire generation of film goes.

They too wished for an adventure that would allow them to take their first steps onto a broader stage. What better weapon for the knight-errants of the quickly dawning technological age than the lightsaber. It captured the romance and esoteric promises of our half-remembered, half-imagined, collective past, while pointedly reminding us that it was an “artifact” from the distant future. The symbolism of the lightsaber seamlessly combines a weapon of truly fearsome destructive potential with the promise of spiritual renewal. Once seen it is an image that is not easily forgotten.

The lightsaber’s strangely hypnotic blade has now gone on to colonize the imagination of multiple generations, spawning countless novels, comic books, video games, collectibles, sequels and most recently, entire combat systems. It goes without saying that in the absence of the Star Wars film franchise, and the immense marketing empire that surrounds and supports it, there would be no lightsaber combat training today. Our first conclusion must be that media generated images of lightsaber combat led directly to the creation of later combat systems, albeit with a somewhat puzzling delay.

I strongly suspect that the first fan-based “lightsaber duel” was probably performed with broom sticks the day after Lucas’ original vision was revealed to the public in 1977. Yet I have found very little evidence of organized attempts to institutionalize and spread specific ideas about what lightsaber combat might look like until the early 2000s. Systematized lightsaber fencing, as it currently exists, dates only to the middle of that decade.

This presents us with our first challenge. Given the immense popularity and huge cultural impact of the initial three movies, why did lightsaber combat organizations emerge only in the 2000s? More specifically, what was their relationship to the less popular, and critically reviled, prequel trilogy chronicling the Clone Wars and the rise of Darth Vader?

The answer to both of these questions can be found in the complex mix of materiality and mythos that lies as the heart of the Star Wars enterprise, as well as the efforts to market its merchandise to the public. After all, what is more powerful than a myth whose relics can be held in one’s own hands…for a price. continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/ultrasabersdisplay-at-2012-phoenix-comicon-gage-skidmore.jpg?w=750&h=500
The Ultrasabers display at the 2012 Phoenix Comicon. Ultrasabers is one of the largest manufactures of stunt sabers intended for use is lightsaber combat. Source: Wikimedia

It is a proven fact that if you put replica lightsabers in the hands of any two normal adults, they will immediately try to beat each other about the head with them. The impulse to attempt to use a replica lightsaber seems to be an inescapable part of human nature. This actually makes replica and “stunt lightsabers” (simple sabers without elaborate sound effects created by third party vendors for the express purpose of dueling) somewhat dangerous. On the one hand their metal hilts and heavy, glowing, polycarbonate blades provide the same sort of psychological gratification that comes from handling any other sort of weapon.

At the same time, the fact that we all know that these replicas are “not real” can lead to problems. While not actually filled with jets of hot plasma, the purely kinetic energy that a rigid 1 inch polycarbonate blade can deliver is roughly equivalent to any wooden stick of similar length. It is certainly enough to cause pain or injury if full contact dueling is attempted without some basic safety equipment. In short, corporate liability issues may have initially limited the creation of licensed replicas of these iconic weapons. The fact that large costuming groups, such as the 501st Legion and Jedi Council, have a no combat/choreography policy would also have diminished the demand for more durable prop replicas.

There would have been technical issues to consider as well. Most sabers today utilize LED technology to “ignite” their blades. These can withstand more forceful blows than delicate incandescent bulbs and they do not burn out. Integrated circuit boards with motion detectors can also be added to provide sound effects or special lighting effects. By the early 2000s the technology to mass produce convincing replica lightsabers became cheap enough to make the project economically viable while at the same time a new generation of (now adult) fans was in place to spend hundreds of dollars on each new model.

I hypothesize that it was the appearance of relatively high quality replica (and later stunt) sabers which sparked the sudden boom of interest in practical lightsaber combat. These marketing efforts were also supported by the expansion of other aspects of the Star Wars universe. In October of 2002 Dr. David West Reynolds (the holder of a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Michigan who went on to write multiple Star Wars reference books) published an article in Star Wars Insider (#62) titled “Fightsaber: Jedi Lightsaber Combat.”

While the movies themselves say almost nothing about the details of lightsaber training, Reynolds, drawing on his academic background, wrote an essay outlining the “Seven Forms” of lightsaber combat as taught within the Jedi Order. He provided each numbered form with a short description outlining its philosophy as well as its strengths and weaknesses. Later resources augmented these with exotic sounding names (such as “Shii-cho” or Form I), associated them with mythic creatures from the Star Wars universe in ways that seem to intentionally mimic the use of animal imagery in the Asian martial arts (Shii-cho is “The Way of the Sarlacc”). They also concocted increasingly complex backstories. While Reynolds is an archaeologist rather than a martial artist, he set in motion a story-development arch which created a rich body of invented lore around the seven forms, giving them an alluring feel of verisimilitude.

By the early 2000s Star Wars fans had been given access to both a steady supply of replica lightsabers, a new trilogy of films which featured many iconic lightsaber battles, and an increasingly complex system of invented traditions explicitly designed to create a history for lightsaber usage that would feel “realistic.” While the Star Wars franchise has always emphasized the role of merchandise, the situation for would be Jedi and Sith acolytes was more favorable in the 2000s than it was in the 1980s.

The next major step forward took place in 2005. Inspired by some short fan-films in which lightsabers had been digitally recreated, “Flynn” a founding member of the group NY Jedi, bought two Master Replicas lightsabers, took them to the roof of his New City apartment building at night, and began to duel with a friend.

The resulting enthusiasm on the part of his neighbors was great enough that he then decided to bring a larger group of sabers to the 2005 Greenwich Village Halloween parade where their demonstration was again met with great enthusiasm and numerous inquiries as to where one could go to learn to fight with a “real” lightsaber. The group NY Jedi was formed shortly thereafter, and has offered weekly lessons taught be a variety of martial artists, choreographers and stage combat coaches.

The simultaneous worldwide dissemination of the newly created mythos and marketing of replica sabers makes it difficult to reconstruct a single linear history of lightsaber combat. NY Jedi raised the profile of the practice and inspired the creation of a number of other similar groups all along the East Coast of the United States. Some of them emphasized costuming and performance, others attempted to focus on the creation of a “pure” martial art.

Only a few months later three friends in Italy (all trained martial artists) brought a bunch of replica lightsabers to a birthday party. They were impressed with the technical flexibility that this new training weapon allowed. Almost immediately they started to develop their own martial system (Ludosport) based on the physical characteristics of replica lightsabers as well as elements of the Star Wars mythos.

Most lightsaber groups seem to combine multiple elements in their training. While NY Jedi mixes traditional martial arts training with a heavy emphasis on stage combat and performance, Ludosport instead emphasizes the development of lightsaber fencing as a type of competitive combat sport. They have since opened branch schools across Europe and organized a system of international tournaments and rankings.

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A match at the Combat Saber Tournament held in Singapore at Liang Court, on 20 Nov 2015. Source: http://www.thesaberauthority.com

One of the most interesting things about the recent spread of lightsaber combat has been its diverse and global nature. Clubs and schools dedicated to promoting the practice have been opened in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Indeed, much of the early development of the art was taking place nearly simultaneously in the United States, Italy and South East Asia (where such groups have proved to be popular in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.)

These organizations approach lightsaber training with a variety of goals and methods. They also have a variety of opinions on whether or not what they do can be considered a martial art.

As the introductory quote suggests, Ludosport appears to have distanced themselves from the claim that lightsaber fencing might be considered a “martial art.” In their vernacular terminology, an activity only qualifies as a martial art if it is aggressive in nature and focused on causing harm. Thus for their own marketing purposes they seem to have decided to emphasize the athletic and competitive aspects of their practice.

Other groups, such as the Terra Prime Lightsaber Academy, have instead emphasized the degree to which lightsaber fencing is, and should be thought of, as a martial art. After all, the fight choreography that influenced the development of the Star Wars films was highly influenced by a variety of traditional martial arts including kendo, kali and historic European practices such as longsword fencing.

Many of the instructors teaching lightsaber combat today also bring their own background in the martial arts to the table. For them the challenge is to find a ways to recreate the “Seven Forms” of lightsaber combat outlined in the Star Wars mythology using historic techniques, concepts and strategies. Drawing on their individual training, and the unique physical properties of commercially available stunt lightsabers, they have attempted to “recreate” effective and historically grounded systems of lightsaber combat which are still true to the texture of the movies and the Star Wars mythology. All of this has then been packaged in a way that it can be taught to succeeding generations of students in something that very much resembles a standard classroom environment. Some instructors even see in lightsaber combat a possible tool for promoting, preserving and disseminating traditional types of martial knowledge.

If you enjoyed this discussion be sure to read the second half: Five Social Dimensions of Lightsaber Combat as a Martial Art (Episode II)

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/choreographed-reenactment-for-the-final-duel-in-episode-iii-jenny-elwick.jpg?w=750
A choreographed reenactment of the final duel in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Public performances like these have helped to popularize lightsaber combat. Photo by Jenny Elwick. Source: Wikimedia.


But wait...there's more!

[GeneChing]

Five Social Dimensions of Lightsaber Combat as a Martial Art (Episode II) (https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2016/03/21/five-social-dimensions-of-lightsaber-combat-as-a-martial-art-episode-ii/)
POSTED BY BENJUDKINS ⋅ MARCH 21, 2016

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/lightsaber-schematic-diagram.jpg?w=750&h=532

***This is the second half of our exploration of lightsaber combat as a martial art. Reader who have not yet read Part I are strongly encouraged to do so before going on. In the last essay we considering some of the basic strategies that scholars have adopted in defining the “martial arts.” Following that discussion we briefly reviewed the emergence of the current lightsaber combat community. In this post we attempt to test Wetzler’s theory of the “five dimensions of social meaning” as a strategy for understanding the martial arts by using it to explore various aspects of lightsaber fencing. Enjoy!***

Five Social Dimensions of Lightsaber Combat

While it helps to ground our discussion, the preceding historical exploration does little to resolve the theoretical question of whether we should consider lightsaber combat to be an authentic martial art. At best we are thrown back on the statements of various practitioners. Some look to their own backgrounds and goals to assert that they are in the process of developing and teaching a martial art. In their view the media driven origins of these practices should have no bearing on our classification of the resulting institutions. What is important is the nature of the techniques used and taught.

Other individuals, even those deeply involved in the lightsaber community, are not so sure. Some see “combat sports” and “martial arts” as mutually exclusive categories. And given the degree of cultural discomfort that still follows the traditional martial arts, a few groups may have decided that it is economically more feasible to market lightsaber combat as a sporting, fitness or recreational activity.

Nor would it be difficult to find practitioners of more traditional sword arts who might claim that lightsaber fencing simply cannot be a martial art at all. So many of the small details that are critical in traditional forms training or cutting practice (e.g., edge control) simply disappear when we begin to discuss fictional all cutting plasma blades. For them the potent symbolism of a futuristic sword cannot displace the historically grounded reality of the blade.

This sort of indeterminacy has always dogged both the sociological and universal strategies for defining the martial arts. The current essay seeks to move beyond this impasse by empirically examining the practice of lightsaber combat in light of Wetzler’s theory of the “five dimensions of social meaning.” This will provide us with an appropriate baseline from which to explore whether the fictional origins of lightsaber combat alters the sorts of social roles that it plays in the lives of its students. It should also suggest something about the utility of the existing martial arts studies literature in making sense of these practices. As such we will briefly consider how lightsaber combat ranks on each of these five dimensions.

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/star-wars-concept-art-storm-trooper-light-saber-ralph-mcquarrie.png?w=750&h=424
Early concept art by Ralph McQuarrie showing a Storm Trooper holding a lightsaber. In the Star Wars mythos a hero may well have to rely on the lightsaber as a means of self-defense.

Preparation for violent conflict: When interviewed, new students of the martial arts often claim that they have been inspired to join a school by a need for self-defense training. Indeed, there has always been a strong linkage between (some) martial arts and the perceived need to prepare oneself for the reality of violent conflict. Yet at the same time students of martial studies have noted that many of the sorts of techniques that are commonly used in these systems lack an element of “realism.”

Students of Japanese military history have noted that high-school kendo training did a poor job of preparing Japanese military officers to actually use their swords in the field during WWII. Practitioners of the Mixed Martial Arts often complain about the lack of “realism” in more traditional styles. Yet weapons are a sadly common element of actual criminal assaults and they are banned from the octagon. Indeed, one cannot escape the conclusion that the ways in which the martial arts attempt to prepare their students for the future cannot simply by reduced to “violence simulators” of greater or lesser degrees of accuracy. Equally important has been the building of physical strength, mental toughness and a tactical tool kit in environments that are quite different from what might be encountered in an actual attack.

Lightsaber combat also has a complex relationship with Wetzler’s first dimension of social meaning. The chance of an individual being called upon to defend themselves from an actual lightsaber attack today is only slightly less than the probability that they will encounter a villain wielding a traditional Chinese three meter long spear in a dark alley. Which is to say, few people take up traditional weapons training (such as swords, spears or bows) because of their great utility “on the street.”

Yet in a kendo class one will be called upon to defend against a mock (but still very spirited) sword attack. Likewise, in a modern lightsaber duel fencers will be called upon to defend themselves against a determined attacker who has been systematically trained in a variety of techniques. A failure to do so (especially if proper safety measures are not observed) might result in injury. In that sense lightsaber students are preparing themselves for combative encounters. All of this also contributes to the creation of a degree of physical and mental resilience.

Many forms of traditional weapons training have become functionally obsolete in the current era. Spears, swords and bows are no longer encountered on the battlefield and they play a limited role in any discussion of self-defense. While lightsabers can be placed further along the continuum of abstraction, these are fundamentally differences of degree rather than kind.

https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2016/03/21/five-social-dimensions-of-lightsaber-combat-as-a-martial-art-episode-ii/sportlight_saber_league/
A Sportlight Saber League Tournament held in Paris, France. Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

Play and Competitive Sports: There can be no doubt that for most students the fundamental appeal of lightsaber combat is to be found in its recreational value. Indeed, the central mythos and symbolism of the exercise derives from the realm of film and commercial entertainment. Of course in the current era what most of us know about past military battles and personal duels is also heavily mediated by media representations rather than firsthand experience.

Even in Hong Kong in the 1950s-1970s, a supposed golden age of traditional martial arts practice, wuxia novels and martial arts films were the medium by which most individuals were introduced to, and developed an interest in, the martial arts. While not as frequently discussed, the traditional martial arts have always been closely tied to the worlds of physical recreation and story-telling.

The very nature of lightsaber fencing has also contributed to the development of a strong sporting impulse. Whether in the form of Olympic fencing or Japanese kendo, in the current era the sword arts have come to be seen largely as combat sports. Students of lightsaber fencing will approach their new practice with an already well established set of ideas about what a “proper” match will look like. Inevitably this includes safety equipment (eye protection, fencing masks, armored gloves, other protective gear), one or more judges to call points, a transparent scoring system and a limited number of timed rounds. All of these practices come from previous innovations in other arts, but they are immediately available to lightsaber fencers. The end result is that for many students lightsaber combat is primarily thought of as a faced paced, highly enjoyable, combat sport.

As I have interviewed various instructors in the field, some have pointed to these sorts of matches as sites for “technical research.” A few have asserted that the traditional martial arts might benefit from a “neutral” platform where students of western, Chinese, Japanese or South East Asian systems can come together to compare techniques with those whose training is different from their own. The physical simplicity of a stunt saber (which is essentially a smooth polycarbonate tube), and the ease with which it can be used by a variety of styles, has even led to some discussion of whether lightsaber combat might develop as a type of “mixed martial art” for swords (albeit one with a very different world view). While this possibility is not what attracts most new students to their local lightsaber combat group, it is certainly a possibility that is being considered by key teachers and promoters of the practice.
continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/the-force-is-strong-with-this-one-darth-vader-youtube.jpg?w=750&h=422
The Force is strong with this one. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKELWe6dACA

Performance: The anthropologist D. S. Farrer has argued at length that every martial system contains both a practical and performative aspect. Further, these two elements cannot easily be separated. While all sorts of practitioners may find that they have an economic or a social motive to promote their practice as a “pure fighting art” (or alternatively, and probably more lucratively, as “pure combat choreography”) this is usually far from the truth. Developments in the practical realm tend to drive new innovations in the “realistic” portray of the martial arts on stage, and the public discussion of these recreational images has inspired new thoughts about the more practical aspects of violence.

For example, throughout Asian history, archery did double duty as a cornerstone of public ritual as well as a critical military skill. Even the periodic military exams held by the Chinese government in the late imperial period tended to draw a large crowd and functioned as public spectacles as much as a rational mechanism for choosing the best military recruits (well into the age of the gun). Nor can we forget about the important social place of practices like “wedding silat,” dance like capoeira matches or the public performance of traditional martial arts styles on the stage of southern China’s Cantonese opera. All of this has a long and established history within the cultural realm of the martial arts.

Still, the relationship between the practical and the performative aspects of the martial arts is one of the most vexing aspects of these systems for current scholars. The development of lightsaber combat has the potential to contribute much to this aspect of the martial studies literature.

When looking at the variety of lightsaber combat groups, some individuals may be tempted to separate them into two categories. On the one hand we have those doing “real” martial arts, such as Ludosport, Saber Legion or the Terra Prime Lightsaber Academy. They focus almost exclusively on the practice of historically derived techniques and competition. On the other hand we have a number of schools, such as NY Jedi, whose main activities seem to be the staging of elaborate public spectacles through choreographed duels and storytelling.

Yet none of these groups function in pristine isolation. As a result innovations in one area tend to impact the others. While NY Jedi is known for its stage combat and public choreography, a number of its members are also martial artists. One such individual is Damon Honeycutt. A practitioner of the Chinese martial arts, he developed a basic lightsaber training form (or kata) called “Shii-cho” (based on Japanese and Chinese saber techniques) which has gone on to become perhaps the most widely distributed training tool within the lightsaber community. It is widely practiced by both theatrical and martially oriented groups and both seem to find it quite useful.

Nor is there always a clear division between the sorts of individuals who will be attracted to more “traditional” martial training and those who might find themselves making and posting fan-films on the internet. Rather than having two distinct sets of individuals, often what we see are related practices used to fulfill multiple sets of social goals by the same individuals. While on the surface this might appear paradoxical, it has always been part of the appeal of the traditional Asian martial arts. Current developments within the lightsaber combat community are useful precisely because they serve to illustrate the arguments of scholars such as Farrer and Wetzler.

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/luke-skywalker-meditation-frank-stockton.jpg?w=750
Luke Skywalker meditating on the assembly of his new lightsaber. Image by Frank Stockton. Source: rebloggy.

Transcendent Goals: Even if lightsaber combat succeeds as a fast paced combat sport, or as a channel for martial performance, what psychological or spiritual value could it have? In the current era many individuals turn to the traditional (usually Asian) martial arts precisely because they see in them a font of ancient wisdom. For the less esoterically inclined, the physical and mental discipline of the martial arts has also been seen as a way to “develop character.”

While many actual martial arts instructors go out of their way to avoid discuss their practice in these terms, the idea that the martial arts should be a pathway to some sort of “transcendent attainment” seems firmly fixed in the popular imagination. It is one of the promises that draws students, in both the East and the West, to these practices. Much of the commercial success of the traditional martial arts appears to be rooted in a near mystical faith in their ability to promote balanced development in both children and adolescents. One wonders how much of this belief we can attribute to Luke Skywalker’s very public journey to adulthood aided by the dual disciplines of the Force and the lightsaber training during the 1970s and 1980s.

Can lightsaber students find transcendent values in a practice grounded in what they know to be a set of fictional texts? The fact that we now have a literature on the existence of hyper-real religions (systems of religious belief based on fictional texts such as Star War or the Matrix) strongly suggests that the answer is, “yes.” The underlying values that students can detect in a story or practice are more important for many people than its connection to an authentic ancient history.

My own, very preliminary, ethnographic research with a lightsaber combat group in a mid-sized city in New York State has revealed a surprising degree of dedication on the part of many of the students. The often repeated mantra that it is all “just for fun” notwithstanding, it is clear that many students are approaching lightsaber combat as a key organizing symbol in their lives. The weapons may be fictional, but the feelings that are invoked through practice are clearly authentic and deeply felt. Nor are the sorts of mentoring relationships that students seek from their instructor any different from what one might find in a traditional martial arts institution.

Given the resources being dedicated to lightsaber combat, it should come as no surprise that students so often see their norms and beliefs (or perhaps those that they aspire to hold) reflected in these practices. The Jedi and Sith themselves are readymade symbols ripe for spiritual or psychological appropriation.

When addressing a related point in an interview Damon Honeycutt of NY Jedi said:

“You can bring about things in a subculture; you can create change through that. You can elevate consciousness through it. That is what I would like to see it do, really bring people to a heightened potential of what they really are. To be a lens for that, outside of comicons or conventions or competitions or forms or fighting or sparring or whatever people think that they are doing with it. That really would be the greatest thing.

With NY Jedi we are making ourselves better people to serve humanity, you know, the same thing that I do with the Kung Fu school. In a lot of ways they are the same. Its just that the myth behind it is different. The lineage behind it is different. The world view is different. But the overall goal is the same.” Damon Honeycutt. Reclaiming the Blade, DVD2. Bonus Feature: New York Jedi. 2009. Min. 11:01-11:46.

This description matches my own preliminary observations. Future research might fruitfully focus on the underlying social changes that have opened a space for hyper-real martial arts to play these roles at this particular moment in social history. continued next post

[GeneChing]

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/barriss_medstar2-jedi-healer.jpg?w=471&h=554
A Jedi healing a wounded storm trooper through her manipulation of the Force. Current discussions of health in relation to lightsaber combat seem to be more focused on mundane factors such as regular exercise. Still, there is a strong mythic association between the Jedi and accelerated healing. Source: starwars.wikia

Healthcare: As we have already seen, a number of factors separate the martial arts from simple collections of combat techniques. One of them is the multiplicity of social roles that these systems are expected to play in the lives of their practitioners. In the current era individuals often turn to the martial arts to defend not just their physical safety but their personal health.

Many martial arts studios offer basic fitness and conditioning classes. Weight loss is a frequently advertised benefit of all kinds of martial arts training. And every month a new set of articles is published about the medical benefits of taijiquan for senior citizens in both the Western and Chinese press.

This may seem like yet another example of the commercial appropriation of the martial art. Fitness is a multi-billion dollar industry and the average individual is constantly subjected to powerful media discourses extolling the benefits of athleticism. Is it any wonder that all sorts of martial arts teachers attempt to link their practices to the culturally dominant athletic paradigm?

In light of this it may be necessary to remind ourselves that the links between the practice of the martial arts and health promotion are actually quite old. Meir Shahar has demonstrated that by the end of the Ming dynasty unarmed boxing training was gaining popularity around China partially because of the unique synthesis of self-defense and health promoting practices which it offered.

While less pronounced than some of the other dimension of social meaning, it is clear that lightsaber combat is viewed as an avenue for promoting physical health by some of its students. In this case the emphasis is less on esoteric practices and Daoist medical ideas than western notions of physical fitness and exercise. Many of the students that I have spoken with mentioned the need to “get in shape” and “stay active” as primary motivations for taking up lightsaber combat.

A quick review of news stories in the popular press indicates that a number of lightsaber groups have been created throughout the English speaking world in recent years. While most of these are run by individuals coming out of the traditional martial arts, others are being started by Yoga teachers. Their emphasis is usually focused on the health and fitness benefits of lightsaber training rather than it’s more competitive or combative aspects.

Yet fitness also plays a role in the ways that lightsaber combat is discussed by more traditional martial arts instructors. More than one has noted that these classes attract individuals who might otherwise have no interest in setting foot in a martial arts school or gym. Lightsaber combat gives such students a means to stay active and an incentive to get in shape.

For some students lightsaber combat also sparks an interest in other martial arts. Indeed, one suspects that this is exactly why so many traditional martial artists are currently opening classes dedicated to the subject. They have the potential to expand the appeal of the martial arts to groups of consumers who might not otherwise have ever been attracted to them.

The health benefits of any martial art depend in large part on how it is introduced to students and subsequently practiced. The same is certainly true for lightsaber combat. Once again, when comparing this practice to historically grounded martial arts what we find are differences in degree rather than kind.

https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/lightsabers-and-globes.jpeg?w=750
Stunt sabers and helmets at a Paris lightsaber tournament. Photo by Charles Platiau. Source: http://avax.news
continued next post

[GeneChing]

Conclusion: Lightsaber Combat as a Martial Art

Is lightsaber combat a martial art? The answer is almost certainly yes. At its core are a group of combative and performance techniques, almost all of which have been gathered from previously existing martial traditions. These have been developed into pedagogical systems capable of transmitting not only physical practices but also elaborate pseudo-histories, invented identities and a mythic world view that seem to be a no less potent for their fictional origin. All of this provides students with a variety of tools to craft social and personal meaning in their lives.

An examination of Wetzler’s “five dimensions of social meaning” suggests that in its current incarnation students of lightsaber combat understand their practice in much the same way that traditional martial artists approach their training in the West today. More importantly, both set of activities play broadly similar roles in the lives of students, and respond to the same social forces in basically similar ways. As such we have no a priori reason to believe that the theories developed within martial arts studies cannot also be applied to the investigation of hyper-real combat systems.

