Nick Cousland's Form One (Shii-Cho) training

[Zanear the Edge]

The room is a simple square, 50 x 50. It's floor and walls are padded for extra protection. On the North wall is a rack that contains training sabers, plus a group of lockers to keep personal items in.

Standing in the center of the room is a shimmering figures in white robes, Jedi Master Augustus Starwarrior, the Half-Chiss Jedi that was now One with the Force. Greetings Nick, far too long since I've seen you.

[Nick Cousland]

Nick quietly walks into the training room dressed in light brown Jedi robes and his silver bladed lightsaber clipped onto his belt. He smiles when he sees Gus. "Indeed it has Gus. Been far too long. Its good to see you again my friend." He inclines his head in greeting.

[Zanear the Edge]

He smiles and nods at Nick's comments. Waving his hand at the lockers on the far wall, he speaks again. Please put all personal weapons and armor in the lockers. Choose a training blade to use and then we can go from there.

[Nick Cousland]

Nick nods his head and walks over to the lockers. He opens the locker and unclips his lightsaber. He places the hilt inside the locker and then removes his outer robes until he is wearing only a loose fitting tunic and pants. He closes the locker and then walks over to grab a training saber. He activates it and a blue blade emerges. He deactivates it and walks back over to Gus.

"Good to go. Let the training begin my friend."

[Zanear the Edge]

The ghost of the (in?)famous Jedi Master laughed. All in good time my friend. First, there are some things I need to tell you...


Form I: Shii-Cho, also known as The Way of the Sarlacc, or The Determination Form, was the first of the seven forms of lightsaber combat. As the most ancient style of lightsaber combat, Shii-Cho was developed during the transition period from swords to lightsabers. As lightsabers were wielded in a manner similar to swords, many of the maneuvers, such as attacks or parries, remained unchanged, as the key principles of the old sword-fighting methods continued to be incorporated. The simplicity and persistent methods of the form led it to being dubbed the "Way of the Sarlacc" and the "Determination Form". As Shii-Cho was developed prior to either the emergence of Dark Jedi or Sith Lords, it was not developed with lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat in mind. Despite the development of a combat form tailored to lightsaber dueling, Shii-Cho was not rendered obsolete. Its simplicity and basic focuses left the form ideally suited for basic training, and it was used to provide initiates with a basic introduction to lightsaber combat. Shii-Cho remained an effective form of combat for thousands of years, its simplicity making it a good fallback option when no other form would do.


He pauses, then continues. Shii-Cho fostered an emotionally-heated mindset, which resulted in the considerable temptation to execute combat with lethal intent, requiring great restraint to exercise the form without going too far. Despite the pull to kill, the style was designed for the purpose of disarming without seriously injuring. In combat, Form I encouraged deliberate tactics, calling for continuous, step-by-step advancement while cutting off the opponent's angles. Shii-Cho was specialized towards engaging multiple opponents, the wide, sweeping motions being ideally suited towards attacking numerous adversaries. However, Form I was not as useful against single opponents, as such enemies had complete mobility and could find a weakness in Shii-Cho's comparatively clumsy bladework. In order to teach students to draw upon the Force rather than rely on their senses, early level Shii-Cho blast-deflect training was conducted with a blindfold, forcing the initiate to rely upon his instincts. Later training was conducted through the use of sequences and velocities, the continuous repetition making the moves instinctive reflexes. These training regimes were carried over to all following lightsaber combat forms, which used similar methods. The basic rules of attacks, parries and body target zones were established by Shii-Cho combat. Shii-Cho also had two methods of combat which determined how these moves were executed; Ideal Form and Live Combat Form.


He stops for a moment, giving Nick a chance to absorb what he was saying, then continued. Ideal Form was mainly used in sparring, and all the moves and maneuvers were executed at perfect horizontal/vertical angles, with attacks and parries being perpendicular to one another. The Live Combat Form was much more functional, the attacks being diagonal strikes at each respective body zone, the goal being to increase speed and reduce actual movement. Ideal Form is something you need to practice on your own. Once shown it's quite simple. However, Live Combat is what you'll learn with me. The body target zones were numbered as follows; 1 - head, 2 - right arm and side, 3 - left arm and side, 4 - back, 5 - right leg, 6 - left leg.

Shii-Cho philosophy emphasized victory without injury and as such, the sun djem mark of contact was traditionally employed by Form I practitioners. Keeping with the use of sun djem, one of the attacks utilized by Form I practitioners was referred to as the "Disarming Slash", consisting of a strike directed at the opponent's weapon in an attempt to rip it out of their grasp. Another of the techniques utilized by Shii-Cho was dubbed the "Sarlacc Sweep", a wide sweeping attack in which the duelist struck against multiple enemies.

Also, there's a specific way to hold your saber: in Shii-Cho form, a lightsaber is held by putting one hand on the very top, and another hand on the bottom. On the top hand, pressure was applied to the 4th finger, 5th finger, and the thumb, as if one could fight without the 3rd and 2nd fingers. The bottom hand was maneuvered in a push-pull motion.

Now, please take a basic stance, and run through the body zones, striking with your weapon in the area that they would be.