Testing the STAR WARS lightsaber Spin DEFENCE! 

Don't forget, lightsaber techniques are always more effective when Duel of the Fates is playing in the background.

I love these types of videos. I always imagine Shad's neighbors looking over the fence and going: "Ugh, these guys are playing with their swords again..."

I always considered that they used the Force to put strength behind their blows and when defending said blows. Take Yoda, for example. He straight up overpowered Dooku with his tiny little body, that should never be possible with physical strength alone.

17:06 One thing I’d like to note already for the ridges on Vader’s lightsaber is that both of his hands are robotic, so comfort and ease of grip don’t apply the same. He won’t exactly care about the grip digging into his palms wrong.

Spinning is Anakin's favorite move he was doing it as a child in space battles and pod races. Grown men playing with toy lightsabers This is what keeps us young at heart.

The amount of energy Shad has in this vid. Is fantastic to see him almost acting like a young kid. Let's do it again let's do it again. This is fantastic content thank you guys

I like how Nates natural inclination is to use it one handed and extended like a rapier.

From what I know, this spinning move is something Hayden (actor for Anakin), added himself. He mentioned in multiple interviews that he decided to try this move after seeing a stun actor on the set doing the move. It has now become his "signiture move"

So, from my understanding of in universe lore, the flourish is a form 3 maneuver to deflect multiple blaster bolts. What Anakin does is a hybrid of form 3's flourish with form 4's full body rotation for momentum into a form 5 counter offensive. These are all forms Anakin studied. The reason they work so well is the use of the force to augment the user. This is mainly what I got from EU books.

The thing about fighting with a lightsaber is the lightsaber is only part of the fight. Force users in the Star Wars universe use the force to enhance their combat abilities, their speed, their prediction of their opponent, etc. even certain forms require a level of the force to work like Vaapad. These videos while fun to watch arn’t to be taken literally. A normal human with no potential with the force would more likely harm themselves accidentally with the lightsaber than actually pose a threat to anyone.

The problem with a lot of force user fights is that it is explained as 4d chess levels of maneuvering. they are always trying to throw the other off to find the right moment to attack

Apparently the Mustafar duel was the longest sword duel in cinematic history, taking up around 11 and a half minutes (i think)

I blocked with a lightsaber behind my back once, (i am by no means a swordsman or fencer) I was just dueling my friend. I felt so awesome

I love these videos a lot. One thing I think a lot of people forget, however, about prequel lightsaber fight choreo is the concept behind it. It was described as "A game of chess played at a thousand miles per hour, and every move is check." A game of chess. So if you freeze frame any point in a fight and look at a move that they are performing, you can analyze that all you want, but you're not gonna get to the bottom of what's happening. Every Force-user to a certain extent has some level of precognitive abilities. So we're seeing whatever frame of the fight scene, but the fighters' minds are already 2-4 moves ahead. Each move of the fight is a move in a longer game, a strategic attempt to make the opponent mess up further down the chain of exchanges. The best and easiest-to-see example of this concept, I think, is the fight at the climax of Episode I. You can see Qui-Gon's death on Obi-Wan's face long before Maul deals the killing blow. Obi-Wan was tuned into that fight just like Maul and Qui-Gon and he saw Maul win the game of chess. I guess my point is that it might not be super helpful to look at any one move as good or bad in a vacuum since every move of a lightsaber fight from that era has a larger context. Other commenters have mentioned other things like using the Force to bypass physical limits (such as strength or leverage), being guided by the Force to a degree in which moves you actually make, and staying in motion all the time being important since they often need to deflect blaster fire. All good points that contribute to a much larger picture.

News flash: turning your back towards an opponent in any combat scenario is a bad idea.

While physically and from a practical standpoint, yes the flourishes are probably not the wisest or strategic to use in a 'real' fight, but I have always wrote the spinning moves off in my head (with lore reasons) by positing that the Jedi have a sort of 'Precognition' which is how they deflect blasters etc, so with that in mind staying in constant motion and constantly changing your intent in terms of attack or defence angle makes it harder to 'Use the force' to predict the strikes.

The rear flourish defence is always a risky move, timing it to work is tricky but comes in handy. That use of the Zwerch-Copter to demonstrate locking the enemies into taking the defense. Main reason I see and use "spins" for saber combat is to make it look good and confuse the opponent . The Sun Tzu Flags and Whistles approach, a confused enemy makes for a easy target

Form III, also known as Soresu. Is in fact the defensive style. It was most notably mastered by Obi-Wan Kenobi as it became his signature fighting style since his early training days.

