Do you think creating a Jedi Martial Arts school is a good idea?

Question

To start off with, this won't be a club.. but combined with the other sword arts that the school is teaching, such as Renaissance Rapier and Samurai Bushido Katana, it would be a real school. Jedi lightsaber combines all the great sword arts into one style, and above that, it's all edge. No worries about blocking with the back edge, just go!

Check us out at: http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/SWORD_HowlingLTD/
and
http://www.myspace.com/s_w_o_r_d

First of we are a SWORD - based martial arts school already. We train in Kendo, Kenjutsu, and Iaido for the eastern style. We do train in dueling style of traditional fencing. I have to agree about the Olympic saber comments. The comments I DO NOT agree with at all are the ones about the LARP, we are not, nor ever will be a LARP. PERIOD. We train, we work-out, we full contact spar and fight with protective gear. I myself am the Fencing Instructor of the School, my partner is the Samurai style. If you were to actually check the websites I showed you, you would see the pictures of the gear I require us to wear. We fight, full speed, impromtu, with no choreographed movements at all. We also do choreo, but more like kata in the more "traditional" sword arts. And also, I'm not in it for the money, I just enjoy learning everything I can about an almost extinct art.

Thank you all for the constructive criticism, and I agree with most of it. We are not a club, we are a sword school

Ok, so some of you have not seen the websites devoted to our martial arts school. We are both classically trained in REAL MARTIAL ARTS. I am a master in Iaido, my partner is sweeping state tournaments with his Katana kata, and I am a black belt in Jujutsu and train in MMA as a welterweight.
To answer some of actual constructive criticism… yes we focus more than 50% of our effort in the philosophy of the martial arts, whether in Asian influence arts or European. The Force in Star Wars is actually very similar to the western idea of “spirit” and the eastern philosophy of “chi.” That is what we will focus on the most.
Another good constructive criticism: WE ARE NOT, NOR EVER WILL BE AN LARP; I am part of an LARP group, a historical re-enactment group based on Piracy. We will not be that.
Another:
Why not just do the Olympic style saber fencing for your light sabers?
Being a fencing practitioner for over 14 years, I have to agree with you totally on that statement.

My partner and I do get into debates on who is the better swordsman, a Samurai, or someone like a Musketeer.
All of these are good notes and I appreciate the constructive criticism.
Onto the problems that I have:
I am not giving you the benefit of the doubt because you:
(a) don't train with protective gear, and
… but don't advertise it to the world like you will learn anything martial or historically accurate.
I have to admit, that is what I would first think as well, and there are already many Star Wars Fan Clubs that “play” with their toy lightsabers. I am a devout supporter of the traditional martial arts schools of old, therefore, WE ARE NOT ONE OF THOSE CLUBS. If you check out our yahoo group’s page, you will see a photo album that describes the PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT that is required to spar and to fight in our school.

We do not use the fancy toy or replica lightsabers unless we are performing in front of a group, then it is a lot like an LARP with a choreographed fight. We normally use Shinai. Also on the yahoo group’s page are the RULES OF ENGAGEMENT for our group, whether it is for Samurai with bokken, or Fencing with sparring rapier and foil, or yes, even the lightsabers. If you had checked that out, maybe you would have noticed we want to take it seriously, that if it were possible to create a sword with a blade of pure energy, this is how they would fight with it. It has just always been a fascination with me ever since I first saw Star Wars as a young, impressionable child. It was actually Star Wars that got me started in Iaido, Kendo, Kenjutsu, and Fencing.
And no, I don’t even play World of Warcraft. I hate computers; I would rather interact with other people the normal way, to sit and have coffee, or test each other’s skills with a Shinai or foil.

Also, on another note, "Jedi" is not a trademarked item of Lucasfilm.

Answer 1

Yeah, I know a lot of guys who would be all over that.

Answer 2

Yes. You will make money. No serious practitioner in the martial arts world will ever respect you or your students, you will spend your time in the presence of hard core Star Wars fans, you will suffer the wrath of copyright lawyers and Mr. Lucas raping you for all you're worth, you will be laughed at A LOT, you will contribute to the sorry state of martial arts schools and the BS that goes on and in the end you will die sad and alone.

But you will make money. So go ahead.

Oh and as for your idea of lightsabre style combining all great sword arts... Just no. Is there some BASIS in reality? Yes. Do actors take classes for combat in movies? Yes. Does this mean you can take the acts in a movie to real life? No. Just no...

Choice is yours. Do you want money that much?

Answer 3

Why not just do the olympic style sabre fencing for your light sabres?

It is the fastest sword style ever and outscores any other sword style about 5-1.

Allows any touch on the edge to score as well.

Perfectly suits the idea of a light sabre.

And although olympic sabre's touches are pretty gay looking flicks these days, if light sabres were real those gay little touches would be totally killing you.

Realistically if light sabres were real no one would survive more than a second against a world olympic sabre champ.

Kendo, renaissance, rapier, fiore libore, meyer, samurai's all dead the first score.

Answer 4

You'd probably be better off starting a Klingon Martial arts school teaching how to use a Klingon warrior's weapon from the Star Trek series like the Bat' Leth, the D'k tahg, the Mek'leth or the Lirpa : P At least those weapons are real enough to be practical for self defense : D

Answer 5

No. Unless you are going to teach martial philosophy, discipline and technique, you are just teaching some physical activities.

From the sound of it, you like playing with swords, and that's fine. You may even be very serious about what you do and dislike the term "play", but even in full contact sword sports like Kendo and Gumdo, the competitors are referred to as "players".

I suggest you advertise it as a type of sport, or a club for those interested in swords, but not as a martial art.

Answer 6

Light sabers aren't real. So what you have is a club.

You can't advertise it as a martial art when it has a fictitious weapon as the heart of the art. It's like trying to have people pay to see a fantasy football game and then trying to recruit real players with fantasy cash. Just doesn't work that way.

And the legal aspects that you could run into for using the word Jedi are daunting.

But if you decide to start your club anyway, good luck!

Answer 7

get a life....

not on world of warcraft either

but seriously not a good idea, star wars is set in the future am i correct? and you want to bring medievel sword fighting? Thats like saying Ima make a car with wooden wheels, it just doesnt work

Answer 8

I don't think its a good idea AT ALL. It might make the evening news, but the martial arts industry has suffered greatly due to these ideas that martial arts is made for "looking cool" and showing off.

Martial arts was made to successfully prepare and defend your self for problems that one may face in life.

Please, don't be a creator of another fake Mcdojo martial art....

please.

Answer 9

I guess now that some schools will even use Dance Dance Revolution to get kids to do SOME kind of activity, anything goes. As long as it gets kids some exercise and a place to belong to, then I don't see any harm.

Answer 10

Umm, to me a martial arts school is a martial arts school. The problem you are going to have is to clearly communicate to your customers exactly what you are going to teach.

Please do me one favou, learn to spell and carefully proof read all your advertising and brochures. we have a local "martial" arts school that misspells a lot ofthe activities they do and it makes you wonder just how good they are and how well they know and teach the philosophy behind their martial arts.

Answer 11

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, yeah.... Good luck with that...

And everyone will bring those battery powered telescoping flashlights that make sounds right?

Sign me up for a lifetime program till I become the next Emperor! NOT...