Chefelf.com Night Life: How NOT to become a Jedi - Chefelf.com Night Life

Everyone in the picture EXCEPT the Jedi instructor is holding his/her lightsaber correctly. Even the little girl with her left hand on the top is holding it correctly for a left-hander.

You gotta love it! It's a pic from SW.com for the new Disney Jedi Training Academy interactive experience.

From the mouths of younglings . . .

It's not too far off for Soresu, depending on his specific biomechanics and the perspective conditions of the shot.

That said, he had dead hands and a horse stance is always dumb in any kind of dynamic combat but the point is probably to 'come down to their level' in a way that meets viewer-as-camera expectations for a presented sequence.

It's actually rather more embarrassing that Disney/Lucas cannot provide both a better matched set of students (peer grouping makes for better training) and a set of rotoscoped or otherwise 'enhanced' saber blades instead of toys.

Myself, it's ridiculous to dumb down a lethal art by pretending to teach it to children who know no better but that's The Flanneled One's call.


Saberist.

dumblings

I think the pic is sans rotoscoping because it's about selling the toys. The diverse set of kids of all ages and a couple of races isn't about peer grouping or good trainig; it's about showing that the toys are for kids of all ages and so on.

I don't think Lucas cares whether he dumbs down a lethal art.

It's about selling the toys.

A more civilized age?

ROFLOL

Exactly,

These are not toys but tools to a Jedi. And where your profession is war you keep it's principles behind closed doors.

I also expect that, even with whifflebat edge radii, there is considerable danger of kinetics induced broken small bones (fingers, cheeks, elbows, knees at least) and potentially soft tissue damage through 'accidental' shots to the face/neck, groin, gut and particularly eyes. Which is why real sword arts students of both Eastern and Western schools _wear gloves, pads and face shields_.

If you want a disastrous marketing decision, await the lawsuits for 'but little johnny was just immitating what he saw!'

This is also why training within a peer group makes it easier to control the basics of facing, spacing and pacing without one sparring partner being dumbed down to or forced to coddle his opponent.

They are not called _martial_ arts for nothing people. Children too young (the little girl) to differentiate play from real world experience or remember the disciplines (at that age she won't have more than about 1 week of longterm memory association) should not be doing weapon training. Even for fun. Even non-contact.

Those who are old enough to /begin/ learning should not have advanced techniques demonstrated to them in front of younger students.

That's just the way it is when you have a well thought out curriculum being tought by a responsible (knowledgeable) adult. This guy is clearly none of the above because he has his back turned on small students that he cannot keep track of. Even line drills for katas need to have at least one free roamer to keep an eye on things and do walkaround stance correction.


Saberist

Saberist, these are plastics toys weighing about 3 ounces, right? What danger do you think there is for "broken small bones (fingers, cheeks, elbows, knees at least) and potentially soft tissue damage through 'accidental' shots to the face/neck, groin, gut and particularly eyes?"

These are not weapons, they are toys. They don't need any special instruction. The dude isn't there to teach anything; he's there to sell toys. The group is diverse on race and age, so that kids of all ages might buy the toys.

They're not real lightsabers, and they aren't real swords. They're toys.

It's about selling toys.

CV#2,

My 'toy' is about 30 inches long. With batteries it weighs about 2.5lbs. The green plastic is so tough that I cannot compress the tip with two fingers. Said tip is less than .5 inches across. It has a 'built in sound chip' which _encourages you_ to swing faster so that you get the whum-tshhhh effect of blade clash.

Buy a 'toy' similar to mine then and then let someone with full-extension smack you in the pinky finger with it. Do it as hard as MacGregor did to Christiansen in the practice duel of 'Empire Of Dreams'.

Realizing 'that for realisms sake' there is no crossguard.

Then put the tip really close to your eye and flick on the light switch. And ask yourself if that's the last image you want to be seeing from that half of your face, for life.

Now imagine that your finger bones are about half as thick and really soft because they have not calcinated yet. And your reactions are really slow because you're only about 5.

You don't teach children weapons use. They don't understand the difference between a 'toy = play' and an angry or aggressive misuse of same as 'weapon = get even'. Or perhaps they understand it all too well but don't 'get' the consequences.

Whatever, you are effectively teaching them that it's okay to use a 'toy' which the movie characters DO intend to strike each other with. Or at least seam to. Without any of the discipline that goes with a real sensei teaching the realities of sword art with _protective clothing as a requirement_.