The reason Anakin does a lot of moves that are more flashy than functional is because he sees himself as that much more skilled than everyone else in the Star Wars universe. For example, in episode 2, Anakin expresses his belief that he already rivals Yoda in lightsaber combat during the chase of the assassin scene.

when incoporating lightsaber physics into the mix some of the spin moves start to make more sense. One of the main things to note about lightsabers is that they have magnetic fields. They stick to each other depending on where the blades collide as well as if the blades get caught in each others magnetic fields which is why they pull away from simple blocks (and also why lightsaber spin blocks work.) If the blades get caught in each other's magnetic fields they go into what's called a saber lock. there are moves that take advantage of that as well FX the move Anakin makes to disarm count dooku in episode 3.

Wish Shad and team would test or create Ancient Sith War Blades. Also Guts as an Ancient Sith is scary to me

9:32 Shad nerding so hard here. Absolutely love it!

As a member of a local lightsaber duelling club, it's fun to see you guys experiment with these. I've found flourish moves can work quite well on offense as a distractive tool, but I was never game to try this, and it appears that it was just as well.... :P Great video as always. Edit: The constant strikes to the hands you guys got is why the first bit of protection every member of my guild picked up were demolition and cricket gloves. I had a duel with one of my friends and we went ten hits, zero points, because it was just glove, glove, glove, and hand hits don't count in the rules. Also, some form of face protection is advised, because sabers bounce so much more than anything else I've used. Second edit: Yes, Form 3 Soresu is the defensive style, one of our guild leaders is a fan of using that style with two sabers.

Where the strike is coming is key. Part of this test’s failure is that the other person is anticipating the spin and can time their attack. I’ve been dueling since I was 7, and every time I’ve thrown this out there I have successfully blocked a strike. The first time was when I was 12, I was dueling two people and my best friend thought he would be cheeky and try to run behind me with a low strike. I pulled the spin off and blocked behind my back and he quit the fight because he was mad. 🤣

This has been my favorite video to date. Maybe it’s cause I’m a Star Wars geek, but all three of you guys being young at heart is a blast to see. BTW: The behind the scenes content for this is *chef’s kiss*

12:25 Makashi is type 2 (practiced by Dooku), the type 3 is Soresu (practiced by Luminara Unduli) and the 4 is Ataru (practiced by Yoda). Voilà, just to instruct the algorithm ;)

Keep in mind the Jedi precognition; those spins may be to head off attacks they sense in possible futures, or maybe to screw a bit with an opponent;s foresight. Just because it's useless for you doesn't mean it's useless for a Jedi.

One thing I wanna add is that form 3, the defensive one, was created to repel blaster fire which real life swordfighters dont do, so jedi are used to do many flourishes while dueling because they are prepared to also reflect blaster fire while doing it, they also use their physical and force strenght to overpower others so they dont use form 2, the dueling form that Count Dooku is master in, that much

I think based on the blades bouncing, it'd be interesting to discuss a weapon made of a sort of magnetic material that repels others of the weapon type but is lethal to people and how tactics would change based on the repulsion.

Wow. Very illuminating. And these guys' skill and enthusiasm is adorable.

You almost got there. In the lore, when 2 Force users fight, they are also fighting in their heads, blocking and chipping away at thoughts.

Awesome video. One thing. Jedi actually are trying to aim for the lightsabers. When dueling, both jedi and sith have a force shield around them. The main goal of the fighting is to break that force shield so that they can use a lightsaber or the force on the separate opponent. So this move would have great effectiveness in both scaring the opponent and perhaps making him lose his concentration and break his force shield while also defending himself. However, again great video. I love this channel.

So, this has actually been covered in Star Wars lore. The spins and flourishes are part of form 3 Soresu and are for blaster blocking, not saber to saber combat. The constant spinning of the blade makes blocking multiple incoming blaster shots more fluid.

They seem to forget this was almost strictly anakins move after he got a robotic arm his hits had way more force behind them his speed was faster and he also used his other hand to push , pull and grab opponent’s limbs to pull into his saber part of the spin is to hide what his other hand is doing it’s more of a distraction technique over defensive

I would watch an actual produced and choreographed fight by you guys, cinematic story and all if able.

I think what people fail to realize is that force users use the force to predict their opponents attacks. That's how they manage to deflect blaster fire and block incoming attacks moving at rapid speed. All of the spins and behind the back stuff makes a lot more sense when your opponent can see any conventional strike coming from a mile away. It's funny to sometimes laugh at the over the top prequel choreography but it makes a lot of sense really

I don't know if people have brought it up then, but the move you're talking about is nicknamed "the Obi-Ani" by the fandom... even though it's Anakin's signature move. The reason why it became so it's because Hayden Christensen saw one of their stunt doubles doing it, and he liked it so much he decided to master it. So much so that they included it in their choreographies as a recurrent move, and people fell in love with it. Christensen even did it again in the "Asokah" series, and he pulled it off perfectly, as if he hadn't stopped practicing for a day these past 18 years (and probably he actually didn't. lol).

I really like how these guys understand the Jedi and Sith as force users and not normal people. most swordsmen that I’ve seen just trash the choreography and don’t understand why it’s meant to be like that, but these guys are very interesting to watch because the truly enjoy the fights❤

I honestly could imagine Anikin during some down time out on a planet (during the clone wars) letting rex and or a couple of other republic troopers play around with a couple of fake lightsabers just like this and getting some laughs seeing them trying to learn some blocks and moves. He had his issues but he also had a sense of humor too!

See, this is why I prefer Sith, you don't have to spin or risk yourself. Just put out some UNLIMITED POWER and static shock them. And that saber-fencing at 11:38 was funny.

I was just looking around RU-vid being bored and this showed up at just the right time. This was a really fun one, looking forward to the blooper reel.

Same kind of chemistry between them on camera as we got in with Clarkson, May and Hammond. But with swords.

You forget that the foundational rule for all lightsaber techniques is to respect the rule of cool.

Force enhanced strength, force enhanced speed, precognition to a certain extent, and the fact that lightsabers bite into eachother or repel away from each other (depending on the scene as there does seem to be some inconsistency) means that if it touches at all there will be a greater effect from the touch in redirecting the other blade.

The only way the movie lightsaber fight mechanics work is if the blades are "sticky". Notice there's nearly no sliding of the blades against each other. My head canon for this is that whatever Clarke tech field is containing the hot plasma interacts with the opposing blade opposite how a normal magnet works, meaning it's easier to pull the blades apart than to slide them against each other.

This came out at just the right time when the Clone Wars remake of the Anakin vs Obi Won duel and I love it.

I like what the spun represents for Anakins character. He's THAT confident and skilled with his duelling that he's able to openly do things that are a bad idea and he gets away with it anyway.

A few things about this move in the movie: 1. During the fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin, Obi-Wan was giving ground the entire move, rather than advancing or remaining static, which could have made successfully performing that flourish block easier. 2. The way lightsabers function makes the energy fields in the blades naturally repel each other, meaning that slight blows will just make them bounce off each other and you have to exert a decent amount of effort to maintain a bind. That, combined with the fact that lightsabers will cut through just about anything effortlessly and don't have to worry about a cutting edge, means that Jedi and Sith dont have to utilize hard swings and can instead focus on light, glancing blows at high speed, making flourishes like this actually viable. 3. Being Force users Anakin and Obi-Wan were able to predict each other's moves in battle, meaning that Anakin knew precisely where Obi-Wan's blade was going to be at that moment and that that flourish block would be successful. 4. The fight was choreographed and they thought it looked cool.

I love that at some point it just seems like guys haveing fun fighting with swords and they wanted an excuse in form of a youtube video dissecting an attack in sci-fi movie. Great Video, love it!

15:30 Shad: *[PERISHES]*

The prequels set the bar so high for lightsaber duels. We may not see anything better

8:00 Maybe Anakins Robotic hand helped? Also maybe it could be used to knock aside a thrust?

Remember that Jedi anticipate closest future when they fight. They know how to time blocks even on a backspin. It also adds some sense into those flashy moves it may give more probabilities to the forces analysis of the opponent.

Watching a bunch of friends lightsaber duel is very wholesome.

Shad, you look really good man, whatever you're doing is working.

Anecdotal, but I have successfully executed a spin block precisely one time. It was back in my church youth group days. We were doing some volunteer work, cleaning up a property, and I found an old rake handle. As any teenage boy would do, I began showing off. One of my friends decided to throw a paintbrush at my back, and by pure happenstance (or perhaps, THE FORCE, lol) I did an Obi-Ani and deflected it behind my back. I wish someone had recorded that, but 15 years ago, people didn't quite have that instinct to go for their phone every time something was happening.

Isn't part of light saber combat to utilize the precognitive abilities of force users? As in when they're fighting, they're not just using their eyes to see the movements of the opponent and their blades but also predicting where a sword strike or blaster shot will fall so they move their light sabers ahead of time rather than merely "reacting" to what they see.

