Introduction
The following is a guest post by Darth Nonymous, the creator of the TPLA system, originally published at his always excellent Fighting Words blog. (Seriously, if you are interested in either LED Sabers or historic Chinese fencing you should bookmark this resource and check back often). In it he introduced us to France’s newest official sport, Lightsaber Combat, and talks a little bit about how this exciting development came about. Spoiler alert, it would not have happened with the tireless efforts of Darth Cervall, a TPLA knight in Paris.
Lightsaber Combat in France
Thats right! Lightsaber fencing is now an official sport in France! And it is the brain child of TPLA Knight instructor, Darth Cervall (aka Cedric Giroux)! Cedric has based his system of Lightsaber Sport on the TPLA system of training and safety. We are excited to see more of this system in action!
First of all, I should point out something that some readers in the US may not understand. France has a system of government regulation in matters of sport. Each sport has its own associations, boards and regulators. This helps keep the quality of instruction at professional levels or at least up to standards set by a governing body. What this means is that when we say something is an official sport in France, it’s a pretty big deal.
Cedric has been on this project since before he came to us. In fact, one of the reasons he joined TPLA was because of our system incorporating skill level, safety, and the Star Wars aesthetic. He very quickly moved through our material and together we steered him in the right direction for gear to use and different ways of organizing material. He had put on his first tournament in 2017 and has been working closely with the French Fencing Federation (Fédération Française d’Escrime or FFE) for the past year or more. We have been watching with great interest and pride as he has tested and worked with other professionals in France to finally come to this goal. (We will be doing l show on this topic very soon were I will allow Cedric to explain himself. I am sure my account is lacking.)
Ithaca Sabers 