More importantly, our brief investigation of lightsaber combat may suggest a few ways to improve our understanding of the social meaning of these systems. Martial artists are often reluctant to discuss the economic consequences of their practice. On the one hand many individuals make a living teaching these systems, and students sacrifice notable resources (in capital, time and opportunity cost) to practice them.

In the current era the distribution of martial knowledge is closely tied to economic markets. Yet openly discussing this fact seems like a violation of an unspoken norm. Among practitioners there is a strong presumption that the martial arts “cannot be bought or sold;” that the attainment of excellence transcends such “base” considerations. Given that many academic students of martial arts studies are also practitioners of these same systems, such attitudes can easily shape our own research as well.

The rapid growth of lightsaber combat over the last decade is interesting for a number of reasons. One of the most important is what it suggests about the power of economic markets to shape the development of martial arts systems and the ways that consumers encounter and experience them. At the most basic level there would be no lightsaber combat without the production of successive generations of Star Wars films and massively expensive campaigns to market them to the public. More specifically, the exact timing of the boom of interest in lightsaber combat owes much to the creation (and marketing) of high quality replica and stunt lightsabers in the early 2000s.

Economic variables can be seen to play important roles in other places as well. The major manufacturers of stunt sabers host message boards and social media groups that play an important part in creating a sense of community. Individual teachers have turned to lightsaber fencing as a means of spreading the message of the martial arts beyond the horizons of the normal reachable market. And it is sometimes surprising to see how much money individual students are willing to pay for a personally meaningful replica lightsaber or for the opportunity to attend a seminar with a specific instructor or group. It is even interesting to think about why different lightsaber organizations adopt the various economic models that they have.

None of this is all that different from what we see in the world of the more traditional martial arts. The ability to offer instruction can become an important source of personal income. The sudden appearance of a popular new action film can lift a little known fighting system out of obscurity. And economic markets strongly condition how the martial arts can be taught, and who they can potentially reach, at any given point in history.

While these sorts of considerations receive little attention in many of our studies, they simply cannot be avoided when thinking about the nature and recent origin of lightsaber combat. As such we should consider adding a sixth category to Wetzler’s discussion of social meaning within the martial arts. Economic markets are a means by which scarce resources are distributed within society. The martial arts have often served similar functions through their attempts to control community violence, support new status hierarchies and even create social capital. We should not be surprised to see powerful synergies emerging through the interactions of these systems. In fact, no student or teacher can approach the martial arts in the current era without taking their economic aspect into careful consideration. This suggests that students of martial arts studies should also be more mindful of this dimension of social meaning.

Critics of the time and energy being devoted to the development of lightsaber combat may voice a number of complaints. Stunt lightsabers, despite their seeming versatility, are essentially cylindrical sticks rather than copies of true blades. And given the unique mythology of this weapon, there is no incentive to imagine it as a metal sword for the purposes of practice and training. As such lightsaber combat is bound to depart from historically derived techniques in important ways. Ultimately an hour invested in the investigation of German longsword fencing, or even kendo, would probably grant a better understanding of real military history than an equal amount of practice with a lightsaber.

Though it may be possible to find key norms within the practice of lightsaber fencing, or while the rich symbolism of the Force and the Jedi may point some students towards transcendent themes, the development of these ideas within the Star Wars universe is still shallow compared to the depth of lived religious experience that can be found within real Buddhist, Daoist or Christian monastic communities. Again, why invest scarce resources in a second order reflection of reality when the real thing is almost immediately available?

These are valid concerns. And ultimately most martial artists will not be interested in lightsaber combat. Then again, most martial artists also have little interest in kendo, wing chun or any other specific style. Many of these objections also revolve around questions of taste rather than objective conceptual categories. Why practice that style when “everyone knows” that mine is superior?

The very fact that lightsaber combat can so easily be drawn into this all too familiar mode of debate is yet another indication that it is seen as residing within the set of practices which we call “martial arts.” Yet as Wetzler reminded us in his discussion, when it comes to definitions, scholars must rely on more objective measures. Ultimately the student of martial arts studies cannot become merely a critic of good taste in martial arts practice (Wetzler, 23-25).

Instead we should ask why, when so much information about many historical styles is readily available, these specific individuals are choosing to study a hyper-real martial art? Why are seekers suddenly more open to finding transcendent meaning in a fictional story than in actual organized religions which espouse many of the same values and views? Lastly, how have consumers appropriated the products of a vast commercial entertainment empire to create independent social groups that better allow them to exercise their agency in creating more empowered identities?

None of these puzzles are unique to lightsaber combat. In realty we could ask a very similar set of questions of most of the traditional martial arts that are practiced in the world today. Nothing simply arises from the past tabula rasa. We seek to understand the invention of the martial arts because every hand combat system must find a place for itself in the social system of its day if it wishes to survive. Their many solutions to this dilemma reveal critical data about the nature of social struggles.

All arts, even the most historically grounded, are caught in a continual cycle of renewal and reinvention. The study of practices such as lightsaber combat is valuable precisely because it forces us to focus on the details of how that process unfolds within specific communities. Yet to be fully realized, we must first understand that hyper-real combat practices can be authentic martial arts.

Ben (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68867-The-Creation-of-Wing-Chun-by-Benjamin-N-Judkins-and-Jon-Nielson) wrote another piece (https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2016/04/22/star-wars-an-american-martial-arts-film-franchise/) that's more of an overview, but just go to his site if you're interested.

[GeneChing]

There's a vid behind the link


Students Use "The Force" in Out-of-this-World Martial Arts Class (http://www.twcnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2016/05/7/star-wars-martial-arts-class.html)
By Gabrielle Lucivero
Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 07:32 PM EDT

Themed workouts are gaining popularity across the country. More and more gyms are tapping into pop culture for a different spin on standard workouts. Here in Syracuse, our Gabrielle Lucivero takes us to a martial arts studio that is hoping to use "the force" to get people up and moving.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Gathering of Sabers didn't start in a galaxy far, far away.

"It was just kind of me being that Star Wars nerd that just really likes lightsabers, and of course I never hide it so our students and friends revealed that they were Star Wars nerds too. It just kind of happened," said aid Syracuse Martial Arts Academy Head Instructor, Anthony Iglesias.

Iglesias took his love of Star Wars and turned it into a special themed class at the Syracuse Martial Arts Academy. Now they're hosting Central New York's first ever lightsaber dueling tournament.

"We have a person coming all the way from New York City just to be here. He's like, lightsaber dueling tournament, I'm there,” Iglesias said.

"I have a twin brother, we've be sparring ever since we were six years old and just to be able to go to a place where we can learn, and not like kendo or fencing where it's just, it's lightsabers,” said Gathering of the Sabers participant Devon Kelley.

They mix in tradition martial arts with dueling skills and fight choreography and it's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of hard work too.

"The exercise part of it comes in and they don't even realize that they've been moving around for an hour,” said Iglesias. “When I start my class we are nonstop moving from the minute the class starts. That's an hour of them moving around."

Iglesias said martial arts and lightsabers go hand in hand. When Mark Hamill played Luke Skywalker, he was trained in the art of Kendo.

"Human movement will be the same in multiple things,” Iglesias said. “So whether it's martial arts or football or baseball or lightsabers, you're going to see movements in martial arts that you see in those things."

Whether you're a Jedi or a Sith, you're sure to have a lot of fun.

The hope is to have another tournament in August, but the Gathering of Sabers class meets every Saturday at the Syracuse Martial Arts Academy in Shoppingtown Mall. They said everyone is welcome and you can find out more by visiting their Facebook.


Watch for our JUL+AUG 2016 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69484-July-August-2016) issue. That's a payout for this thread. ;)

[GeneChing]

You've all read our current cover story, right? In Ray Park: The Force of Wushu (JUL+AUG 2016 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=1296) by me) Ray talks about Jedi Academies.



Martial arts camp to provide Jedi training (http://villagenews.com/sports/martial-arts-camp-provide-jedi-training/)
By Newsroom on June 19, 2016

http://villagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06-16-16-sports-Martial-arts-camp-to-provide-Jedi-training-cp.jpg
Light saber tricks will be part of the Jedi training at ATA Success Martial Arts’ summer camp.

FALLBROOK – ATA Success Martial Arts will present Star Wars Jedi Training Summer Camp from July 11 to 15 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Children ages 3 to 12 will have the opportunity to learn their favorite Jedi flips, kicks, and light saber tricks.

The kids will be provided with a fun and safe environment to learn martial arts and gymnastic techniques with a Star Wars twist. Camp will be held at the Fallbrook studio location, 205 N. Main Ave.

Registration includes 20 hours of high energy camp, a camp t-shirt, light saber, and snacks. Parents are encourage to register early as space is limited and this camp will fill up.

Registration and cost information are available online at www.ATASuccessMA.com.

[GeneChing]

More on Ben Judkins here. (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1259)


Does Lightsaber Combat Qualify as Martial Arts? (https://www.inverse.com/article/19985-lightsaber-combat-martial-art-benjamin-n-judkins-star-wars)
Inquiring Jedis want to know
Megan Logan August 19, 2016 Star Wars

https://fsmedia.imgix.net/01/2c/23/11/e2ea/4127/bfe6/bb199891aad6/2289812955973b7e9921ojpg.jpeg?rect=1572,0,1944,259 2&w=375&dpr=2&auto=format,compress,enhance&q=75

Dr. Benjamin N. Judkins has a very unique field of study: Lightsaber combat through the lens of martial arts. Specifically, Dr. Judkins examines the way that the Star Wars-inspired technique fits into the larger martial arts community and the pop culture paradigm that surrounds martial arts.

Inverse spoke with Judkins to learn more about his research, what might be the first martial art derived from and inspired by a fictional universe we all know and love.

Is lightsaber combat a martial art?

It depends on what you mean by “martial art.” As a somewhat contested term, we’re still working out our definitions. When you talk to actual martial artists, there isn’t a lot of agreement among them as to what constitutes a martial art.

But lightsaber combat itself can be a lot of things. Some people look at it and they treat it as a type of cosplay. Some people are very much into theatrical performance. But there are other lightsaber groups that are working quite hard at taking techniques from traditional martial arts and adapting them to the use of stunt sabers and then creating pretty rigorous martial art systems around that. I think you’d have to look what a group like Ludosport is doing and say, ‘Yeah, that’s as much a martial art as anything you’ll find out there right now.’


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWO49R-F1yQ

What makes something a martial art?

You want something that is “martial” in character, that was either derived from or is meant for fighting. And the “art” part really means that it’s social, that it’s not just an individual off by themselves. This is something that is meant to be passed on generationally from a group of teachers to a group of students.

So in that very simple definition, you look at lightsaber combat and what we have is clearly social. In terms of fighting, the issue that we have is that, of course, the weapon is not real. So can you have a martial art with a weapon that is not real? I call it a “hyperreal martial art” that everyone acknowledges is based on a fictional setting.

But a one-inch polycarbonate heavy-grade blade is heavy. That thing hurts when you get whacked with it, so you certainly have an incentive in sparring to act as though it’s real. You don’t want to get hit with it.

A 36-inch heavy polycarbonate blade can smack with a lot of force. When you actually start to spar, when you start to compete with them, you really need to be aware of what the rules of engagement are in a given situation, and you need to understand that there’s going to be safety equipment and you need to actually invest in that safety equipment. That makes it pretty much identical to any other weapon you’d use in training.

What are the lightsabers like?

Generally speaking, the hilts of most of the replica or stunt sabers that people are using now are anywhere from 8-12” long, they’re made out of aluminum, they’re anywhere from an 1.25-1.5” in diameter, they have heavy polycarbonate blades in them so when you’re using them as a martial arts weapon you can hit them against things and they don’t break. They’re actually pretty rigid, pretty resilient.

Then, inside the hilts themselves, there are LEDs that you use to illuminate the blade in whatever colors that you choose. And for some of the more expensive lightsabers, people will put in sound and lighting effects. You can make these things as complex and realistic as you want.


How do people practice and compete in lightsaber combat?

What you see is either people adapting pre-existing martial arts to use the lightsabers — the lightsabers are nice because they’re very, very simple, mostly cylindrical weapons, so they adapt very easily to a lot of different styles — or, there are some groups that are actually drawing from a much wider range of arts. They’re looking at Japanese sword arts, Filipino sword arts, Chinese sword arts, Western fencing…and they are trying to draw out a body of techniques that can match the mythological discussion and portrayal of lightsaber fencing in the Star Wars fictional universe, and for them, that’s really the challenge.

Does lightsaber combat share similarities with other martial arts?

When you look at what George Lucas is attempting to do with lightsabers, he’s drawing on Samurai sword films right from the very beginning with Star Wars. So a lot of the aesthetics that went into lightsabers from the beginning came out of Kendo. You don’t have to look Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn very hard and you can see Samurai-esque characteristics in these guys.

