TOPIC: Caught the neighbors gawking

So, I practice with my main saber nightly out in the back yard (spins, general Kata) and last night I caught my neighbors in their garage across the street doing a "WTF!" moment while watching me. It was the Dad and his three kids. I couldn't really hear what they were saying but the youngest kid seemed kind of excited.

Also happened to walk out the other night while my next door neighbor was BBQing on his deck and exchange a very strange wave and hello with my saber ignited...

Kind of interesting to see other people reactions.

What did you do them after you 'caught' them?






Honestly I've wanted to practice in my back yard but haven't been willing to risk the gawkers myself yet.

I wonder what sort of looks I'll get once I have my two Katana sabers hanging from my belt all the time...

Broll wrote:
Went something like this...

Jas-Ot wrote:
Interestingly enough, there is a Spaceballs soundfont on saberfont.com. The lockup sound is the whole "I hate it when my Swartz gets twisted!" bit.

I've had cases of this in the small town I live in. Had the same truck drive by very slowly about 5 times in an hour while I was attempting to practice my old kata from years ago. Had the police creep by a couple times too to figure out WTH was going on in my yard as I tried to do the obi/ani spins (fail miserably at it but I'm getting better!)

Another night I was chasing the kids around late at night with it on and a different neighbor sat on his steps and watched before his curiosity got the better of him and he wandered over to talk to me while the kids were off with my Venomous Fury.

He seemed absolutely thrilled these were a real thing that could be acquired and was pretty stoked when I let him get a closer look at it. He thought at first it was a cheap walmart special until it started to get darker and it was crazy bright. His wife didn't look too impressed as I told him where I got it and let him handle it some to see how it feels.

But hey if I can get another person on the block with one, it'll be awesome! Still working on getting the money to buy my wife one too. The more the merrier!

The awkward moment with my next door neighbor was in the middle of an orbit precession, he made a great face as I waved to him with the saber spinning behind my back

Zeddicuus wrote:
Here's a few videos that might help you out with it. I learned to do it relatively quickly, and the first video helped me master the correct form. The second video is what really got through to me. He talks about pulling the pommel, and that is really what helped the most.

Knightfall_Survivor wrote:
There's really two methods for the Obi-Ani/Plumb blossom/5th Orbit

There's the visually pleasing method which sees the pommel drop 90 degrees so the weapon is perpendicular to the ground, and the more battle effective method where the pommel goes just about horizontal to the ground and the weapon is pulled/whipped out more from the side.

The first method is a little harder to learn and requires more dexterity. It does look better, but at the pinnacle of the spin behind the back there is a loss of kinetic energy and a weak point where contact from another weapon would potentially disarm you or force your blade into you. Visually it is more appealing, no question there, but IMO less practical.

The second method is more useful in a combat sense, in that the "spin" behind the back doesn't have a weak point and is actually meant to deflect an attack coming in from the side or behind. This has you doing the first minor orbit (forward spin) and then bringing the blade behind the back with the pommel to your side held firmly just about horizontal to the ground and then whipping the the blade out from the side. Using your shoulder and hips to provide strength in the motion. The idea here would be to imagine that something had made contact with your blade behind your back and you need to deflect it away from you. Chain the motions together and the blade with have a minor spin to it, but the kinetic energy is pretty fluid throughout.

Start with the second method, it is easier to learn and while not the the most effective defensive maneuver it has better value than the first method. Once you learn that motion you can start to working on dropping the pommel more and more till you get a more complete spin for a better visual appeal

Those look like they will be very helpful! I watched some other videos but they didn't go into the details that these two do.

Thank you very much! Once I get that down pat I can really put on a show for the surrounding block haha

No problem! The moment I saw that spin, I knew I had to learn it!
Can you show me a video of this, please. I've already mastered the spin, by the way, and it works fine in combat. I do it so fast that nobody wants to attempt to come at me while I do it.

Knightfall_Survivor wrote:
This is a pretty good video on it.



And yes, most people who haven't done any weapons training that see you doing an orbit precession will probably back off a bit. That being said, someone who has had some weapon training will attack your center line or wait for the 5th orbit which fully exposes your front.
But hopefully, you would realize that the 5th orbit is pretty useless unless you need to change direction. And if you are doing orbits, that you should be drawing the weapon across your center line to deflect any direct center attack, or be pretty adept and transitioning from minor to major orbits or guards.

Generally speaking weapon spinning looks really cool, and when choreographed makes for some stunning fight sequences. Practically speaking though, it takes A LOT of skill and practice to make wide use of spinning in an actual fight.

