Learning to sword fight

Now, some overly skilled Jedi/Sith could really be troublesome by briefly deactivating the saber at just the right moment. (See Mike Stackpole's "Dark Tide: Ruin" for Corran Horn's example of this.)

Attacker swings a blow towards the defender. Defender moves to parry. Attacker deactivates just before the blades make contact and reignites immediately after, without stopping the swing. The defender is now possibly off-balance from not meeting the expected blade, and the attacker is now presumably swinging his saber through some part of the defender.

Just a thought.

Here's a nickel - and I do want my three cents change.

 

I allways thought it would be cool if you put a unignited saber up to someone and then ignite so you wouldent have to stab

 

^ Hmmm... , sounds like a good idea.

 

YouAgain -

Anakin Solo did that trick, in the same book. Pushes an alien over a balcony. Alien's buddy looks overthe side to see what happened. Anakin sneaks up behind it, puts his saber up to the back of its head, and ignites it. Game over.

 

Attacker swings a blow towards the defender. Defender moves to parry. Attacker deactivates just before the blades make contact and reignites immediately after, without stopping the swing. The defender is now possibly off-balance from not meeting the expected blade, and the attacker is now presumably swinging his saber through some part of the defender.

Hmm. Since we agree that this is for theatrical combat, yes, it does sound like an interesting manuver. However, I don't think this would work very well during the "climactic duel" as these tend to be very intense, with every movement being the equivalent of "check" and a missed parry meaning the character's dismemberment or death.

Furhter, given the time it takes to activate or deactivate a lightsaber, this move would be difficult for all but the most proficient of Jedi swordsmen.

 

I remember reading that the old style sabre fighting was based on several different styles of sword fighting and tennis Now, especially in TPM and AOTC, more traditional styles are emphasized.

Kendo is a good place to start. This site has info on Kendo in general and also a list of dojos/schools in specific areas. There are also international links.

http://www.kendo-usa.org

Community colleges offer fencing classes in foil, epee and saber, and are usually very affordable (in my neck of the woods, its $15 a semester). You can check there too

 

I learned all the Kendo sword fighting at the Community College at which I go. It was only $15!

 

Or, if you wanted to get really nuts, and save a little bit of money, you'd go to renstore.com or museumreplicas.com and check out their instructional videos and books.

RenStore has La Verdadera Destreza Vol 1 & 2: The True Art and Skill of Spanish Swordsmanship, The Flower of the Battle, Broadsword for Stage and Screen, and Rapier for Stage and Screen. Videos are about $35-$40 American.

Museum Replicas has (these are books, mind you - they have most of the videos I've already listed, too) Methods of Elizabethian Sword Play, Encyclopedia of the Sword, Swashbuckling, Sword Fighting, and a few others. Prices range from about $20US on up.

Split the cost of a couple of books or videos amongst your friends, which would be cheaper than an actual class, and learn from them.

In all reality, the "Stage & Screen" videos will probably recommend that you recieve some sort of formal training. However, as I've stated before, the aim of true martial instruction is actual combat. Admittedly, we don't walk around with swords anymore, but there are kendo and fencing tourneys held in different areas, and these are the "combat" for which the practitioners train. Most of us don't intend to go that far.

In all reality, we're still talking about staged combat here. It looks real to the audience, but has nothing to do with real combat. Our goal as actors and stage fighters is to entertain others without getting hurt ourselves.

I'm done now.

 

Great thread, although it would appear that it has turned into a 3 man conversation. Alas, I have nothing to bring to the table. What I know I learned mearly by watching many movies, and I am sure I don't know as many of the details as you do. I've always loved swordplay, especially in film. Although the leitmotif these days is to have our hero running around with a gun in each hand, I still enjoy it much more when they've got an epee OR a katana. Kenobi had it right:


"A civilized weapon, for a more civilized age."

I think that goes for the blade in general.

 

i train in Kendo, Kenjitsu, Smaurai and i learn many katana styles.... learning these has helped me plan good fights for my films...... but that isn't NOT the reason why i train

 

It's "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age"...

Anyway, I was just playing with my double bladed lightsaber (actually just a 6 ft stick of rattan that I haven't made into an SCA weapon yet for this) and I've got a little video for those who want to see here. Since it's an angelfire site you'll have to drag and drop the link into you browser and if to many people try to download it it will lock off because of bandwidth restrictions so try again later.

And yes, I know the picture quality isn't that great. I made it with my webcam since that's all I have right now and I couldn't see where the blade was in almost half the frames so adding the glowing blade was difficult. Anyway, hope you like it.

 

Show-off

I prefer to keep my talent "hidden" until I have an opponent to battle.

 

ok ppl...the topic has come up many a time about saber-chuks

most designs i have seen have been flawed...because everyone knows to use nun-chuks you have to rebound them off your body. most designs have had a short handle with a six inch or so blade.....now boucning these babies off your body would slice you up so fast.......so what if the handles were longer.....say 15 inches(or more) with a slightly shorter blade.......then there would be sufficient handle space to bounce off.....it might be a little un-wieldly (sp?) though

but i have thought of a perfect use for a jedi to use it for..... it can be like a field weapon....especially designed for blaster bolt deflection....

so does anyone have an idea on this?
plus could someone direct me to some site or a place where i can learn to use nun-chuks effectively?

thank you for listening to my dribble

 

Wistler, I'm working on rotoscoping a clip of a friend of mine and I with a short fight but I prefer to show that one because my friends cannot match my speed without many hours of rehersal and the one that I have on video we only had a half hour to practice. However, I hope to have some time to work on a better one soon but unfortunately I'm in college right now and don't have access to a video camera and my SW buddies. The first break I have that I should have some free time on will be this spring so I hope that I'll be able to create something good then

 

^ I sense much fear in you. Tell your friends you must, to use the Force. They must feel the Force flowing through them. For it is what controls their actions.

 

Wow, where did you go to get a kendo class for $15 a semester? What about the Y?

 

Call a community college and ask if they offer them. That's where I learned to fight.

 

Here there is no Kendo classes that arent extremely expensive. But Aikdo on the other hand is affordable. Personnally I think Aikdo is the style a real Jedi would use. Graceful, deadly but also with a bit of gentleness.

 

There are several styles of aikido which teach aiki-ken (aikido sword work). But remember that aikiken is meant to broaden aiki movement; it is now pure swordsmanship.

I studied aikiken for several years and trained with the intent of learning effective sword cuts. And then I trained in kendo in which I also trained as if I were doing tradition sword (i.e. I avoided light touches during competition and only attempted cuts that would work with a real sword.)

 

Seems to me that the real reason that we are talking about this is that we all want our lightsaber battles to look great! No matter how great your fighting style, technique and coreography are, if you just shoot two guys at full frame in a static shot it is going to bomb. Look at the hanger fight in EPII. Lot's of closeups, fast cuts, over the shoulder shots! It was extremely exciting. I believe it was "Lords of the Sith" that did an excellent job of the fast cuts and closeups.
The point being...
Sometimes suggesting that it was a great fight might be better than it really being a great (technically) sword battle.

First Post. Thought I would stick my neck out and see if my head got cut off...

 

::cuts Jyro's head off::

whoops! Accident! I swear!

::duct tapes it back on::

Sorry bout that man. I agree with you to a point. While good cinematography does add a lot to a scene, there's lots of factors that help out a good filmed swordfight.

IMO, the most important is the skill of the fighters. Without it, no matter how good your camera tricks are, it's still just not going to look that good.

Another is speed. How fast paced it is. Out of all the lightsaber fights I think the Duel of the Fates takes the cake. Yoda's would be second. However, with Obi-Wan's and Vaders in ANH it was much slower paced, partially because Sir Alec was an old guy but also because they had to get their dramatic diologue in there. But visually, it wasn't that great of a fight.

Music, setting, and the camera angles also play an important role, but I still feel that the most important factors are the variety and speed that can only be brought by talanted swordsman.

Btw, I've just finished working on a new clip of my friend and I fighting that you can see here.

EDIT: Reminder, as it's being hosted by anglefire, you'll have to drag and drop the link into the URL box.

 

Anybody have any tips on how to do the one-handed twirl move that they have a lot in the movies? All I can manage to do is slightly rotate my wrist.

 

^ It's all in the wrist. Practice, practice, practice. Keep the blade next close to your body. Swing with one hand in a downward motion, and come back up making a complete circle. You also need to slightly open your hand when you twirl. It takes time, but you'll get the hang of it. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks. What is the best thing to practice with?

 

Anything that's a long poll. About 3 1/2 ft. is the length of a lightsaber. I use a round piece of wood from a hardware store to practice. I try to save the electronic lightsabers or Parks sabers for battle that are more "show." You know, like to impress other SW fans at Premieres, Cons, and what not.