In terms of the actual performance of lightsaber combat on-screen, however, you brought in a lot more Western, kind of European fencing techniques, you brought in a lot of Chinese and Filipino fencing techniques. So aesthetically, a lot of this looks kind of Japanese when you look at where the techniques are derived from. There’s a lot of Chinese and European stuff floating around in there.


Is there development in lightsaber combat as a sport and as a community?

A lot of the very first groups focused on costuming and theatrical performance. Stagecraft or staged performance, which is actually quite difficult. Probably the biggest and most important of the early groups, certainly the first one to get any national/international press, was one called New York Jedi in New York City.

These guys would develop a persona through cosplay and put on public performances. I think that was the initial model that was successful. Then as that establishes itself, other people look at it and say, “Yeah, this is really interesting, but what we actually want to see is something more like a combat sport.” Then other people look at that and say, ‘Well, this is really cool but what I want to do is I want to explore the martial arts aspect of it.

Photos via Lore Sjoberg / Creative Commons 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)

Megan Logan @meganlogan
Megan is a freelance writer whose work has appeared on WIRED, Slate, Travel + Leisure and GigaOm. When she’s not writing, she’s hiking, brewing beer, making playlists for situations that’ll never arise and extolling the virtues of The Cranberries.

[GeneChing]

In S.F. no less, the home of Starfleet Academy (http://acad.sfi.org/index.php). :eek:


Competitive light saber academy to open in San Francisco this week (http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Competitive-light-saber-academy-to-open-in-San-9967118.php)
Beth Spotswood Updated 12:39 pm, Wednesday, October 12, 2016

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/53/50/00/11436063/4/920x920.jpg
At the Light Saber Academy of San Francisco, students will be asked to wear robes matching their level of training.
IMAGE 1 OF 4 | LUDOSPORT INTERNATIONAL At the Light Saber Academy of San Francisco, students will be asked to wear robes matching their level of training.

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/20/10/65/4230497/5/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Jeff Chiu
IMAGE 2 OF 4 San Francisco was already home to combat choreography classes involving light sabers. In this file photo, Golden Gate Knights instructor Alain Block, right, teaches during class in on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013.

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/20/10/65/4230493/5/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Jeff Chiu
IMAGE 3 OF 4 In this file photo, Jim Collum, foreground, and other students work on light saber skills during a Golden Gate Knights class in San Francisco, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013.

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/20/10/65/4230499/5/1024x1024.jpg
Photo: Jeff Chiu
IMAGE 4 OF 4 In this file photo, Sophianna Ardinger meditates after a Golden Gate Knights class in San Francisco, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013.

There are ten little words that every Bay Area “Star Wars” fan has been waiting to hear. And those words are, “Welcome to the international network of sporting Light Saber Combat.”
Light saber fighting is really a thing and has been for some time. In the past, light saber classes allowed wanna-be Jedis to learn the basics of saber handling. But thanks to LudoSport, one can now actually sign up for light saber tournaments and compete locally, nationally, and internationally.
Founded in Italy 10 years ago, LudoSport’s light saber academies and tournaments have swept Europe. Really. The whole concept is a bit complicated, although for “Star Wars” fans who wish to compete in international light saber duels, the detailed (and we mean DETAILED) rules, logistics, and philosophy behind the “sport” might be right up their alley.
There are seven forms of lights saber combat and ten rules. Much like karate belt colors, light saber athletes must wear the correct uniform for their level of light saber skill. Players are rated on experience, fighting skills, and technical quality (presumably by someone who fancies himself a present-day Obi-Wan Kenobi.) Points are earned by attending classes and meeting up with fellow light saber athletes in the LudoSport network for actual duels. The results must be deposited online after every battle.
LudoSport takes the whole thing very seriously. This isn’t “Star Wars” camp. LudoSport is making the leap to the United States by opening an academy right here in San Francisco. Classes begin October 15th at Studiomix on Van Ness.
Hopefully our status as the first U.S. city to house a light saber academy will give San Francisco a leg up on hosting an international light saber tournament.
Future Jedi masters can sign up here (http://usa.ludosport.net).

[GeneChing]

Don't make me destroy you


OCTOBER 17, 2016 8:44am PT by Eriq Gardner
Disney's Lucasfilm Sues Academy That Teaches People How to Use Lightsabers (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/disneys-lucasfilm-sues-academy-teaches-938781?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR+Breaking+News_now_2016-10-17+08%3A57%3A25_ehayden&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews)

http://cdn2.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale_crop_768_433/2011/08/darth_vader_luke_skywalker_lightsabre_a_l.jpg
Courtesy Everett Collection

A lawsuit contends it's a violation of various 'Star Wars' trademarks.
Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of Disney, is using the force of its trademarks to cut down an enterprise that purports to teach interested Star Wars fans the ways of the Jedi. On Friday, a lawsuit was filed against Michael Brown, described in the lawsuit as operating businesses including New York Jedi, the Lightsaber Academy and Thrills and Skills.

The defendant's services, including classes and teaching certifications, are pitched at LightsaberAcademy.com (http://lightsaberacademy.com/), which also describes "core principles" leading to practice in "Academic Form, Stage, and/or Dueling."

The owner of the Star Wars franchise is now in California federal court talking about cybersquatting, trademark infringement and unfair competition.

"Defendants regularly use the Lucasfilm Trademarks without authorization in connection with their businesses," states the complaint. "Among other infringing activities, Defendants use a logo that is nearly identical, and confusingly similar, to Lucasfilm’s trademark Jedi Order logo... round in shape, with six wing-like shapes curving upward (three per side), and an eight-pointed star featuring elongated top and bottom points stretched into a vertical line."

Lucasfilm says it has served multiple cease notices, and that the Brown has responded by filing a trademark application for "Lightsaber Academy, Inc."

The plaintiff now demands a permanent injunction, actual damages and profits, or alternatively, up to $2 million in statutory damages for each trademark infringed. Lucasfilm is represented by Laura Lin and Kelly Klaus at Munger, Tolles & Olson.

Here's the complaint. (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3143771-Lightsaber.html)

Brown couldn't be reached for comment.

[GeneChing]

This is local and I'm sorely tempted.


"Glowing Swords" Battle Returns To SF After Sparks Fly With City, LucasFilm (http://hoodline.com/2016/11/glowing-swords-battle-returns-to-sf-after-sparks-fly-with-city-lucasfilm)

https://hoodwork-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/story/image/28276/glowbattletour.jpg
Thousands duke it out with glowing swords.

Sat. November 19, 2016, 9:50am
by Jordan Katz
@jordanhkatz

location
601 Mission Bay Blvd. North, San Francisco, CA 941

The “Lightsaber Battle" that caused a stir last year at Sue Bierman Park is back, this time with new branding and a new venue.

After Disney’s Lucasfilm filed a cease-and-desist notice followed by three months of negotiation, the company behind the public event, Newmindspace, settled out of court.

“It was terrible. I’ve never been the target of a major corporation like that,” says Newmindspace co-founder Kevin Bracken. “They wanted us to stop doing any events with any lighted swords at all. They wanted us to destroy all of our inventory—we’re talking like tens of thousands of these swords."

They rebranded, calling the gathering “The Giant Battle of Glowing Swords.”

The melee will take place at Spark Social in Mission Bay on December 16th.

Corporate pressure wasn't the only issue. The City’s Rec & Parks Department claimed last year’s unpermitted event cost taxpayers over $5,000.

Newmindspace distanced themselves from the local promoter they were working with to organize last year's event, Nikki Sparks. The Toronto-based company fired Sparks and Bracken says they are now overseeing their events more closely. He had just arrived in San Francisco when we spoke.

Despite that, Bracken says they still dispute some of the claims made by the city—namely, the bill.

“If you look at the invoice, the invoice has an unspecified $2,000 item, and then there is an additional $2,000 for hiring 10 park rangers, paying them four hours of overtime each,” Bracken says. “The unspecified $2,000 seems more like a fine than a cost because the city admitted in that article that they were not doing any reseeding and if you remember, the next event that took place in that park was the Super Bowl concert, after which it was completely destroyed."

Bracken says Spark Social is the perfect venue for the event. “It’s got this awesome field, it’s got a beer garden, it’s got music, it’s got food trucks,” he says.” The best part—no permit necessary.

The event will benefit a local Make-a-Wish chapter. Newmindspace is expecting around 2,000 in attendance. Tickets are available here. (https://www.glowbattletour.com/collections/san-francisco)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug883q8x1bw

[boxerbilly]

More like old Studio Contract actors who were schooled in everything from horse back riding to stage fighting to charm school to........The old days. One of my best friends out in Cali. His father was a old studio actor and received a check every month work or not. It was not a lot I was told. He made is real living selling cars.

But Hollywood may draw from these acadamies for extras. Pretty cool.

Gene go !

[GeneChing]

...that's just not the Lucasfilm way (still sore about his museum going to L.A. than up here :mad:).


Lightsaber lessons, you want? Virginia Beach martial arts studio seizes on Star Wars surge (http://pilotonline.com/business/consumer/lightsaber-lessons-you-want-virginia-beach-martial-arts-studio-seizes/article_b3096954-ae39-51dd-aa82-cc60feedfa77.html)
By Kimberly Pierceall
The Virginian-Pilot
Jan 13, 2017

http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/pilotonline.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/0/db/0db4c11f-188e-50dd-a4a9-5b191e0e04a7/5877b44176045.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C750
L. Todd Spencer | The Virginian-Pilot
Saber X training inside King Tiger Martial Arts in Virginia Beach teaches students how to duel using lightsabers. Photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017.

VIRGINIA BEACH

There’s no mention of Jedis or Sith Lords. No jokey attempt to tell these warrior students to “use the Force.”

And there’s certainly no reference to any “lightsabers” during the evening martial arts class where students wearing black belts reached for glowing weapons that “woosh’d” with every swing.

“We in no way shape or form want to step on Disney’s toes,” said Byron Kunold, or Master Kunold as he’s referred to at King Tiger Martial Arts at 3300 Holland Road in Virginia Beach.

That’s where he and the studio’s owner, Master Geoffrey Cielo, offer lessons they call “Saber X,” inspired by certain popular films about interstellar warfare.

The two pride themselves on maintaining a traditional martial arts curriculum using the sabers as a tool that could just as easily be a fencing sword, a kundo sword or a saber sword.

“We’re hiding it. We’re giving them their vegetables and they don’t know it,” Kunold said.

For now, the pair plan to offer classes to studio members for $3 to $10 each. King Tiger monthly memberships cost between $130 and $179. Saber X only memberships will cost $199 a month. They plan to offer at least three classes a week.

Students must bring their own lightsabers.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKyfJpq_Z90

Why so careful about how they tread around the “Star Wars” terminology? Others, including groups in New York and California, have tried to launch their own “Jedi” academies only to face The Walt Disney Co., which bought LucasFilm for $4 billion in 2012, in federal court.

And as “Star Wars” has surged in popularity (again), so has the desire to wage combat with lightsabers.

Disneyland and Walt Disney World both offer official lightsaber Jedi training to “younglings.”

Minnesota-based Saber Legion describes itself as the Ultimate Fighting Championship of saber combat.

And martial arts studios have become regular customers of at least one maker of the the replica galactic weapons, UltraSabers.

“We have a ton of martial arts groups,” said Marlena Ficklen, a customer service representative with Texas-based UltraSabers. She said business at the 15-year-old company noticeably picked up about a year ago, around the time “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was released.

Ficklen said she likes to see martial arts studios getting involved since the movements they teach are rooted in traditional combat:

“It’s more than just swinging a lightsaber around and choreography.”

She counted 73 customers with “martial arts” in their name – three in Virginia, including King Tiger, a studio in Elkton and another in Farmville called BattleGround Martial Arts.

Jeremiah Bunker, owner of BattleGround, said they offered lightsaber classes to children only during the summer but it’s actually drawn more interest from fellow martial arts studios, not necessarily would-be students.

“Our main focus is really practical self-defense,” he said. “It doesn’t go with the theme of the school.

“It’s really cool but the novelty wears off pretty quickly for an adult.”

Cielo and Kunold hope it doesn’t wear off for quite some time. The styles they plan to teach range from kendo and samurai to rapier and fencing, Spartan and freestyle parkour to Scottish claymore – each style getting about two months of focus before moving onto the next.

Eventually, the pair hopes to license its Saber X curriculum to other martial arts studios, incorporate more stunt work and open dedicated, standalone studios.

Cielo had thought about offering a sword-skills class before, but his bread and butter for more than 20 years has been taekwondo, hapkido and self-defense.

Cielo is a fan the original “Star Wars” trilogy, and was used to flimsy toy lightsabers. He was skeptical at first that using lightsabers in his studios would work.

But in October, Kunold showed Cielo the lightsabers he had bought for he and his 9-year-old son, Akin, and demonstrated it could take a beating – or a good Jedi-esque battle – and be fine.

