Home Events Geektown Gets Some Lightsaber Training From Silver Sabres!

Geektown Gets Some Lightsaber Training From Silver Sabres!

by TristaBytes

Whilst we were down at MCM London Comic Con recently, we got to meet the founders of Silver Sabres who run LED Sabre classes in the UK. That’s right; real-life Jedi Master Lightsaber training! As well as finding out all about the classes, we even got to have a go during one of their MCM taster sessions and see if we had the makings of Jedi (or Sith!) masters.

The full interview and footage of their classes can be found above.

Fas and Nick from Silver Sabres have a combined 50 years of experience teaching sword fighting and martial arts and their training is ratified by both the British Fencing Committee and the Chinese Martial Arts Council. As they say on their site: “The internal syllabus is taken directly from traditional Wu Shi Taiji Quan, and the external syllabus is a pure geometry system based on human anatomy, known as the Eight Spheres Geometry of Combat”. Well, I might not understand that fully, but I can say it’s a lot harder than it looks and it’s both incredibly entertaining and beautiful to watch, not to mention every Star Wars fans dream come true! Their performances are impressive and, being live sparring rather than choreographed routines, they have a spontaneity and life to them that’s hard to match in another medium whilst still being incredibly safe and fun. They explain their approach as more of a gladiatorial exhibition approach than a sports-based competition, one of the other advantages of LED sabres over steel for live combat.

The lessons are the full Jedi training programme for the real world; they mix mindfulness, traditional sword arts and discipline for competitive and dramatic live combat. The use of LED-based weapons and their inclusion of mindfulness and awareness aspects allow them to also safely teach children from a young age as well as adults.

Their sabres aren’t quite the ones you see displayed on every Star War’s fans mantle though – these are properly balanced, safe to use sabres made especially for contact sport use. They in themselves are beautiful items and, although they make all the correct wooshing noises to give you a nostalgic thrill, they are martial arts practice swords rather than toys.

As you can see from the video – it’s not easy to learn, but once mastered it is an impressive mix of cardio and chess-like skill to outwit your opponent on the battlefield. With the popularity of Star Wars continuing to grow and more movies on the way; it seems likely there will be a fair few new Jedi in our ranks soon enough under the tuition of Nick, Fas and the rest of the Silver Sabre team. So whether you are the next Luke, Rei, Kylo or Vader; this is a great way to get in shape and live out your dreams without having to visit the Jedi High Council on the planet Coruscant.

If you are interested in signing up for LED Sabre lessons they run courses across the UK as well as free taster sessions at many conventions including MCM Comic Con events throughout the year. They also run instructor training programmes to enable new teachers to start up their own branches. You can find out more information about them on their website www.silver-sabres.com or follow their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SilverSabresCombatAcademy/

May the force be with you!

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