Excellent attention to detail there guys

I love the dynamic characteristics of you guys and the contents you guys make! Keep it up! I would love to see more and more contents like this!

Great job linking this video from another! This is one I would have watched if there was a notification.

Keep in mind Anakin, like most Jedi, has a level of precognition, and his was strong enough to allow him to pod race as a 10 year old. Lightsaber duels are really 4 dimensional chess matches with swords.

You guys are awesome!

Also jedi maintain focus in the force in order to gain a kind of spidey sense . With how they train younglings with the blinded helmet seems to be for this exact thing.

Makashi is the second style and the fourth style (used by Yoda, Qui Gon and Plo Koon among others) is the defensive style that can be easily adapted into making new personal styles.

I study LSMA and they teach us to step around our target instead of directly at them. Hopefully helps this helps understand some spiral sport techniques used not only in star wars but practical use case as well..

Love to see Count Dooku's fighting style with you guys doing it, two doing the same style and then the other does another style against Dooku's. That would be great and hilarious to watch, do it up you fantastic men.

Yes form 3 is the form built on defense and the form Obi Wan was said to be the master of. In episode 1 Obi-Wan used form 4 which deals with all the flipping around. Yoda also deployed form 4 in both episodes 2 and 3 when he went up against Dooku and Palpatine.

fun video but you always have to remember - Obi Wan did not want to fight/hurt Anakin all the way to the very end at the high ground. When he said "don't try it" it wasnt a taunt or a bait (though it may have been perceived by Anakin that way). It was one final "please don't make me do this" at which point Obi Wan fought with the purpose to stop Anakin. So if you consider that during all Anakins flair blocks they are made more viable if you take into it that Obi Wan was essentially limp wristing his strikes.

That up and down behind the back move is used in fire dancing and is called "Obi-Ani" - just a fun fact

A few things; one I think that the spin was for closing the distance quickly and the block was so the one doing the spin didn't die on the way, the sword maneuver I believe is called an obi-ani which was copied from medieval Cossack sword technique, last for some lightsaber combat advice consider contacting Terra Prime Lightsaber Academy, they have a channel on RU-vid.

Thanks for the video, guys!

I’ve always thought of Lightsaber fighting in universe being more like letting your body move as directed by the force, and since two force users are both using the force the influence of one fighter over the other is proportional to their level of force ability. Less focused thinking and more instinctual movement patterns and flurishes hence why the choreography in RotS is so evenly matched, both masters with a deep intuitive knowledge of the other and both exceptionally talented fighters. Obviously out of universe the rule of cool applies but I’ve always liked that sort of ancient mysticism angle for lightsaber fighting. This could also be a way to indicate a characters relationship to the force through their fighting style, (though this analysis is pretty barebones/simplistic) Dooku - Calculated and measured, pragmatic and efficient Yoda - Energetic and allows the force to flow freely, almost like a drunken karate master, letting the force take over. Anakin/Vader - Aggressive and Assertive, trying to bend the force to his will.

If you think about it, if someone is flourishing a weapon of pure plasma that can kill you instantly, you’re gonna keep your distance.

The Lightsaber fight I love the most, is the first we see. Obi-Wan vs Darth Vader, in the Death Star hallway, in A New Hope. It's how I imagine a lightsaber fight would be like.

Anakin: "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick!" Narrator: "It was not, in fact, a good trick."

Light sabers are really more like Katana. There is a *reason* the original Vader/Kenobi fight had a lot of maneuvering and few thrusts. Because with those kind of weapons, you should not be striking until your odds of ending your opponent are in your favor. So... lots of maneuvering. Lots of trying to trick your foe into getting literally 1/2" out of position. And being faster than your foe. A duel with these kind of weapons is more like a gunfight. It would be rare that the two opponents were perfectly matched in speed and skill. IMHO, The fast blows in the later films really depend on premonition via the force and are really senseless since as soon as you thought to strike, you'd also realize this particular blow would be blocked so you wouldn't actually waste time doing the strike. it would be a bit like chess. You would make the move because it forced your opponent to make a particular move in defense.

Anakin's back flourish is my favorite move to use

Made a point that a Jedi would know how his opponent would strike. It’s kind of like a chess game where you anticipate your opponents next move. Not that this proves anything but that this move for a normal fighter could cause serious damage! 😂

Thanks you guys for such awesome and great video! Truly dig it!❤❤

2:47 Shad getting ready to turn into mad man Shad and mow down a group of younglings 😂

Darth Tyranth sounds so perfect I am surprised it hasnt been used in a movie yet.