“It doesn’t break,” he said, striking it on the ground. “At that point, I said I had to have one.”

When Kunold lit it up for the first time for Cielo, “I went ‘oooooohhhh.’ ”

Their classes begin and end with meditation and deep breathing, with black belt students resting on their knees, lightsabers by their sides.

Then it was time to pick up their “weapons.”

“These are, of course, light …” Cielo said, catching himself, “ultra … light … UltraSabers.”

Kunold, a former stuntman who worked on films such as “Alexander the Great” and “The Medallion” in Asia, led the way, slashing at the air with his glowing purple lightsaber as he inched across the studio repeating kendo moves, flanked on either side by students doing the same.

Then they paired up, practicing blocks and strikes, spinning as if dancing, with the sounds of a “woosh” or “bzzz” with each swing or hit. Next, they practiced the “Chinese flower,” a flourish done holding the saber with two hands or one, spinning it in front in a figure-eight pattern.

Cielo encouraged their saber-wielding to be done pinky first:

“Think to yourself that there’s actually a blade on the other side.”

Kimberly Pierceall, 757-550-1903, kimberly.pierceall@pilotonline.com

[GeneChing]

The basic Jedi Lightsaber form is shown in Star Wars Rebels: S3.E14 Trials of the Darksaber. They show it several times as a solo form, and then how it works as a two-person form. It's like a half dozen simple moves, but now you can check the authenticity of your Jedi academy by seeing if they start with this form. You wouldn't want to train with a fake Jedi academy now, would you?

The opening sequence of this clip shows the two-person form.


STAR WARS REBELS: TRAINING BEGINS (http://www.starwars.com/video/star-wars-rebels-training-begins)
In this clip from the Star Wars Rebels episode "Trials of the Darksaber," Kanan trains Sabine, new custodian of the legendary Darksaber, in the art of combat. But she has much to learn...

[GeneChing]

There's a 1 & 1/2 min vid if you follow the link. Note the style of weapons (http://www.martialartsmart.com/weapons-chinese-weapons.html) piled in the corners.


We tried a Star Wars-inspired martial arts class with LED lightsabers (http://www.businessinsider.com/star-wars-martial-arts-class-led-lightsabers-combat-system-london-silver-sabres-2017-2)
Claudia Romeo

Silver Sabres Combat Academy in North London holds martial arts classes using LED lightsabers.

Participants engage in a form of combat which combines traditional methods and theatre.

"We’ve tried to create a place where people can come regardless of the styles that they might be familiar with and where they can continue their investigation of the truth of combat," the Academy co-director and co-founder Faisal Ahmed Mian told Business Insider.

The classes are meant to teach discipline and mindfulness through physical exercise. They use a combat system called Eight Spheres Geometry.

"The system is universal. Boy or girl, big or small, old or young - it doesn’t matter. The system will adapt for the individual," said Mian.

The lightsabers were specifically designed for the class as a safer alternative to traditional combat swords. They are made from hollow polycarbonate and aluminium, and the starting price for one is £100.

Produced by Claudia Romeo. Filmed by Chiara Brambilla.

[GeneChing]

I had a feeling that I'd ttt the Jedi Academies thread (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies) for Star Wars Day (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?60419-It-s-Star-Wars-Day!) yesterday.

There's a vid. I like how the reporter is rocking stiletto heels. It's very Widow (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1353) ala Into the Badlands (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?67844). I hope that's a new trend with Sword Hotties (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?41007-Sword-hotties).


Training like a Jedi with local martial arts experts on Coast Live (http://wtkr.com/2017/05/04/training-like-a-jedi-with-local-martial-arts-experts-on-coast-live/)
POSTED 3:45 PM, MAY 4, 2017, BY COAST LIVE

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - For Star Wars Day, we channel Obi Wan, Luke and Darth Vader with help from two masters at King Tiger Martial Arts (KingTigerMartialArts.com) - Master Geoffrey Cielo and Master Byron Kunold.

May the 4th be with you!

Check out my T-shirt at yesterday's TCJU (http://tigerclawjudgesunion.org/) meeting for KFTC25 AF (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69762-KUNG-FU-TAI-CHI-25TH-ANNIVERSARY-FESTIVAL-May-19-21-2017-San-Jose-CA). FTW.
https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/18238509_10156269943812715_4462366571032530918_o.j pg?oh=c3e7bb4a4ed80235189cd7b0c8e9d7f8&oe=59B8A546

[GeneChing]

I'm surprised this thread didn't ttt earlier with the premiere of The Last Jedi (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69288-Star-Wars-VIII-The-Last-Jedi). I guess this article came out earlier and I just missed it.


Mix Star Wars with martial arts, and what do you get? Lightsaber sparring. (http://michiganradio.org/post/mix-star-wars-martial-arts-and-what-do-you-get-lightsaber-sparring)
By SARAH LEESON • DEC 19, 2017

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/michigan/files/styles/medium/public/201712/20227640_1901466393201607_1476792681_o.jpg
Frank Diaz (left) spars with Dalton Smith (right).
SARAH LEESON / MICHIGAN RADIO

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with the bang of a thermal detonator this weekend, becoming the second-highest grossing opening weekend for a film ever in North America.

But your local theater isn't the only place where aspiring Jedi knights can be found learning to wield a lightsaber.

Chad Eisner co-founded a group called Terra Prime Light Armory in 2012. The group promotes traditional martial arts and weapon arts by sparring with lightsabers.

The swords, which are custom-made of round polycarbonate, are designed to withstand a real beating.

Stateside's Sarah Leeson went to a workshop with the Light Armory last Saturday at Liberty Athletic Club in Ann Arbor. Listen to the audio postcard she brought back above, or read highlights below.

“We wanted some way that we could get people of differing weapons arts backgrounds to kind of mix up and fight each other and spar and have fun and stuff like that, because it’s just not so common to have people fighting with weapons nowadays,” Eisner said.

The local lightsaber scene is a certain point of pride for the group.

“In Michigan right here we have extremely high quality makers — Darth Alice and Solo’s Hold — who are really famous the world over for making extremely high quality lightsabers,” Eisner said. “They’re very accurate to the screen and really, really, durable.”

For some participants like Alex Kostrzewa, it's not the fandom that's the draw, but the unique martial arts element.

“My main interest was in the traditional Chinese weapon arts. Finding Chad, who knew what he was talking about, was a rare treat,” Kostrzewa said. “Fighting with swords is fun! I think it’s kind of weird that this isn’t like a more common hobby. Who doesn’t want to go sword fighting on the weekends?”

That's not to say that Star Wars doesn't appeal to him, though.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/michigan/files/styles/large/public/201712/25592950_1901466129868300_1066922910_o.jpg
(From left) Dalton Smith, John Solomon, Chad Eisner, Rob Cocsis, Alex Kostrzewa, and Frank Diaz turned out to spar on Saturday.
CREDIT SARAH LEESON / MICHIGAN RADIO

“I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, like I haven’t read any of the extended universe stuff or whatnot, but it’s good — I like it. I find its place in pop culture canon pretty interesting because, as far as I can tell, it kind of invented the Hollywood blockbuster," Kostrzewa said, "So, in terms of measuring the impact of a piece of media by the amount of media that exists in relationship to it, Star Wars is kind of a keystone work of modern film because it changed the way that film was made. You can kind of break the history of cinema into a pre-Star Wars and post-Star Wars era, kind of like how you can break into a pre-Wizard of Oz and post-Wizard of Oz era.”

Other participants, like John Solomon, are here for Star Wars above all. When asked if he'd always wanted to be a Jedi, Solomon said, “Always. Ever since I was three years old. Maybe even before that.”

Solomon does have a background in Japanese swordsmanship though, and can appreciate the martial arts side of the workshop.

“The interesting thing about martial arts in general, and when you apply this to something unusual like a lightsaber, it’s more interesting to see the similarities than the differences,” Solomon said. “For instance, I see a tiny bit of Italian longsword here, and the similarities between the martial techniques there and the martial techniques in Japan are remarkably similar.… And it’s really interesting to see the techniques we use which are different in Japanese swordsmanship which are used in a new and exciting way with the lightsabers and the blending of the Chinese styles into it, it’s very interesting.”

One participant, Rob Cocsis, has an extra reason for attending: spending time with his daughter.

“She’s 13 and she’s been coming for about a year now, on and off,” Cocsis said. “We started this out as more of a daddy-daughter thing, so it’s cool. It’s great. I don’t make her do it, it’s totally on her, but it’s kind of a family thing.”

Some participants are even coming from across the state to attend. Dalton Smith who is from Grand Rapids drove for hours in fairly snowy conditions to make it to the workshop.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/michigan/files/styles/large/public/201712/25577491_1901466466534933_1165807126_o.jpg
Dalton Smith (left) and Rob Cocsis (right) face off in a duel
CREDIT SARAH LEESON / MICHIGAN RADIO

“I come as often as I can — at least a few times a year — but I come from almost three hours away, so sometimes it’s hard to make it,” Smith said.

In his eyes, though, it's worth it. “I don’t get to do anything like this anywhere else, really, and I’ve always been interested in sword fighting," Smith said. "So now I get to do it, and I get to do it with laser swords.”

[tonyc]

So where exactly is this place?

[GeneChing]

We don't know if there will be lightsabers in SOLO but while we're on the subject of Star Wars, READ Lightsaber Combat and the Value of Myth in the Martial Arts (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1424) by Dr. Benjamin N. Judkins and Chad Eisner

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/admin/site_images/KungfuMagazine/upload/6909_20182303-lightsabers.jpg

THREADS: Solo: A Star Wars Story (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69496-Solo-A-Star-Wars-Story) & Jedi Academies

[GeneChing]

Aiken Lightsaber Club teaches kids martial arts, self-defense, and fencing (https://www.aikenstandard.com/news/aiken-lightsaber-club-teaches-kids-martial-arts-self-defense-and/article_b02a2940-ad29-11e8-95aa-0b58f0bce90b.html)
By Kristina Rackley krackley@aikenstandard.com Sep 6, 2018 Updated 2 hrs ago

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/aikenstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/b2/eb20bac4-b048-11e8-b738-770a88fbcb3d/5b8e8cb25c0be.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C742

A former Aiken High School ROTC instructor is teaching fencing to kids with a twist that is out of this world.

Tony Negron is combining his love of "Star Wars" with defensive sports to teach fencing to youth in Aiken.

"There was a sport that started in Italy called LudoSport, and basically it was fencing with lightsabers," Negron said. "I did some research and saw that more things like this were popping up across the country."

Negron and one of his former students, Trey Jones, started the Aiken Lightsaber Club and taught fencing to students. Most are in college or high school.

"The reason I got started was, I taught ROTC, and when I retired I knew I wanted to pick and chose the things I was going to volunteer for," Negron said. "I knew I wanted to work with kids, but I didn't want a job."

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/aikenstandard.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/f9/df940f58-b048-11e8-8c56-8313fa1faabb/5b8e8c9f002c1.image.jpg?resize=400%2C268
Tony Negron and one of his former students, Trey Jones, started the Aiken Lightsaber Club to teach fencing to students. Most are in college or…

Negron said his club was for kids who couldn't make the time commitment for other sports teams, and to give them an activity that would draw them away from video games.

His club originally met in parks and around the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center. They have now rented out a room in Odell Weeks to practice.

"We've got this beautiful facility, and we're just going to build from there," Negron said.

An under-privileged youth outreach program run through Odell Weeks allows children who cannot afford to join clubs to take advantage of some of the events happening at Odell Weeks. Aiken Lightsaber Club is one of those groups they can join through the program.

If they have spare time during lessons, Negron will have the kids play games like Jedi versus Sith, a rapid-fire dueling round that splits the group into two teams.

Students need to buy protective gloves, and Negron has suggestions on what kind of lightsabers to buy for the club. The cost of rental space comes mostly out of Negron's own pocket.

The Aiken Lightsaber Club will meet at Odell Weeks every Friday evening at 5 p.m. for practice. For more information, including how to join, message Tony Negron on the Aiken Lightsaber Club's Facebook page.

self-defense? really? are lightsabers street legal now? :rolleyes:

[GeneChing]

The Force is strong with local fitness-minded 'Star Wars' fans (https://hanfordsentinel.com/news/local/the-force-is-strong-with-local-fitness-minded-star-wars/article_59270a1c-4977-522e-ae3e-109a21044c9e.html)
Parker Bowman Staff Reporter Jan 19, 2019 0

https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/hanfordsentinel.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/e6/9e651c46-b32f-50ce-941f-05a3d095802d/5c464b72aa8ca.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C583

LEMOORE — Master Yoda once said, “Do or do not. There is no ‘try.’”

A group of friends from Lemoore have decided that they’ll do — and what they’re doing is getting in shape while celebrating their love of “Star Wars.”

