TOPIC: Contact saber: a work in progress

So building on this


Day one attempts at a staff roll over the shoulder then around the neck. Still finding the balance point at the back of my neck, but getting there.


And now with a saber. First day attempts at a halo 180 roll and various other things. Also testing out my new saberstaff. I left in some of the misses. Music is Gravity's Rainbow by The Klaxons.


I still have a way to go.

This is a walkthrough of the moves I am working on with contact lightsaber. The end goal is to do these without the hand contact with the saber rolling along my shoulders. This video shows three different moves in hand contact form. Featured here is my extra long saberstaff as well.

This video was taken after about 4 days of practicing this move. The goal here was to roll it over my shoulders, around my neck, and back over my shoulders, while turning 360 degree, without gripping the sword. In this video, I am using a balanced flame saber, though this move is a bit easier with a staff. I will see if I can get one with my saber-staff over the weekend.

A couple things I started working on today. The first is a simple contact move that starts like an angel roll but is allowed to fall off the arm to be caught by the off hand. This is being shown with a contact fire saber. Eventually, this move will be able to be done in dual wield where the off hand pops the saber to the main hand while the other saber is rolling back over the wrist. I am not that good at it yet.



The next is a full angel roll. This move is an intermediate contact move seen here with contact flame saber. It is a roll along outstretched arms from one hand to the other.



The next is a prayer roll. I think you will see why. This is a basic contact hand switch where the saber rolls to the outside of a hand, the hands come together, the saber continues to the outside of the other hand, and then wraps around into a grip.



The final is called a halo 360. This is a move consisting of a halo roll followed by a neck wrap, followed by a second halo while the body spins 360 degrees.



A few more to come

I was playing with my contact sword today, and I learned to do a contact move called a fishtail. A few days of trying, and it just clicked. So my immediate thought was, "if I can do this with a contact staff, can I do it with a lightsaber?" The answer...yes, but not very gracefully yet. The lightsaber lacks the grip, the weight, and the extended sweet-spot of a contact tool. Makes it hard to control. I will have to try it with a staff and work on it more. In this video you see me start out with a half fish and move into a full single. With a contact tool, I can keep this going. With a saber as yet, I have to bail after one full rotation.

Excellent work. Thinking outside the box, and looking for techniques outside of the standard is what I am currently doing as my ultrasaber is too heavy for fancy spin stuff.

Thanks, but the weight of the saber is essentially irrelevant unless you are throwing it. Balance and size are the main concerns. I have a saberforge saber, but all of my stunts are Ultrasabers, because they are a lot cheaper and I don't mind them getting beaten up. All the spins can be done with any saber form any of the major manufacturers. If you are looking for help, I have a thread with a lot of my old tutorials on this forum here http://saberforgeforum.com/forum/saber-combat-tutorials/222-the-spin-zone-aka-non-martial-arts feel free to ask specific questions if I can help you get a handle on any of the fancy stuff.

Just a quick video of my progress with a fishtail spin with a lightsaber and with a contact sword. Still difficult to get more than one rotation with a lightsaber because of the small center mass.