TOPIC: The Spin Zone AKA Non-martial arts

A word of into
Hello Saberforge community. I hope you don't mind if I try to carve out a little section of the discourse here.

My basic shtick is that I have a fencing background and a little training in martial arts but I don't use that with my lightsaber work. Rather I approach lightsaber as a performance/juggling prop and focus on spins, flips, rolls etc. Most of what I can do, I learned through interactions with other lightsaber users through forums like this, and by integrating and adapting material from related disciplines like poi spinning and contact staff. My hope is that by posting here, I can draw on a different set of experts and peers who can help me develop what I do and advance my skill set. If in the interim, others can learn from the progress I have made, all the better. That then is my introduction and what follows are links to the video material I have created. While not an expert, I dare be proud of what I have accomplished. If any of you have comments, suggestions on technique, questions, or just want to post your own performance/non-martial work and join the conversation, please do.

The Tutorials
Let me begin with some of what I have put together. Some of the moves in these tutorials will be familiar, others are adapted from other disciplines, and still others are of my own design. As a word of general caution, any move in these tutorials (or indeed in any tutorial or juggling, martial arts, tumbling, etc.) has the potential to result in injury. As others on this forum indicate, start slow. Your muscle memory will pick up the move. If you are not fluid with it, don't try for speed. As a disclaimer, these are my humble attempts. I am a teacher by profession, so I like to think they are well explained, but perfection is neither claimed nor guaranteed.

Single saber work
The following playlist is my tutorial series on single saber. While I may add to it, I consider it fairly complete. It begins with a simple spin, and leads to more advanced moves.

Tutorial series link

Jar'Kai (dual Wield) saber work)
This playlist is my dual wield work (a work still in progress at the time of this post) and is considerably longer than the last. It also begins with the basics but gets much more complex. I do not recommend starting here unless you consider yourself proficient with single saber spinning in both hands.

Tutorial series link

Aerial work (flips and rolls)
This is one of my earliest tutorial series. As such, it contains some overlap and is a bit more rough around the edges. It also contains moves that are potentially more destructive to your saber and environment. Select your practice space accordingly.

Tutorial series link



Practice work
The following series is a lot of my practice work in chronological order. It is where I try out and develop new things. Almost all of the moves in the tutorials can be found in their infancy here. It also contains some performances to music.

Playlist link

Further Viewing
As stated, my primary purposes is to spark conversation and collaborative advancement. Accordingly, here are some youtube channels belonging to other people that I found particularly useful. I provide them here as a community resource.

Venturous
Venturous specializes in staff spinning, but he has some very good tutorials on single and double weapon. These videos definitely helped me over a hump or two.

Channel link

Banditcar
One of the earliest tutorial series, he has some good pointers even if the obi/ani instructions are a bit vague.

Channel link

CH3M15T
Mostly demos, CH3M15T is someone I work with on another forum. He specializes in all things dealing with dual wield and reverse grip spinning.

Channel link

Expert Village Bo Staff
This tutorial does not use a lightsaber, but I have found it is transferable to saberstaff and is well explained.

Tutorial series link

Lordtains
Another bo staff spinner, Lordtains, deals more with finger rolls than any other.

Channel link


End note
Hopefully these resources help. Please feel free to post others, ask questions, post personal videos, make suggestions, etc. Happy sabering.

This is a re-post of the 2014 year in review. This video is the result of an open submission call for videos on various saber forums. The following montage blends footage from the three participants (Darth Venturous, Darth CH3M15T, and Darth Cephalus) featuring saber spinning in different weapon combinations to music by the Noisy Freaks. Videos taken during 2014. Happy sabering and happy New Year

Trying out a new toy. Buugeng (dual s-staffs) spinning to Forest by System of a Down. Next step is to set these up with some EL tape. There is definitely a learning curve to these (see what I did there?) as they are very differently balanced. The uni-directionality of them also takes some getting used to. I can't help but think that, if I can get good at them, there might be some interesting lightsaber moves that can be adapted.

