Reverse Grip Lightsaber Techniques

[@remor698]

I've done a bit of experimentation with reverse grip swordplay myself and it's interesting what different styles we've ended up with. What I've found, for example, is that this grip is remarkably weak on the straight defense. As opposed to standard/forward grip, your wrist has a lot more wiggle room backwards, so where normally your wrist's physical limitations will brace against an incoming attack, relying on that factor in reverse grip will end up with you being met by both your opponent's and your own lightsaber if push comes to shove. In exchange for that, this also affords you some actually ridiculous slashing attack speed if you just try to keep the blade in front of you and only ever focus on moving your forearm around, not your whole arm; in fact your should should largely be just limited to rotating, not shifting about anywhere near as extremely as it would with a standard sword swing. One easy to use instance of that is a downwards cross cut, which you can repeat indefinitely, as it boils down to a motion that traces an infinity symbol in front of you, your lightsaber just naturally following behind. Additionally, the part of your palm opposite your thumb being closest to the emitter means you uniquely have the opportunity to shove it with the mass of your entire forearm, pointed perpendicular to it, in order to achieve a fast flicking strike to find more angles with minimal telegraphing (assuming your offensive stance has your lightsaber anywhere near your opponent rather than behind you as shown here). Granted, these strikes will not stand up to any static blocks, because you end up briefly only holding the blade with your fingers, not bracing it with your whole hand, but that's not the point to begin with. The point with this is always speed to find more opportunities to bypass defenses and at the very least make the opponent exert themself significantly more to keep up with your increased pace. Back to the defense with that in mind, you don't want to try and block in reverse grip. You want to parry; buy yourself a little bit of time by knocking the opposing blade aside to get your own strike in. The efficiency requirement there means that spins or any motion that doesn't guide the lightsaber to your target as directly as possible will wind up only leaving you open for a counter that you will have a tough time guarding against, In general, you usually want to get back out of reverse grip as quickly as possible. It is a solid mixup tool and can overwhelm your opponent in short bursts, but it will leave you very poorly defended in any prolonged exchange, especially if you do not have the initiative. For style points, it's also just fun to do any of the rapid flourishes the reverse grip offers and finding ways to flick between standard and reverse grip (you can go even faster than the transitions here and you don't even necessarily need a second hand for it), though better be sure you can trust your control of your lightsaber before toying around with it like that, otherwise it *will* go flying.

[@michaelzajac5284]

1:39 Hes good health!

[@spektralhunter]

dont grab the saber from the emissor, tecnically u are burning ur own hand.

[@xaikken]

Now this I’m excited for