“I’m like most people — exercise is boring and I hate it,” Melody Mar said. “So anything to inspire me to get moving and do something is great and doing it with a lightsaber is even better.”

Mar is the lead organizer of the Lemoore chapter of the Lightsaber Team, an organization where fandom meets fitness.

Mar joined the San Jose-based club about six months ago and found that she was the only Central Valley member of the organization that has members in Riverside, San Jose and Sacramento. She started the Lemoore chapter alongside a few friends recently and is hoping that other like-minded Jedi will join the cause.

The Lemoore club meets weekly to stretch and work out with light sabers at a local park.

“I’m a big geek,” she said, pointing to her “Star Trek” jacket. “There’s just something about lightsabers, though, they pull you in. You could fence with a sword or you could fence with lightsaber. Something draws you in. It’s the glow, the sophistication and the whimsy of it.”

Weilding the “Star Wars”-inspired laser swords while working out and sparring can help with cardio, balance and reflexes, according to a 2017 story in Vogue, wherein “The Force Awakens” star Daisy Ridley espoused the benefits of the Jedi workout.

The organization was started in 2011 by John-Michael Arias, a then-resident of Riverside who has since relocated to San Jose.

“I was getting on in years and I wanted to combine my work out time, my nerd time and my socialization time,” Arias told the Sentinel.

The founder, now in his early 50s, said the free-to-join group is more about being inclusive and supportive than about pumping as much iron as possible and jogging an entire Kessel Run.

Members of the San Jose have traveled to Lemoore to train Mar in the ways of The Force. Some members even build and create their own lightsabers, Arias said.

“It worked. It was a good fit,” Mar said.

Mar, a former regional champion baton twirler, had a fundamental grasp on how to move with a yard-long lightsaber and is now getting the hang of “moving like a fighter rather than like a dancer,” she said.

During training, the group focuses on movement and getting the benefits of a workout without accidentally injuring themselves or anyone else. While lightsabers in real life may not be able to cut off Ponda Baba’s arm — as Obi-Wan’s did in the cantina on Mos Eisely — but they’re still hefty, pointy and accidents can happen.

The group is hoping to grow and be more consistent, both in terms of workouts themselves and in planning the times for them, in the coming months.

Members of the Lemoore chapter will be in attendance at the Weekend Blender pop culture event at the Sierra Vista Mall in Clovis next month to spread the word about the organization. A separate Fresno chapter of the club is in the early stages of development, as well, Arias said.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/LightsaberTeam.

San Jose is local to our KFTC HQ.

[GeneChing]

I luv how these groups dodge calling them 'lightsabers'.


Light Force Academy blends sci-fi passion with martial arts technique (https://signalscv.com/2019/02/light-force-academy-blends-sci-fi-fi-passion-with-martial-arts-technique/)
16 hours ago
Matt Fernandez

https://signalscv.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/020419_news_LightForce_CR_02-2-990x660.jpg
Students of Light Force Academy learn martial arts sword fighting with a Star Wars flair at Irom Fist Martial Arts Academy in Newhall. Cory Rubin/The Signal

Star Wars fans all across the galaxy often dream of the thrill and glory of being a Jedi knight and wielding a lightsaber. Thanks to Patrick Tatevossian, founder of Iron Fist Martial Arts, residents of Santa Clarita have a chance to fulfill that dream.

On Feb. 1, Tatevossian’s newest martial arts program Light Force Academy hit its third anniversary. The program incorporates different styles of martial arts training such as Taekwondo, kendo and escrima and a love for Star Wars into a unique training experience.

Tatevossian discovered the world of competitive saber combat while searching for a high-quality lightsaber to buy for himself on the internet after watching “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” During his search, the martial artist came across combat stunt sabers and, after tumbling down the proverbial rabbit hole of the internet, decided to take a cue from other martial arts schools and replaced his traditional weapons training with a saber fighting program.

“We originally had a full weapons training program with everything from nunchucks to staff, but I didn’t have fun teaching weapons anymore and my students didn’t even compete with them anyway,” Tatevossian said. “It might be because I’m just a big kid, but I think that the light sabers are a lot cooler than what we were doing before. This actually bettered our weapons training.”

The Light Force training is a progressive program in which students begin with traditional Japanese kendo double-handed sword fighting techniques, then move on to single-handed sword, staff, dual swords and the weapon in a non-dominant hand. After the student learns all of the styles, he or she then selects one of the styles and works to master it, the program’s equivalent of earning a black belt in a more traditional martial art. Tatevossian estimates that the program takes four years to complete, but since the program just turned three years old, no student has reached that point yet.

Since its inception, Tatevossian’s Light Force program has become an affiliate of the competitive Lightspeed Saber League and has been invited to join other competitive circuits. Each league has its own rules in regard to equipment and techniques regarding forms and sparring, but Tatevossian said his main criteria when partnering with a league is safety.

“Competitive saber leagues use either light, medium or heavy sabers,” Tatevossian said. “We have protective armor like fencing masks, and getting hit with a light or medium saber won’t hurt that much, but the heavy sabers can do a lot of damage even with the gear. Also the lighter sabers allow for a lot more fluidity and technically difficult movement, which I prefer.”

When Tatevossian first began in saber competitions he suffered many losses to those larger or more experienced in the style than him, but after he started to use techniques from other martial arts he knew, he found that he was close to unbeatable.

“It was really weird and I wondered what was going on when I started winning,” he said. “Then I realized that my footwork was more advanced than my competitors’. Once I started focusing more on my footwork and less on blade technique, that was it.”

On Feb. 23, Tatevossian will host his first saber tournament, which will also be the first competitive experience for most of his students. He said he has received interest from almost 100 competitors across Southern California. The tournament will also feature vendors and winners will offer prizes including custom sabers and Loot Crates.

If all goes well, Tatevossian hopes to host another tournament at the end of the year, using what he learns from this tournament as a test run.

Light Force Academy has about 30 regular students and dozens more who attend on a part-time basis. He would like to grow the program with other methods than word of mouth, but he said it is difficult to show people the program is more than playing with lightsabers.

“What most people that aren’t already martial artists don’t understand is that what we’re doing is actual martial arts training and a legitimate form of exercise, rather than just swinging around lightsabers for the fun of it,” he said. “On the other hand, that attraction to lightsabers is a good way for me to get people who would never have otherwise tried martial arts to come in, learn and exercise.”



Matt Fernandez
Matt Fernandez is a local news reporter for The Signal. He is a 2017 graduate of UCLA and his previous work experience includes the Daily Bruin newspaper and Variety magazine, where he focused on arts and entertainment news. Fernandez has lived in Santa Clarita since 1998.

[GeneChing]

In France, the Force is strong with lightsaber dueling (https://apnews.com/cd0c1f824ff949cab6f76d3b03a389bb)
By JOHN LEICESTER
February 18, 2019

https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/media:204871e85af1451ca6248d1d3f06d550/1000.jpeg
In this Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, photo, competitors battle during a national lightsaber tournament in Beaumont-sur-Oise, north of Paris. In France, it is easier than ever now to act out "Star Wars" fantasies. The fencing federation has officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, France (AP) — Master Yoda, dust off his French, he must.

It’s now easier than ever in France to act out “Star Wars” fantasies, because its fencing federation has borrowed from a galaxy far, far away and officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport, granting the iconic weapon from George Lucas’ saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics.

Of course, the LED-lit, rigid polycarbonate lightsaber replicas can’t slice a Sith lord in half. But they look and, with the more expensive sabers equipped with a chip in their hilt that emits a throaty electric rumble, even sound remarkably like the silver screen blades that Yoda and other characters wield in the blockbuster movies .

Plenty realistic, at least, for duelists to work up an impressive sweat slashing, feinting and stabbing in organized, 3-minute bouts. The physicality of lightsaber combat is part of why the French Fencing Federation threw its support behind the sport and is now equipping fencing clubs with lightsabers and training would-be lightsaber instructors. Like virtuous Jedi knights, the French federation sees itself as combatting a Dark Side: The sedentary habits of 21st-century life that are sickening ever-growing numbers of adults and kids .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh8ZdrK3qOo

“With young people today, it’s a real public health issue. They don’t do any sport and only exercise with their thumbs,” says Serge Aubailly, the federation secretary general. “It’s becoming difficult to (persuade them to) do a sport that has no connection with getting out of the sofa and playing with one’s thumbs. That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural.”


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John Leicester (https://twitter.com/johnleicester/status/1097473583968907265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1097473583968907265&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Fcd0c1f824ff949c ab6f76d3b03a389bb)
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@johnleicester
Lightsaber dueling: Some basic rules.

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VIDEO: How-to guide to lightsaber dueling.

In the past, the likes of Zorro, Robin Hood and The Three Musketeers helped lure new practitioners to fencing. Now, joining and even supplanting them are Luke Skywalker , Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader.

“Cape and sword movies have always had a big impact on our federation and its growth,” Aubailly says. ”Lightsaber films have the same impact . Young people want to give it a try.”

And the young at heart.

Police officer Philippe Bondi, 49, practiced fencing for 20 years before switching to lightsaber. When a club started offering classes in Metz, the town in eastern France where he is stationed for the gendarmerie, Bondi says he was immediately drawn by the prospect of living out the love he’s had for the “Star Wars” universe since he saw the first film at age 7, on its release in 1977 .

He fights in the same wire-mesh face mask he used for fencing. He spent about 350 euros ($400) on his protective body armor (sturdy gloves, chest, shoulder and shin pads) and on his federation-approved lightsaber, opting for luminous green “because it’s the Jedi colors, and Yoda is my master.”

“I had to be on the good side, given that my job is upholding the law,” he said.

Bondi awoke well before dawn to make the four-hour drive from Metz to a national lightsaber tournament outside Paris this month that drew 34 competitors. It showcased how far the sport has come in a couple of years but also that it’s still light years from becoming mainstream.


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John Leicester (https://twitter.com/johnleicester/status/1097473212231892992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1097473212231892992&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Fcd0c1f824ff949c ab6f76d3b03a389bb)
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@johnleicester
In France, the Force is strong with lightsaber dueling

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4:29 AM - Feb 18, 2019
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PHOTOS: The spectacle of lightsaber dueling.

The crowd was small and a technical glitch prevented the duelers’ photos, combat names and scores from being displayed on a big screen, making bouts tough to follow. But the illuminated swooshes of colored blades looked spectacular in the darkened hall. Fan cosplay as “Star Wars” characters added levity, authenticity and a tickle of bizarre to the proceedings, especially the incongruous sight of Darth Vader buying a ham sandwich and a bag of potato chips at the cafeteria during a break.

In building their sport from the ground up, French organizers produced competition rules intended to make lightsaber dueling both competitive and easy on the eyes.

“We wanted it to be safe, we wanted it to be umpired and, most of all, we wanted it to produce something visual that looks like the movies, because that is what people expect,” said Michel Ortiz, the tournament organizer.

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This isn't the car you're looking for: 'Star Wars' fans in cosplay had a ball at the tournament.

Combatants fight inside a circle marked in tape on the floor. Strikes to the head or body are worth 5 points; to the arms or legs, 3 points; on hands, 1 point. The first to 15 points wins or, if they don’t get there quickly, the high scorer after 3 minutes. If both fighters reach 10 points, the bout enters “sudden death,” where the first to land a head- or body-blow wins, a rule to encourage enterprising fighters.

Blows only count if the fighters first point the tip of their saber behind them. That rule prevents the viper-like, tip-first quick forward strikes seen in fencing. Instead, the rule encourages swishier blows that are easier for audiences to see and enjoy, and which are more evocative of the duels in “Star Wars.” Of those, the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Maul in “The Phantom Menace” that ends badly for the Sith despite his double-bladed lightsaber is particularly appreciated by aficionados for its swordplay.

Still nascent, counting its paid-up practitioners in France in the hundreds, not thousands, lightsaber dueling has no hope of a place in the Paris Olympics in 2024.

But to hear the thwack of blades and see them cut shapes through the air is to want to give the sport a try.

Or, as Yoda would say: “Try not. Do! Or do not. There is no try.”

THREADS
Fencing (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9851-Fencing)
Jedi Academies (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Paris Olympics (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68366-2024-Paris-Olympics)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynDMTiamRRY&feature=emb_logo

[GeneChing]

I’m honored to be a Guest Panelist on the Terra Prime Light Armory 7 Forms Symposium this Independence Day Saturday July 4th 2020 2PM EDT. For details, visit my blog (https://geneching.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/i-will-be-a-guest-panelist-on-the-terra-prime-light-armory-symposium-this-independence-day/).

https://geneching.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/covertpla.jpg?w=1760

Threads
Jedi-Academies (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Gene-Goes-Ronin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71788-Gene-Goes-Ronin)

[GeneChing]

CELEBRATE WITH MY GUEST PANELIST APPEARANCE ON THE TERRA PRIME LIGHT ARMORY 7 FORMS SYMPOSIUM (https://geneching.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/happy-independence-day-celebrate-with-my-guest-panelist-appearance-on-the-terra-prime-light-armory-7-forms-symposium/)

https://geneching.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/img_9730.jpg

Threads
Jedi-Academies (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Gene-Goes-Ronin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71788-Gene-Goes-Ronin)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iegI0ekNHmI

Threads
Jedi-Academies (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Gene-Goes-Ronin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71788-Gene-Goes-Ronin)

[GeneChing]

Actors With Stunt/Combat Abilities for Star Wars™: Galactic Starcruiser (https://jobs.disneycareers.com/auditions/#11194)

For: Walt Disney World
Audition City: Kissimmee
Location: Online Submissions
Looking For: Stunts
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
12:00 AM
Timezone: Eastern Time (US & Canada)


Disney Live Entertainment is actively accepting ONLINE SUBMISSIONS from actors of all abilities and gender identities from a diverse spectrum of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In a one of a kind, immersive Star Wars™ multi-day adventure, guests of the Star Wars™: Galactic Starcruiser come aboard the Halcyon and voyage through a galaxy, far far away – and performers will join them as respected crew members, guests, and interlopers as they all travel in style to the Outer Rim.

This is a fully immersive experience where the story unfolds over two nights in a myriad of ways. During the experience, a variety of adventures befall the ship and onboard characters find themselves caught in the intrigue of a galactic conflict. This company of actors will portray characters from a vast and diverse galaxy and will actively engage with passengers as much as with other performers. Every character will be leveraged for improvisational, scripted, and interactive moments.

Potential relocation assistance may be available to qualified performers hired into specific roles.

Performers employed by the Walt Disney World® Resort are covered under the terms and conditions of a collective bargaining agreement with Actors' Equity Association.

Upon signing of Walt Disney World® Individual Employment Contract, candidates are eligible to immediately apply for membership in Actor’s Equity Association.


SEEKING THE FOLLOWING:


REY: (5’6”-5’8”) Seeking a dynamic and athletic actor with an athletic, slender build and strong improvisational abilities to portray Rey. Rey is a survivor, toughened by her life as a scavenger on the harsh desert planet of Jakku. Despite dismissing herself as a “no one”, she learns that her life is being shaped by the mysterious power of the force. Actors with prior experience or knowledge in stage combat, Wushu, martial arts or hand-to-hand are encouraged to attend.

KYLO REN: (6’0”-6’2”) Seeking a dynamic and athletic actor with improvisational abilities to portray Kylo Ren. A menacing Force-sensitive warrior, Kylo is driven by his connection to the dark side to achieve his ultimate goal of galactic domination. Actors with prior experience or knowledge in stage combat, Wushu, martial arts or hand-to-hand are encouraged to attend.


SUBMISSION AND ONLINE AUDITION CHECK-IN INSTRUCTIONS:

This is a 2 step process. Candidates must submit AND check-in to the audition to be considered.


STEP 1 - SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Please click "My_Profile" to create or update your performer profile.
Under the LINKS section, upload your video audition link to your profile. See below REQUIREMENTS section for monologue selection(s).
YouTube links are preferred. Please have the link set as "unlisted".

STEP 2 - CHECK-IN INSTRUCTIONS

Visit Checkin.DisneyAuditions.com.
Click on audition titled "Actors with Stunt/Combat Abilities for Star Wars™: Galactic Starcruiser".
Take your selfie to complete the check-in process.
Please only submit yourself once.


Submissions will be accepted through May 21, 2021.

Potential virtual callbacks to be scheduled June 17 - 21, 2021. Performers will only be notified if they are being considered for a call back following their initial submission.

REQUIREMENTS:
 
Please prepare a character appropriate monologue or select one or more from the following link(s):
KYLO REN - SABER_TRAINER,
REY - SCAVENGER_HERO
In addition to the monologue above, please include a link to a performance reel demonstrating stunt/combat abilities. Preferences include demos of sword work, stage combat, gymnastics, and martial arts.
Must be at least 18 years of age and authorized to work in the United States.

© & TM Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

EOE - Drawing Creativity from Diversity - ©Disney Follow the link if interested (but it's today so be quick).

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6zlRqcFXgY

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAzY28C8Syc

[GeneChing]

High-tech 'sassen' duels are an active otaku's dream (https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2023/03/25/lifestyle/sassen-swordfighting-digital-sport)
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Part fencing, part kendo and part freestyle swordfighting, sassen combines multiple disciplines into an undeniably engaging package. | OWEN ZIEGLER
BY OWEN ZIEGLER
STAFF WRITER

Mar 25, 2023

It’s an otherwise normal October night in the Akihabara district in Tokyo as tourists and locals alike plod along the glowing neon streets. Young women in maid outfits beckon half-heartedly to men ambling in and out of ramen shops, PC parts suppliers and anime retailers.

Several floors above? It’s fight after fight to the death.

Figuratively speaking, of course — combatants grasp not steel katanas but carbon fiber batons laden with accelerometers and other sensors, all wrapped in foam to soften the inevitable blows. They swing not to maim or kill but for points, though there’s still a palpable, primal aggression in the air when two competitors face off.

From more than 2,000 entrants competing at satellite preliminaries across the country, a few dozen had won the right to come to Akihabara for the tournament finals of “sassen” and to vie for a ¥100,000 ($767) prize — a decent purse but somehow less motivating than the energy in the air I sensed that day.

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From more than 2,000 entrants, only a few dozen advanced to Sassen’s national finals in Akihabara in October. | OWEN ZIEGLER
A mix of traditional kendo, modern fencing and freestyle sports chanbara (a multidisciplinary combat sport that simulates historical Japanese melee combat), sassen can be difficult to define. First begun in 2016, the sport still has a nascent community, the technology underpinning it isn’t without its occasional hiccups, and the name itself is a created word combining inspiration from satsuzen, a Japanese word meaning “wind-breaking” or “dashing” speed, plus techniques used by famed Sengoku Period (1482-1573) swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

That all might be secondary to a much more salient point, one that snaps into focus as soon as you brandish your electronic sword and stand across a likewise armed opponent: sassen scratches an otaku-shaped itch like few other pursuits.

Rules of war
The basic rules of sassen are simple — the first to score two hits anywhere except their opponent’s head in a 60-second match wins. But pick up a “sassen-to” (the company’s native nomenclature for its high-tech swords) and you quickly learn that this is no simple game of high-tech tag.

For one, competitors are discouraged from swinging wildly. A dedicated official keeps track of the five total swings per match allotted to each contestant. Once those are used up, all you can do is evade your opponent until time runs out. The illuminated batons are also configured so only one section registers as the cutting portion of the would-be blade. Swinging wildly at your opponent may land a hit, but if contact is only with the deadened section of the baton, the embedded sensors won’t register a successful strike. Forget where your edge really is and the decisive blow you think you’ve landed might be the opening your rival is waiting for.

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Strength is less important in a sassen duel than speed, positioning and accuracy. | OWEN ZIEGLER
“Each baton is only about 300 grams and 65 centimeters long,” says Seita Sukisaki, chief technical and financial officer at Sassen, who spearheaded the Bluetooth-supported technology underpinning the equipment. “But the carbon sleeve inside has about ¥200,000 (about $1,520) worth of electronics.”

All that alone would be a solid foundation for thrilling duels reminiscent of bygone warriors, but sassen goes one step further: If a combatant lands a successful blow (signaled by a slashing sound played over the PA system), the other has an infinitesimal window, no more than a few tenths of a second, to land a counterstrike. If both combatants effectively cut each other down in the same breath, the two strikes cancel each other out, a sharp ringing sound blares instead of a slash and the breathless match continues.

Over the course of the afternoon, this game mechanic shows itself time and again to be a defining element of sassen. If one competitor outmatches another on footspeed, the other times a lifesaving counterblow instead. Conversely, if an overcommitment to an opening attack leaves a competitor defenseless, presence of mind and a quick wrist keeps them alive for one more moment and one more swing.

“Sassen is meant to be a martial art but one where there’s no real threat of injury or harm,” says Ryoma Motomura, creator of sassen and founder of parent company Satsuzen, who also served as emcee, play-by-play commentator and instant replay judge for close calls during the October competition. “I come from a family of karate-ka (karate athletes), so I know how difficult training and participating in traditional martial arts can be. Sassen, on the other hand, is for everyone — young and old, veterans and newcomers.”

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/np_file_217806.jpeg
Sassen founder Ryuma Motomura serves as emcee, play-by-play commentator and instant replay judge for some sassen sessions. | OWEN ZIEGLER
Suffering a blow from one of the batons doesn’t feel good, per se, but anyone who managed to walk away from a swiftly thrown dodgeball back in elementary school gym class can also bounce back from even the stiffest of strikes during a sassen match. According to Motomura, sassen is also priced much more invitingly for newcomers than other traditional martial arts. A beginner’s kendo set might run around ¥20,000 to ¥30,000, but one-off trial passes for drop-in sassen sessions go for around ¥1,000 to ¥2,000 with nothing other than your own athletic clothing required.

“Sassen’s soul is a martial art,” says Motomura. “But it’s a much more modern approach — and that’s to do with more than just the technology.”

Triumph and defeat
Astride the blue and black mats, two swordsmen bounce around each other on the balls of their feet. One might feint with their baton to the left; the other might shift his momentum to the right. A swing and a miss draws a few gasps from the modest crowd watching the tournament’s championship match — and when Rikitake Yuto manages to slip his opponent’s attack and counter with his own strike over the top, his half dozen friends explode into cheers.

With six straight wins to advance through the bracket, Yuto, a 20-year-old student and fencer at western Tokyo’s Chuo University, has emerged ahead of the more than 2,000 competitors that originally entered the full tournament.

“It’s my first time at sassen, but it feels great to win,” Yuto tells me, adding that a fellow fencing teammate (who had bowed out of the tournament in an earlier stage) had invited him.

“Kyori machigatta! (I got the distance wrong!)” the vanquished runner-up exclaims, grasping his baton with frustration in both hands above his head.

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A sense of camraderie pervades the sassen community despite its relative newness. | OWEN ZIEGLER
For whatever momentary disappointment there was, the mood quickly shifts to something much more communal as Motomura addresses the crowd of competitors and spectators and hands out trophies and awards. Many participants I spoke to emphasize that while the nature of sassen is inherently combative, there are rarely ever heated disputes about who struck who first or whether a particular point should be replayed. Indeed, tournaments like these are still rare for sassen as a whole — many just prefer to drop in and spar with like-minded players in this rented space in Akihabara, outside in a Tokyo park or anywhere else a few rounds might be had.

But what is the champion going to do with the ¥100,000 prize now rightfully his?

“We’re all going out for ramen,” Yuto says — much to the delight of his fencing comrades as they all prepare to spill back out on Akibahara’s lambent streets.

Jedi-Academies (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Sassen (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?72490-Sassen)
Kendo (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?50231-Kendo)

[GeneChing]

Lights, Sabers, Action: USA Fencing to Welcome Lightfencing as Summer Nationals Demonstration Event (https://www.usafencing.org/news_article/show/1277932)
06/28/2023, 10:45AM CDT BY BRYAN WENDELL
From July 5 to July 7, fencers and fans at the Phoenix Convention Center will be treated to an electrifying series of high-tech, high-energy lightfencing matches.

https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/photo/1ee2-191058284/Terra_Prime_header.png

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fans of all things Star Wars won’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to experience lightfencing. In fact, those attending the 2023 Summer Nationals in Phoenix won’t even have to leave the exhibition hall.

For the first time ever, USA Fencing is thrilled to welcome Terra Prime Lightfencing as a demonstration event at Summer Nationals. From July 5 to July 7, attendees at the Phoenix Convention Center will be treated to an electrifying mix of high-tech, high-energy lightfencing matches.

With a schedule filled with matches, discovery sessions, and Q&A time, there's plenty of opportunity to learn about this exciting sport, watch exhibition bouts and even try your hand at wielding an LED saber! Athletes from Terra Prime will be stationed right at the heart of the action, near Pod G, to ensure no one misses out.

Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing, was among those who had the bright idea to welcome Terra Prime to Summer Nationals and take this opportunity into hyperdrive.

"We are absolutely thrilled to bring Lightfencing to Summer Nationals,” he says. “It's a fantastic opportunity for us to celebrate and showcase the sport of fencing in a new and exciting light! I think our fencers will find themselves entertained and pulled in by the fascinating force of this emerging sport."

