If You Thought,

watching all of the Star Wars series,

was a waste of time, think again, you can take on the evil one using a light saber, and here is the good news, duelists now have a wide range of lightsabers to choose from, there are simple ones that simply light up, and more expensive ones that seem to have pulsating energy in them and also reproduce those iconic Star Wars sounds when cutting through the air and making contact with other lightsabers, so how has this come about? the French fencing federation explain their decision to acknowledge lightsaber dueling as an official sport,

“With young people today, it’s a real public health issue. They don’t do any sport and only exercise with their thumbs,” fencing federation secretary general, Serge Aubailly, told The Associated Press, ”It’s becoming difficult to (persuade them to) do a sport that has no connection with getting out of the sofa and playing with one’s thumbs. That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural.” 

in case you have forgotten how exciting fighting with lightsabers can be here is every lightsaber fight from Star Wars episodes 1 -  6, according to the now-official regulations of French lightsaber dueling, battles are carried out in a circle marked with tape on the floor, and last for 3 minutes, the goal of the duelists is to reach 15 points before their opponent and win the bout. If both players reach 10 points within the 3-minute time limit, the duel enters an exciting “sudden death” stage where the first combatant to land a body or head blow wins the match, strikes on the head or body count for 5 points each, hits on the arms and legs are 3 points, and touches on the hands are 1 point. If neither of the fighters reaches 15 points before the 3 minutes are up, the fighter with the higher score wins, the scoring system is similar to that of traditional fencing sports, but the federation did implement some special rules to make the duels more exciting. For example, blows only count if the fighters first point the tip of their lightsabers behind them, which is designed to both prevent the quick front lunges typical of fencing, and also give the duels a realistic Star Wars feel, by encouraging swishier blows, there it is, watching all of those movies was not a waste of time, so it is light sabers at dawn!, well it has to be dawn to see the light sabers in diffused light, photograph by Jose Martinez/Unsplash.