I have no back yard, and there's not really enough room to practice inside, so I always have to find somewhere else...

The first night we had sabers, we tried a nearby park. It didn't take long before a bunch of teens had gathered around to watch, but that came to an abrupt halt when the park sprinklers came on and we all sprinted away screaming.

For a while, we could hardly do anything outside unless the sabers were off, because they attracted a lot of bugs. That has been better lately (especially if I use a red blade), but sprinklers are still an issue. Pretty much every nearby area with grass has an obnoxious tendency to get watered during prime evening practice hours. Even if I wait until several hours later, the grass is still wet enough that it can cause electrical problems when a saber gets dropped.

So I found an empty field which doesn't get watered, and it works okay-ish but the ground is less soft so I'm a little afraid of dropping anything. Also, it's right in front of a house with a grumpy old man who is always watching people and dislikes "anything weird". The first time I encountered him, he blinded me with a police tactical assault flashlight and started interrogating me so I thought he was a cop or something.

If it's late enough at night that neighbors aren't active, I can use a small grass area between the building and the street... but it's small enough I'm always hitting a bush or part of a tree on wide swings, and if I accidentally toss the saber it'll probably land in rocks or on concrete.

A back yard would be wonderful. Or a room with a high ceiling and a soft floor.

Regardless, I've been learning some basic spins and how to link them together. Last night I started learning basic grip-switch tosses, like how to enter reverse grip during rotation 2-of-3 of the Obi-Ani spin and how to get back to a regular grip during an inverted figure 8. It's lots of fun so far. And they say one should be loose during the Obi-Ani spin... well, how about so loose I'm not even holding the hilt?

I'm tempted to get an empty Consular and a blade and make a basic stunt light setup from spare flashlight parts, so I'll have a cheap spin-friendly "beater" to use for the riskier moves while learning. Or maybe an even cheaper UltraSabers hilt, if they have anything suitable (Initiate v3 looks like it's probably the best shape, but still not as nice as a Consular or Disciple). Eventually I'm hoping to be able to treat the saber as sort of a dance prop, doing my own little saber kata raves for fun and for exercise.

Knightfall_Survivor wrote: This explains a combat version of it pretty well, starting at about 7m25s. It doesn't look as nice as the full Obi-Ani flourish, but it seems more practical, is easier to do, and maintains a firm grip the whole time.
https://youtu.be/9EI88SXuMbo?t=443


This is from the Ronin Custom Armory guy who does all sorts of really cool saber etching and other custom mods.

I've come to accept the looks my wife and I get when we are playing around in the yard with our sabers. The looks aren't so much "WTF" but more "damn I wish I had one of those". And the neighborhood kids love it, so all is good.

I don't care who's watching, I'll even spin at work!


I'll mess that giraffe up too!

So, in my mind there are really three different categories of weapon training, all of which require lots of practice and skill to do well.

Solo artistic: I think most of the folks I see saber spinning fall into this category. This is the demonstration style forms and features lots of flourishing and acrobatics. It is meant to be very technical, visually appealing, and focuses more on form rather than effectiveness. Think baton twirling, or the insane weapons demos you might see at a martial arts events. These types of forms have looser grips on the weapon, sometimes the weapon leaves the hand or travels across the body, generally no-no's in real combat but looks really awesome.

Combat: Direct effective training for actual fighting. It's not flashy, even when some of the movements and forms have artistic counterparts. For instance, orbits in combat are going to have a tighter grip on the weaon and more of the body is used to move the saber, the spins are not as tight and they draw across the center line in precessions to guard against a center line attack/thrust. Watching someone practice low, mid and high guards with foot work isn't most exciting thing to watch, but it's effective.

Stunt choregraphy: What I feel is the most difficult style to learn since it requires some level of mastery of both solo artistic and combat styles to do well. There are entire martial art schools in China dedicated to teaching this, and some of the best film starts come out of them.

Whatever category you fall into, practice, practice, practice. They all take lots of skill and hard work to be good at. and of course there is some overlap into all three. I focus on combat skills, but do still practice some artistic forms.

I fall more in combat effectiveness, as I still like to practice the kata I learned for the katan years ago. Been so long since I used it seriously but I still try.

If I'm going to learn orbits, I'd rather learn the more combat effective version. Spins and frills are nice but I don't like the idea of being disarmed easily, even with something like this.

I just do spins and stuff because I mean I don't really have anyone to do anything else with. It's something I can do on my own that looks cool for cosplay at cons and stuff. It's a lot of fun. Maybe if I had some people to actually do more with, I would. Buuuuuut I don't, unfortunately.