Sooner or later, something bad will happen. We wouldn't be half as suit-happy if we weren't half as stupid as to fail to forsee the obvious.


KPl.

I think you're completely wrong that Star Wars toys are so potentially lethal. I mean, that weight you're talking about, it's all in the handle, right? Ah whatever, why don't you tell me how many injuries and lawsuits there have been in the 10 years since TPM, when these toys came out? I also express doubt if you don't mind that a flashlight could potentially blind someone "for life," but I'm sure you'll tell me it's a secret NASA high powered laser or some such nonsense. So Lucas not only makes stupid movies, he also has no sense of age-appropriate toys? That, or maybe you're taking this waaaaaaaayyyyy too seriously?

I agree with the original comment of course that that dude looks ridiculous holding the thing with his hands over one another like that. I scoff at all the other pretentious garbage about how you're a master warrior of the plastic flashlight-sword and how you object to this on the grounds that it is injurious to your noble and ancient art.

Please let me know how those lawsuits are coming.

This post has been edited by civilian_number_two: 29 January 2008 - 09:20 AM

They're toys, these children don't seem to be being taught actual swordplay, and it's a parent's responsibility to understand if a toy is age appropriate and to ensure that the child has the sense to not hit other people with said toy. And to be fair, children have a great capacity for learning. The best time to start a child on a skillset is when he/she is young. Of course the training needs to be kept up, but that would happen no matter what, so I don't know what you're on about with this one week stuff.

If there are seriously going to be lawsuits based on the fact that children may hit one another with toys and get hurt, that is, if someone is actually going to try to sue because there's no blatent "Don't hit people with this toy." warning label, it's time to beat those sort of people to a bloody pulp with something a lot more effective than some light-up plastic.

And yeah, the "instructor" looks a little goofy. Props go to the lefty girl for being a lefty. Dumblings is also not worth a "rofl," no offense to Despondent or his joke.

"Slayed"

CV#2,

You jam someone in the eye with even a dull object and you can do real damage.

Yes, the weight is nominally in the hilt but the point is that if you have a 27" blade and a 2lb hilt all the /rotation/ is going to be near the body which is where the wrists of even a young person have their greatest strength and the weapon itself concentrates most of it's mass. Now think about the arc radius of a swing that is 1ft long vs. one which is 2ft further out beyond that. More distance for the same lever weight = more KE on the tip than 'seems' to be the case at the hilt. A secondary problem then arising in that, if the tip breaks off, it will continue to follow the same basic path.

Claiming that I claimed to be a master warrior is neither pertinent nor accurate.

Nor is the notion that Lucas 'knows best' with regards to what is safe for a kid. The man has consistently claimed that these are 'kids' films but the end of very movie that includes Jar Jar Binks as a dork show has a man cut in half through the torso. Another loses his arm in the next film and is completely dismembered and burned alive in the last.

These are not images for children, certainly not of the ages shown in the photo and Lucas should know better. He simply doesn't care.

Sorry, but it should be said that if you teach the way things should be used, they never will be, by accident. If you assume that they won't be without bothering to THINK if they can be abused, then you set not just yourself up but those who are in your care and too young to know the difference to have a nasty accident.

As for the lawsuits, I doubt seriously if there are any listed events because those who are hurt are probably bought off with an NDA or have no rights because of a 'warning label'.

They are not toys. They should not be made as such.


Saberist


LINKS-
'I have injured plenty of people with toy lightsabers'
http://kotaku.com/34...aber-peripheral

BBC Mock Duel Injury
http://209.85.173.10...w...cd=13&gl=us

Kid goes after attacker
http://www.prosports...ad.php?t=177577

All you're managing to prove is that people can get hurt by toys if they hit one another with them. These toys modeled after imaginary weapons, but they're still toys. Of course someone could get hurt if they're misused. Yes, they may be a little more prone to being used in situations where there is a chance of being hurt because children are going to be swinging them around, but it's not the toy or the manufacturer's fault that in you smack someone with a hard object, it may hurt. If parts were breaking off and flying around through regular use or something, I'd definitely understand concern, but as it is, I do not. I suppose if it really bothers you that much, you can advocate for a ban on all toy weapons, but I still think it's better in this case if the adults take responsibility and ensure the children are safe when playing.