Month: December 2016

San Diego Sabers is San Diego’s premier Lightsaber Training Combat group!

Our mission is to promote and teach lightsaber combat and dueling skills by helping each other learn and grow through acceptance, respect, and a positive attitude.

We combine aspects of kendo, wu-shu, European and Asian swordplay techniques, and other arts into our practice.  This makes what we teach a true mixed-martial-arts discipline.  We help each student to determine the path that fits them best, and develop along that path as far as they want to go, whether it’s just for fun or they want to go fully competitive.  

We are most active on Facebook : Search for “San Diego Sabers” (not the hockey team!) – We have our public page you can follow, or our team-group you can join as well.  

To join – simply show up!

We do this for fun & education. There is no membership application, no fees.

Are there age restrictions for kids? No – but we ask that anyone under 16 years of age be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

We do ask participants to sign a safety waiver. Download this PDF, print & sign it, then bring to one of our events.

If you have any questions about our events please don’t hesitate to email us : info [at] SanDiegoSabers.net.

With members from all across San Diego County we have our two weekly meet-ups in different locations to try to account for everyone’s needs…

Day	Time	Type	Where	Map
Wednesdays	7:30pm	Sparring Practice	Cadman Rec Center tennis courts (Clairemont area, off Moraga)
Saturdays	7:30pm	Weekly Training	Nobel Athletic Fields (UTC area – Nobel Dr / I-805) (Detailed directions here)

Sometimes we cancel meetups for holidays & other events, so make sure to join our Facebook Group; we’ll create weekly FB events for our regular weekly sessions. Check our Events listing for tournaments, demos, & community events that we are participating in or hosting. Included is a registration/sign-up system for things like tournaments.

In order to ensure safety at our events, we have implemented some basic safety equipment requirements:

SPARRING: Gloves and face/head protection are REQUIRED during our sparring sessions. Head/face protection includes paintball masks, hockey masks, fencing or kendo helmets, or something similar. Accidents happen – even with our most skilled competitors. This is for your safety to protect your eyes, ears, neck.

TRAINING/DRILLS: The same equipment is RECOMMENDED but not required during instructional training sessions.

Additional recommendations:
We consider these optional, though many of our team members eventually make the investment.  This is a full contact sport, strikes and accidents happen.  You don’t have to spend a fortune, and you can invest over time depending on your own factors.  None of these are required, but we want to make you aware and help you protect yourself.

Elbow guards & shin guards.  You’ve probably been hit there before, accidentally hitting a table or corner.  It’s not fun.  Even simple soft-guards help.  

A gorget.  Every newcomer quickly learns that even with the neck protection of a fencing helmet, a strike to the neck or throat hurts – badly.  A gorget will protect you far more than a fencing helmet pad will do.  We have a link below under “equipment” to a popular one on Amazon you can get for $30.

Chest guard.  Some people do, some don’t.  But again, as a full contact sport, where stabs and thrusts happen, this is just an additional layer of protection to keep you in the game.  Often something like a paintball chest protector will do fine, and are inexpensive.

Equipment is a very personal situation. You like what you like because it fits you better, feels better, looks better, or any number of reasons.

With that in mind, we’re not specifically endorsing any vendor or equipment. That’s ultimately up to you.

However, here are some sample types of equipment so you get a feel for what you can be looking for: