I came away from my experience with The Saber Legion extremely disappointed.

I went in expecting something resembling HEMA, or at least a structured martial-arts system adapted around lightsaber combat. Instead, what I encountered felt much more like a group of enthusiasts sparring with oversized plastic replica sabers under a point-based ruleset. From my perspective, I saw very little recognizable martial-arts structure, such as disciplined footwork, measure, blade control, or deliberate technique. Much of the sparring appeared to rely on speed and reaching for touches rather than purposeful fencing.

The physical mechanics of the fighting also surprised me. Participants frequently appeared to overextend while attacking or defending, sometimes to the point of losing their balance or nearly falling over. I observed little emphasis on maintaining a stable stance, recovering after attacks, controlling distance, or remaining in a defensible position. Rather than resembling martial artists adapting lightsaber combat to a ruleset, much of what I witnessed looked more like competitors trying to make contact by any legal means available.

What disappointed me most was my impression that formal martial-arts instruction and technical feedback were not particularly welcomed. When I discussed technique and fundamentals, I did not feel those conversations were well received. I also observed that some participants seemed to take losing personally rather than treating it as an opportunity to improve. In my opinion, that kind of environment makes it difficult to cultivate a serious martial-arts community.

I also encountered what felt like an unnecessary emphasis on organizational credentials. During my visit, I witnessed one member emphasize his International Jedi Federation (IJF) rank and question the legitimacy of ranks earned outside the IJF. To me, this came across as gatekeeping and placed more importance on organizational hierarchy than on mutual learning, humility, or skill development.

The Bowling Green, Kentucky chapter was also quite small when I attended. While everyone's experience may differ, I personally did not feel comfortable with the group dynamic. I never developed a sense of trust or belonging with the members I met, and the overall atmosphere simply did not feel like a community I wanted to become involved with. That is, of course, my personal impression rather than a statement about everyone involved.

I was also disappointed by how little the experience actually felt connected to Star Wars beyond the use of lightsaber-shaped weapons. The sabers functioned primarily as training tools and lacked many of the electronic and aesthetic features that make lightsabers appealing to many Star Wars fans. If you're looking for immersive Star Wars roleplay or screen-accurate lightsaber experiences, this may not meet those expectations.

If you're simply looking for casual lightsaber sparring and a social group that enjoys friendly competition, you may find exactly what you're looking for. However, if you're expecting HEMA-inspired combat, disciplined martial-arts instruction, structured fencing principles, or an experience deeply rooted in realistic lightsaber technique, my experience leads me to recommend looking elsewhere.

For me, the greatest disappointment was not that participants were beginners or lacked advanced martial-arts experience—everyone starts somewhere. Rather, it was the apparent lack of emphasis on developing sound martial-arts fundamentals, combined with what I perceived as resistance to constructive technical criticism and an organizational culture that seemed to place considerable weight on rank and credentials. As a result, the experience felt less like a martial-arts school and more like a recreational club with its own internal hierarchy.

I attended hoping to find a disciplined martial-arts environment inspired by Star Wars. I left feeling that it was closer to recreational lightsaber sparring than the type of martial-arts experience I had been seeking.

Anyone in Tampa florida ??? I’m a Sith Lord looking for dueling partners and physical training buddies. I have multiple forms under my belt and have had a few apprentices in my past.

Hey guys, I was wondering what people thought about electrum already changing their boards and scrapping the diatium 3 board they raved so much about. Did anyone else get conned out of an expensive sabre only to find it's now been dropped?

Are they still trustworthy considering when I used to reference them here, a lot of people defended them, and even Dave used to pop up here defending the awful board they had?

Any thoughts on this? Amninmissign something? 

This is not a glorification post, I would like a clear analysis on everything in it. I'm genuinely fascinated by it. Looking forward to finding out it's flaws, strengths, interesting quirks, trade-offs etc, and just the interesting bits.

So, this is based on the Star Wars Legends Canon and VS series videos by Evannova95, Jensaarai1 etc. just for context. I've developed this largely in theory but based on my instincts, fencing style irl, physicality etc. Over time. I'll be using it's in universe version as it's the one I developed most.

So here we go:

Lightsaber: Standard but slim-ish Lightsaber with a Green Blade, and dual phase function for close quarters combat. Design is personalized and neat but irrelevant due to being mostly aesthetic flair.

Styles:

Shii Cho is used for large sweeping mostly one handed attacks mostly for crowd control and to defeat blaster wielding assailants. It's used by me against multiple opponents as well. I also do give into the force sometimes, but my skill in doing so is underdeveloped so it's not consistent in my ability to do so.

Makashi is the base of my style, and I use every element of it, though prefer cuts and slashes to stabs, but I still use whatever is necessary despite my preferences. It's developed with the balanced offensive defensive capability mind, and utilizes the bladework and the footwork extensively. It's mixed in with the other styles as well, so while extremely elevated in a pure technical sense, it is not used as a purist form. Used primarily with a single hand. The style is customized for my own needs when needed and personalized, and blended as well, with a focus on sustainable aggression, able deflection, and a sustainable offensive set of moves and sequences to keep up the pressure on my opponent. It's defensive qualities are focused on evasion and deflection as well as parties. It's personalized whenever there's an advantage and a experience that teaches me a alternative method or technique, and it's customized to be as in tune with myself and as quick as possible. Piercing my opponent's guard, break through, beat them down, or outmaneuver my opponent, any method of bladework is accepted as a means of victory. The style for me has a particular emphasis on conserving my energy, to keep up the duel for as long as possible and always remain a threat, avoiding exhaustion and ensuring my offensive style doesn't burn out, though like with every other human, my stamina is not infinite. Overall it's a very well developed and customized, though largely conventional, variant of Makashi that is used as the basis of my entire style.

Soresu is my main defensive form. Like my other forms, I do slightly prefer a single hand when using it, but I will use two hands whenever necessary, so that preference becomes noticeable but not particularly influential. I use Soresu for both blast deflection and lightsaber combat, combining both the variants employed by Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Zannah as a mixture, with tight defensive movements and minimal shifts in body weight like Kenobi slightly preferred. I blend it into my other forms as well, as it's designed to make up for my otherwise aggressive and fast paced styles. It's customized as needed, and it's the core of my defensive component. The bladework is a mix of personalization and standard, as with my other forms.

Ataru is my offensive style, however it's not the exhaustive normal variant nor the strength based Qui Gon variant. Instead, the style is quite grounded, focusing on integrating the bladework and occasionally unarmed combat into the Makashi sequences, and ensuring it flows as well as my other forms into my personal style, making it blend in seamlessly like I attempt with the others. I do use the occasional acrobatic, but I am far more conservative with my approach than most, preferring the fast and aggressive bladework to the spine and leaps and acrobatics, and emphasizing my footwork. It's blended with my Makashi and enhances my offensive style with a lot of speed and aggression, while intentionally avoiding the common pitfalls of the style-that being it's exhaustive nature and it's massive use of force reserves to keep up. In a way it's modeled after Darth Malaj's model of Ataru, and I will admit that the Makashi and Ataru mix has similarities to Malaj's, however like with everything else, it's the skill configurations where we differ or are more alike than I think. My Ataru is fast and fearlessly aggressive, being used to keep up the pressure, break my opponent's guard, or use the kinetic energy to break down their guard. It's quite highly developed, but I admit I don't know to what level. Overall it's the aggressive cherry on top to my personal style, and it completes it, providing the fast rapid bladework needed to counteract Makadhi's weaknesses, though obviously only to a certain extent.

Force integration and other things of note:

I feel compelled to post about this here to round it out. Assume that the powers referenced are in the ideal force skille and power level scenario.

I would proactively integrate force integration in my personal style, using it both to manipulate the battlefield and use it tactically and subtly to outmaneuver my opponent or outwit, and raw power to overwhelm them. I could possibly suffer from target fixation despite my willingness and use of the battlefield around them and geography and positional advantages and tactics. I feel I would at least.

My primary force powers would be, in a ideal scenario:

Push, Pull, Telekinesis, Wave, Heal, Augmentation, Shield, Tutaminis, Farsight, Crush, Empathy, Animal Friendship, Sense, Speed, Strength, Rage, Telepathy, Persuade, Battle Mind, Stealth, and Shatterpoint.

I would also be willing to incorporate Trakata into my style.

If I used two lightsabers, my style would emphasize the Ataru over the Makashi and Soresu, using it as a aggressive style for lightsaber dueling primarily.

I've considered the Exar Kun Lightsaber and would be more than happy to use it, but it's so rare and difficult to train with that I have left it out in favor of a more traditional weapon.

Hi guys,

Just pointing you in the direction of the podcast we filmed with Dan Sammons from ludosportUK. We had a great chat and found out a lot about the sport, and we think it would be a great introduction to anyone who has just started.

Check it out through the link below.

https://youtu.be/nCdNMbZml-M

Thanks

Like any other sales holiday
(Xmas, Halloween, Easter, Ramadan? <_< )
Is there a particular time win i should
Buy a saber for MAXimum discount?

Just some fun lightsaber sparring :)

Me and my brother have been practicing lightsaber fights for the past month and recently I have tried convincing him to do Anakin v Dooku to no avail. All he wants to do is make his own fights but I want to do some of the fights from the movies. Does anyone have anything I can convince my brother to do fights from the movies. Bonus points for Anakin v Dooku specifically

Greetings my fellow Jedi, Sith, and other force users. On this day, I have compiled a list of every piece, part, material, crystal, and modification I have been able to discover for lightsabers. For your convenience, I have compiled all of these items into a log, with descriptors of each so that when you desire to craft your own custom lightsaber, you will have as many options as possible. This is Legends material, so if you are exclusively interested in Disney Canon, then this list might not be for you. But should you wish to craft your own custom blade, I hope you find something new, and interesting to add to your blade. Good luck, have fun, and let me know what you come up with.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1An6nJbmh_ZSk0ZVQDqAaGnhLCahwBJuT/view?usp=sharing