So, here's what's on the agenda:

Terra Prime Lightfencing
Phoenix Convention Center, main competition hall near Pod G

July 5
11 a.m.: Introduction and demonstration

11:30 a.m.: Lightfencing matches

12:30 p.m.: Q and A (lunch time)

1:30 p.m.: Discovery session for public

2 p.m.: Lightfencing matches

2:30 pm: Q and A

3 p.m.: End of the day's events

July 6
11 a.m.: Lightfencing matches

11:30 a.m.: Discovery session 1

12:30 p.m.: Q and A (lunch time)

1:30 p.m.: Discovery session 2

2 p.m.: Lightfencing matches

2:30 p.m.: Q and A

July 7
11 a.m.: Lightfencing matches

11:30 a.m.: Discovery session 1

12:30 p.m.: Q and A (lunch time)

1:30 p.m.: Discovery session 2

2 p.m.: Lightfencing matches

2:30 p.m.: Q and A

Jedi-Academies (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Fencing (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9851-Fencing)

[GeneChing]

USA Fencing brought a new blade to Phoenix: The 'Star Wars' lightsaber (https://kjzz.org/content/1851984/usa-fencing-brought-new-blade-phoenix-star-wars-lightsaber)
By Jill Ryan
Published: Monday, July 17, 2023 - 4:05am
Updated: Monday, July 17, 2023 - 8:30am


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLy6KJVvGYY

More than 5,000 fencers recently came to Phoenix to compete in this year’s USA Fencing Summer Nationals.

Amidst the competition was one event using very familiar weaponry.

Fencing is an ancient sport with its origins in multiple countries, including France. For centuries, the sport had three disciplines with three respective weapons: sabre, foil and épée.

“Sabre comes from war. And it’s the slashing weapon. So, the idea was you would slash somebody effectively across their torso or across their head, and you would kill the human, but not the horse, because the horse is an asset that can be brought to your side of the war in Europe,” said Phil Andrews, the CEO of USA Fencing.

In the sport, a person uses the entire sword to slash their padded opponent for the point. The two other disciplines are foil and épée. Both only use the tip of the blade to “pierce” the opponent, again while padded. But their targeted areas are different.

A fourth discipline

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Jill Ryan/KJZZ
More than 5,000 fencers came to the USA Fencing Summer Nationals 2023 in Phoenix, including light fencers.

But new to this year’s competition was what France has already recognized as its fourth fencing weapon: the lightsaber. Yes, like the one from “Star Wars.”

Well, not exactly. The LED lights in the lightsabers are contained in hard plastic tubing.

“It’s based on the LED saber, which is basically a replica like the lightsabers you see in ‘Star Wars’ and all that. We have a simplified hilt, so it’s essentially just a flashlight, very durable, we can bash them against each other without breaking them,” said Chad Eisner with Terra Prime Light Armory, or TPLA.

While it’s not as formally established in the U.S., this sport goes by many names, one of which is light fencing. Unlike traditional fencing’s combat zone, which is a long but narrow rectangular area, light fencing is a more 360 degree sport typically played in a circular arena.

“The French Fencing Federation has it as a full part of their nationals so we brought them here to trial it, demo it — I did it yesterday — for our participants here,” Andrews said.

Light fencing and its specific rules have been curated and tested by TPLA.

“In 2018, we were able to get the French Fencing Federation to accept this sport as the fourth fencing weapon. And they just had their first national tournament back in February,” Eisner said.

The Federation officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a sport in 2019.

System of priority in play

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Jill Ryan/KJZZ
The rule-set of light fencing takes a page out of each fencing discipline.

For light fencing, imagine what a regular fencer looks like in their padded white armor and meshed mask. Now, bulk up the pads, make it all black and add a lightsaber with a color of your choice — and that is what these athletes look like. And its rule set takes a page out of each fencing discipline.

“So, we can hit the entire body. We’re pretty much doing cuts, we don’t thrust with these blades because they injure you. And we work in a system of priority or right of way, so when one person starts an attack the other person must defend,” Eisner said.

Eisner said TPLA’s goal is threefold: to introduce sport to people who would not likely otherwise become athletes, be a gateway to fencing and to create a governing body that works in conjunction with USA Fencing.

Gender and body neutrality

https://media.kjzz.org/s3fs-public/styles/special_story_images_aspect_switcher/public/IMG_8977_0.jpg?itok=tBWoAqEf
Jill Ryan/KJZZ
Light fencing does not currently have different age and weight classes.

Like most combat sports, traditional fencing has divisions — usually by gender, age or skill level. One thing Light Fencing is introducing from of the get-go is gender and body neutrality.

Anna Faulkner is a TPLA-certified light fencer.

“Participation is varied from age, gender identity, body type, background. It is welcomed to anyone with or without a background in fencing or any other form of fighting,” Faulkner said.

Eisner said as they continue to build, they may create different age and weight classes, but the sport will remain coed while simultaneously being fair. He said that’s possible because the sport is played in turns where one player has to signal to the other that they have priority.

“And with that turn-based kind of system, somebody who is larger, stronger, and faster only does not automatically have an advantage,” Eisner said

COVID-19 has delayed many efforts to officially establish light fencing in the U.S. But an invitation from USA Fencing to demonstrate the sport here in Phoenix brought them another step closer.


Jedi-Academies (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
Fencing (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?9851-Fencing)

[GeneChing]

Read The Global Rise of Lightsaber as a Martial Art (https://unescoicm.org/eng/notice/qna.php?ptype=view&idx=8740) ~ my latest article for UNESCO ICM.

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Jedi-Academies (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65368-Jedi-Academies)
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[GeneChing]

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[GeneChing]

Star Wars' Jedi Force Martial Arts Style Just Became Official Canon (https://comicbook.com/starwars/news/star-wars-shon-ju-force-martial-arts-fighting-explained-high-republic/)
Star Wars has added the Jedi's Force Martial Arts fighting style to the official franchise canon.
By KOFI OUTLAW - December 14, 2023 12:00 pm EST

Star Wars has made the Jedi's Force-based martial arts style part of the official series canon. That would be the fighting style known as "Shon-Ju," and it has deep roots in the Star Wars Legends side of the franchise.

Who Is Star Wars' Shon-Ju?

https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2023/12/14/0f7c4dc2-7d5a-4137-a5cd-6ebb432b5900/star-wars-who-is-shon-ju.jpg?auto=webp&width=1200&height=1345&crop=0.892:1,smart
(Photo: Lucasfilm)
The Shon-Ju fighting style is named after the infamous Jedi padawan from Star Wars Legends who fell out of the order and started his own cult during the Clone Wars.

Shon-Ju was able to channel the Force into his hands and wield it aggressively, preferring that method of combat to traditional lightsaber techniques. He taught his followers to also use Force-hands combat, making them a formidable threat to the Jedi. This was all detailed in the 2010s Star Wars: The Clone Wars comic series story "The Deadly Hands of Shon-Ju," which has since been shifted over to the non-canon "Legends" section of the franchise.

Shon-Ju Is Now Star Wars Canon

The current Star Wars: The High Republic – Shadows of Starlight comic miniseries is filling in gaps of the year between Phase I and Phase III of The High Republic saga. Shadows of Starlight #3 centers on Jedi Padawan Bell Zettifar, and his unrelenting quest to punish the Nihil responsible for destroying the Republic's Starlight Beacon, as well as save his friend and fellow Padawan, the Wookie Burryaga.

Bell accomplishes the latter part, and is re-united with with his Wookie buddy; however, when the pair get promoted to Jedi Knights, they take on a mission with Jedi Grandmaster Veter to provide aid to a settlement on the planet Asternin that was attacked by the Nihil. That mission turns out to be an ambush; The Nihil used the attack to bait the Jedi out of the closed ranks of their temple, and strike at prime targets – like a Grandmaster.

When the Bell, Burryaga, and Veter find themselves facing a Nihil squadron, the Jedi Grandmaster orders the two Knights to evacuate the citizens, and prepares to make a stand against the enemy on his own. The Nihil think they have the upper hand when they activate a Lightsaber Nullifier that keeps the Jedi from using their fabled swords – but Grandmaster Veter doesn't need a sword when he reveals that he's "trained, you see, in an ancient art of unarmed Force combat... Shon-Ju!"

https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2023/12/14/ce64f516-3115-416c-a0c0-900315329d7f/star-wars-shon-ju-force-martial-arts-explained-high-republic.jpg?auto=webp&width=4040&height=2632&crop=1.535:1,smart
(Photo: Lucasfilm)
Sure enough, this canonized version of Shon-Ju is a method of Force-based martial arts that allows Veter to dispatch the entire ground force of Nihil raiders without having to lay a single hand on any of them. Veter ultimately loses the battle when the Nihil use their ship's weaponry to incapacitate him – but the display still proves that Shon-Ju is a powerful alternative to the kind of lightsaber and/or Force battle techniques we've seen before.

Star Wars: The High Republic – Shadows of Starlight is now on sale from Marvel Comics.

I can't keep up with the comics canon.

[GeneChing]

This is a new showcase event at the Tiger Claw Elite KungFuMagazine.com Championships for May 4, 2024. More info to come...

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[GeneChing]

Lightsaber Dueling Is Officially A Real-World Competitive Sport (https://screenrant.com/star-wars-lightsaber-dueling-competitive-sport/)
BY SEAN MORRISON
PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO
The perfect sport now exists for those who have always wanted to feel like a Jedi. Here's everything you need to know about lightsaber dueling.

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/lightsaber-dueling-real-sport.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=1140&h=&dpr=1.5

SUMMARY
Lightsaber dueling is now an official competitive sport recognized by the French Fencing Federation.
The sport follows rules similar to traditional fencing but emphasizes wide slashes and sweeping motions, like the moves employed by Jedi in Star Wars.
Lightsaber dueling is growing globally with competitions and schools around the world, including the United States and Europe.

Those with a love for Star Wars can now be a Jedi - or the closest thing to it - in real life, and they can do it competitively via the official sport of lightsaber dueling. Lightsabers have always played a central role in Star Wars, as they are the main weapons of both the Jedi and the Sith. Many viewers of the franchise have imagined using a unique lightsaber type and testing their skills in battle. Luckily, they can now put their dueling skills to the test and see how effective the lightsaber combat forms are for themselves in an official sport.

In 2019, the French Fencing Federation designated lightsaber fencing as an officially recognized competitive sport, according to BBC. Fighters can trade in metal rapiers for plastic sabers that glow in one of the canon lightsaber colors, a move the FFF made in the hopes of drawing in younger competitors and encouraging them to participate in a physical activity. While lightsabers can draw in younger crowds, it also makes the sport interesting for older viewers, as the glowing blades make matches easier to follow. For those who want to see how well they could fight as Jedi Knights, an understanding of the sport is necessary.

How Lightsaber Dueling Works As A Sport


https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/star-wars-luke-skywalker-and-darth-vader-lightsaber-duel.jpg?q=50&fit=contain&w=750&h=415&dpr=1.5
The first Jedi (or Sith) to reach 15 points wins the duel, or whoever has the most points after 3 minutes of play.

According to the full rules set by the Terra Prime Light Armory (https://www.terraprimelightarmory.com/lightfencing-rules-and-regulations/us-lightfencing-rules), lightsaber dueling is very similar to regular fencing, though there are some key differences that make it a more authentic Star Wars experience. Like traditional fencing, points are awarded for blows that land on the opponents' head or body, arms or legs, and hands, in increments of five, three, and one, respectively. The first Jedi (or Sith) to reach 15 points wins the duel, or whoever has the most points after 3 minutes of play.

The key difference is that in lightsaber dueling, points can only be scored if the blade starts pointing behind the attacker. That rule prevents the jabs that are key to traditional fencing, and encourages fighters to use wide slashes and sweeping motions instead, just like the best Jedi duelists. While rules may vary based on organization and location, they generally follow these broad guidelines.

Where Can You Compete In Lightsaber Dueling?
Lightsaber duels in the Star Wars trilogies.

Those who wish to participate in the dueling activities can find locations across the world. France was one of the first countries to recognize it as an official variation of fencing, and the first national championship was held in 2023, according to France 24 English. Lightsaber dueling is also spreading throughout the United States, with organizations such as the Lightspeed Saber League serving as a resource for official and unofficial teams while also sponsoring the formation of new groups across the country. There are also schools, like LudoSport International, that teach lightsaber dueling across the world, including Brazil, Italy, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and more.

Lightsaber dueling seems like a fantastic way to celebrate a franchise as beloved as Star Wars. The sport allows participants to get involved in a physical activity and join an in-person community, while at the same time showing off their impressive weaponry and skills. Until technology is able to replicate a real lightsaber like those seen in Star Wars, lightsaber dueling seems like the best option to feel like a Jedi in real life.

Sources: BBC, Terra Prime Light Armory, France 24 English, Lightspeed Saber League, LudoSport International

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This Year's Showcase Championship. READ Darth Nonymous on the Tiger Claw May the Fourth LED Saber Championship (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1734) by Gene Ching

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