I hope I adult like this one day, this is bringing joy to me just from watching.

A duel is never purely physical between force users, the novelizations describe how force users usually run a form of precognition, battle meditation or mental interference against precognition. There is a second layer that explicitly is mind games and psychic wrestling to surprise the opponent to disrupt their flow. Flourishing blocks that appear strange are tools in the toolbox of someone like Anakin who relies on the unconventional to disrupt opponents and overwhelming aggression to take advantage of it.

You guys are having so much fun with this. Gotta admit im jealous a bit but even more entertained.

Neat to see. Lightsabers being made of pure energy would deflect one another like magnets of the same field. So in theory just throwing it there in defense of a spin would work against another lightsaber. It's also what makes the Saber locking moments intense because the sabers are physically trying to merge in a sense. Hence Saber locking 🔒 😅

I like how shad has built a bigger D&D party group during the recent times

The first one I can see as a risky kinda counter, after successfully blocking you use your swing and momentum from the swing to get your opponent

Yoda uses a lightsaber style that incorporates alot of spins & jumps using the force to assist him, and he is very effective.

7:50 Don’t forget that Jedi have the Force on their side, they are stronk! This block would probably work in the Star Wars Universe.

Just as a story detail. Because of the electromagnetic effect of the blade. Lightsabers tend to attract or repel each other. That's why they seem to bounce off each other. Or get stuck in Shad's favorite, the bind.

I feel like you could implement it during a bind, right at the start. If you can feel their push, you can kind of maintain contact and maneuver

Ok, so I do lighsaber fencing as a sport. The spin defence can work. If you use the proper steps and proper distance. They keep moving forward instead of moving in a circle. Spinning forward or on the spot is useless and you can be sure to get hit :)

The entire time during free-form sparring I was just going "tighten your saber hilts!" I own several lightsabers and that metallic clinking you hear is caused by something that isn't fully tightened (usually the battery compartment).

Have to agree with Darth Tyranth, ROTS has the best lightsaber fight scenes hands down, some come close to it, but none can match it!

In Anekin vs Obi-Wan it was also an emotional conflict, they were showing off who is better and more right. If you can style on your opponent and still do well then you have a 1-up. Anekin was also very arrogant so he really felt the need to show off his l33t g4m3r skills.

As many others have said, the fact that Jedi see the future, are using a weapon that is effectively "perfectly sharp" at all times in all directions and have superhuman speed and abilities (not to mention telekinesis) means they would not fight like you do with a sword. With the edge alignment not being an issue even the tiniest touch can be deadly. The only reason to hit hard it when you need to batter through your opponent's guard. As for the precognition, it is described in 1 book as seeing a shadow of how your opponent will move, but it not always being effective at all times and sometimes showing branching possibilities. Then you also can sometimes sense your opponents thoughts and feelings as well. I handwave some of the freaky movements as being a deliberate attempt to throw your opponents powers off, creating too many odd branching futures for your opponent to track. Plus different power levels would also have an impact e.g. I can see 60% of possible futures but my opponent can see 70% as he is better at it, but I can sense his intent 80% of the time to him sensing mine 40%. All those would affect how you fight.

I have long believed that the best way to use a lightsaber if it functions just like it does in the Star Wars movies would be to learn fencing and other similar fighting styles. It already has the firepower to bust through any defense in existence and it's incredibly light. Obviously half-sword techniques won't be a thing with one but some medieval swordsmanship would work pretty well.

Anakin also has a robotic hand which might provide for greater stability and strength which may make this block more practical for him but not for others.

Heres the thing. Jedi and Sith have the ability of precognition. Each of them is trying to confuse and suprise the enemy as much as possible. To do that they need to make moves that look chaotic but are precisely calculated. If you know for certain that you wont be hit from certain side you can make a risky move. At the same time the other side already knows from which side the attack will come and they know it will be fast and precise. If one hit means death its hard to trade defense for offense and attack of the ungaurded side. Also theres the code of Sith and Jedi. The Sith want to humiliate and overpower the enemy while Jedi seek quick and honorable kill.

"Energy constantly flows through the crystal. You are not fighting with a simple blade as you are directing a current of power. Your thoughts, your actions, they become energy, they flow through the crystal as well and become a part of the blade" "The blades will be drawn to each other." "There is pull, can you feel it?" -Kanan Jarrus, training Sabine Wren with the Darksaber