My sister in law just showed me this move with a staff so I thought I would try it with a saber. It is a contact roll around the neck and down the back of the arm. Not bad for a first attempt if I do say so myself.

Practice saberstaff freestyle routine set to Kismet by Bond. Edited down a bit for length. Features green blades in honor of the season. I tried to work in a few contact rolls I have been working on though they are still works in progress. Enjoy.

Obviously this is not a lightsaber, but I thought I would post it as it demonstrates some of what I am working on with my saberstaff. My sister-in-law left her contact fire staff when she last visited. Rather than let it sit in the corner, I did this. I am as yet not very good with these things but I think I managed it passably, though I have to say I would not try half of these things if the ends were ignited.

Practice saber-staff routine with spinning and some contact moves to Peter Gabriel's Steam. In this video: various spins, tosses, and rolls. Also two halo 360 rolls, some halo transitions, neck rolls, under-leg spins, and a couple things I don't know the names of. A couple near misses, but I am starting to get the hang of these things, and my modified saber-staff is working out well.

Been a while since I posted here. This is one of my new ones. I decided to show some of the spins I am working on. In here you will see some horizontal spin/hand switches and some leg work. Towards the end, there is also a neck roll to a toss. I have also been working on incorporating larger orbits into some of my work. Feedback welcome. Music is London After Midnight: Pain looks good on me. I don't know why, but blue blades seem to put me in mind of more Gothic music.

Looks like Your absence paid off!
You've gotten a lot better since last video.

Thanks gagade. That was the goal. Getting ready for this year's Spin Wars. Look for more on that in a month or two.

These are tests for a new project I am working on. I am planning to reboot my tutorial series with better videos with some bells and whistles. The number of bells and whistles will depend on how well the kickstarter goes. Thought I would share some progress here though. The sample moves are some of the old staples and a few new ones I have been working on. There is a bit of each (contact, staff, single, and aerials) except there is no dual wield in this one. I was trying to do them slowly and clearly in most cases.

Figured I would post this here. The topic of levitating sword came up in another forum. This is a first real attempt at the flying/levitating saber technique. Not polished yet and the equipment needs adjusted, but I will get there.

This is a more or less finished version of my flying or levitating lightsaber technique. It includes five different levitation techniques. The learning curve was steep on this one, but I think I got there in the end. Hope you enjoy.

Just a bit more of my levitating lightsaber technique, taken from a much longer video, with a first attempt at a black core special effect added. For the record, the blade color and black core are added in post, the rest of the effect is practical and looks just like that in person.

Trying out my new levitating saber rig. I made some adjustments for increased spin and even found a new move or two around the 6 minute mark. This is the longer version of the video from the last post and without the black core effect. Storm in the background made me think of metal, so I set it to appropriate music from Metalica. This version is listed as a private video so that Youtube did not flip out about the music track as much. I posted another with the audio stripped here

The first is the preferred version though. If you try to share it, share the second. Enjoy.

Kudos on the work you put into this. It does not go unnoticed.

Some excellent videos! I enjoyed viewing.

This is my first attempt at trying to dual wield levitating sabers. I have gotten pretty good with single levitating saber and can do most of what I want to do with it most of the time. Double is a different sort of beast. This is by no means perfect and there are some mishaps, but I think the technique has potential. Consider this a work in progress.

Most recent look at free form flying single saber. This one contains a single hand reel I have been working on in addition to more polished versions of the moves from the earlier videos. It also includes a couple of those jump strikes I was working on. I liked the way it went to the music.

Man it has been a while since I got back on the tutorial train. This one is a sort of palate cleanser to ease me back in. As I was test driving my new crossguard, I got to wondering what could be done with it. After a bit of poking and prodding, I shot a brief video on adapting to it and what moves were easy to do, which were hard, and which were very hard. I even threw in a couple quick ones that really only look good with a crossguard. I did not cover finger rolls. This was an oversight. I can tell you though that they go in the very hard section.