Coming up next: A New Hope for lack-of-exercise youth. In a bizarre move, the French Fencing Federation has recognized Lightsaber Dueling as a Competitive Sport. The goal was to make the sport more appealing to the younger generation because, youth of today is deemed not healthy since they say away from sports and hence, the lack of exercise which leads to health issue. So by riding on pop culture, such as Star Wars in this case, the French Fencing Federation hope to entice youth in moving their asses, instead gluing to the couch and playing video games.
I guess Zorro and The Three Musketeers weren’t enough. Oh, wait, those are too yesterday for youth of today to relate to. Anywho, think of Lightsaber Dueling as what fencing would be like if the galaxy far, far away did have this sport. But this being the real world, don’t expect to be using kyber crystal-powered energy swords in the duel. American theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, already prove to us that it impossible to recreate that kind of energy required and confining it to a sword-like blade. Instead, participants will have to settle for Lightsaber hilt attached with polycarbonate blade and therefore, thankfully, no one is going to be sliced into half or have their limbs taken away from them.
Well, at least, these polycarbonate blades do illuminate like in the sci-fi movies. Also, unlike fencing, which is more about ‘poking’ each other; they did be beating the hell out of each other because, competitors will be wielding the sci-fi swords in sweeping motions like it was in the movies. While there are additional rules specific to Lightsaber Dueling to abide by to ensure sweeping motions happen during the duel, in general, it is a type of fencing as the bulk of the rules are based on fencing, including the points system where hitting the different body reap the competitor different points and whoever reaches 15 points in a 3-minute bout takes the game. However, no one accumulates the 15 points required to win, then whoever has the most points wins.
Additionally, competitors are expected don body armor too, for the sake of safety. Not sure if Kylo Ren or Darth Vader masks, or if Jedi robes qualifies, though. Why do I get the feeling that Hasbro’s newly announced Star Wars Lightsaber Academy will be a bigger than fencing from now on, and Lenovo’s Jedi Challenge will benefit from a boost from this official declaration?
Images: Christophe Ena/AP.
