Lightsaber dueling.... New Martial Art?

[Hanzou]

So I was looking to pick up a lightsaber as a gift and I was pretty surprised by how high in price and quality these toys can go. People spending hundreds, and even thousands of dollars on what is essentially a flashlight with a plastic tube was quite interesting to me.

Anyway, while flipping through some of these "weapons", I noticed that some were used for "dueling". Puzzled, I decided to dig a bit deeper and I found a couple of organizations that teach the actual "Jedi" schools of fighting that comes from the films or some other sort of lore.

Here's one of the schools with a pretty impressive website;

The 7 styles of combat | LudoSport International

My question is this; Can these lightsaber duels, and these made-up fighting systems be really considered a new martial art/sport? Why or why not?

BTW, if you haven't gotten a chance yet, check out the new Star Wars movie. It's pretty solid.

 

[drop bear]

It depends how much practicality they sacrifice to adhere to the lore.

Which is an issue for a lot of martial arts anyway.

Otherwise yeah why not. Martial arts are made up. This should not be any different.

They seem scarily competent.

 

[ballen0351]

Wow I had no idea this even existed lol.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Sure, if you want THIS to happen

 

[Buka]

Crazy, stupid, way cool and awesome.....all at the same time!

 

[Hanzou]

It depends how much practicality they sacrifice to adhere to the lore.

Which is an issue for a lot of martial arts anyway.

Otherwise yeah why not. Martial arts are made up. This should not be any different.

Honestly, I view this more like Kendo or Fencing for the 21st century. I suppose you could injure someone with one of those sabers if the shaft is hard enough.

They seem scarily competent.

Yeah, out of all the groups I've seen the Ludosport guys seem to be the most advanced with actual techniques, forms, and ranks.

And they're spreading;

Star Wars Jedi lightsaber combat techniques taught - BBC News
Star Wars: Is Ludosport using lightsabers the next sporting craze?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

They consider themselves to be a sport. There are a lot of different organizations for it, some, mainly ludosport, consider themself a martial art, but from what I've heard tend to be more of a sport than anything else. Many of their principles come from kendo/fencing. Other, less international ones, like the New York Jedi Academy, take most of their stuff from stage combat so I would consider them much less of a martial art.

...I think I may be too obsessed with Star Wars...

 

[Tony Dismukes]

It's just not the same without the sound effects.

 

[RTKDCMB]

Well it's a step up from broomsticks.

 

[Hanzou]

They consider themselves to be a sport. There are a lot of different organizations for it, some, mainly ludosport, consider themself a martial art, but from what I've heard tend to be more of a sport than anything else. Many of their principles come from kendo/fencing. Other, less international ones, like the New York Jedi Academy, take most of their stuff from stage combat so I would consider them much less of a martial art.

...I think I may be too obsessed with Star Wars...

So would you consider what Ludosport is doing a Martial Art?

I find the entire thing really interesting. Especially when you couple it with the online lightsaber stores where people purchase or build custom lightsabers. Some of them are quite nice;

Some are even specially designed for dueling.

I'm not some Star Wars fanatic, but I could have something like that mounted up on my office desk.

 

[Ironbear24]

It seems to basically be kendo with a glowing shinai. I can see this is a sport martial art.

 

[JowGaWolf]

So I was looking to pick up a lightsaber as a gift and I was pretty surprised by how high in price and quality these toys can go. People spending hundreds, and even thousands of dollars on what is essentially a flashlight with a plastic tube was quite interesting to me.

Anyway, while flipping through some of these "weapons", I noticed that some were used for "dueling". Puzzled, I decided to dig a bit deeper and I found a couple of organizations that teach the actual "Jedi" schools of fighting that comes from the films or some other sort of lore.

Here's one of the schools with a pretty impressive website;

The 7 styles of combat | LudoSport International

My question is this; Can these lightsaber duels, and these made-up fighting systems be really considered a new martial art/sport? Why or why not?

BTW, if you haven't gotten a chance yet, check out the new Star Wars movie. It's pretty solid.

Shooooooooot Me NOOOOOOOOWWWW!!! Then burn my eyes. Why don't people just learn a real sword fighting form and then go pick up a stick or a lightsaber or balloon sword, or whatever they want to pick up, but at least learn the real thing.
There is so much to be gained by.... you know what. Not even worth the lecture.

Stop spending money to pretend to learn how to sword fight and go out and actually learn how to sword fight.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Sure, if you want THIS to happen

Sad part is that there are real schools out there light that lol

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

So would you consider what Ludosport is doing a Martial Art?

No. It's meant to be a re-creation (closer to LARPing recreation then HEMA) and a sport (similar in a way to fencing). I don't consider olympic fencing or LARPing to be martial arts, so I don't consider this to be one either. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be fun, but more as recreation than anything else.

I find the entire thing really interesting. Especially when you couple it with the online lightsaber stores where people purchase or build custom lightsabers. Some of them are quite nice.

I've actually built two of them! Mainly because my friend has a shop that I can use whenever I want, and we wanted to see if it would be cost-efficient to make/sell (it's not), but still counts.

 

[thanson02]

My brother is a HUGE Star Wars fan and was trying to get me to do this. Looks like a fun sport. To be honest though, when it comes to my martial training, I am not inspired by space wizards with laser swords.

Although I do like Asian style fencing. Good arm and focus workout.

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[sifulane]

We recently launched a lightsaber class at our dojo. As that even lightsaber skills as seen in the movies are based heavily upon real swordsmanship techniques, our students are learning real swordplay. The lightsabers as training weapons just make it more fun.

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[Langenschwert]

Whatever gets people active and having fun is cool.

There are folks who do SCA fighting as martial art and train very hard. I can see this becoming a similar kind of thing.

However, it's one more thing for me to tell my friends no, we don't do that in my club.

 

[Chris Parker]

We recently launched a lightsaber class at our dojo. As that even lightsaber skills as seen in the movies are based heavily upon real swordsmanship techniques, our students are learning real swordplay. The lightsabers as training weapons just make it more fun.

Well… it really depends which movies you're talking about… it was a bit more sword-based in the first films, with Bob Anderson being the main guy behind it all… but the prequels were choreographed by Nic Gillard, who drew inspiration from many, completely non-sword sources… such as tennis strokes.

And, no, your students are absolutely not learning "real swordplay". At all.

 

[sifulane]

Well… it really depends which movies you're talking about… it was a bit more sword-based in the first films, with Bob Anderson being the main guy behind it all… but the prequels were choreographed by Nic Gillard, who drew inspiration from many, completely non-sword sources… such as tennis strokes.

And, no, your students are absolutely not learning "real swordplay". At all.

Sorry Chris, but I have to disagree. I am the primary instructor for our lightsaber class. I have had and continue to train extensively within the sword arts: iaido, kenjutsu, western fencing, medieval sword, and even some machete. I designed our lightsaber class to teach realistic skills specifically. Granted that the more flamboyant techniques are not classical swordsmanship, but they are fun.

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