Today’s post is the second in a series I’m trialling here on Saber Talk: “En Garde with…”, a set of interviews with key figures in the world of LED saber combat.

For this edition, I speak with the founder of Sport Saber League and Saber Tour himself—a fighter currently ranked #6 in the world—the legendary Adrien Koch Forbin.

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Adrien, welcome to Saber Talk. To start with, let’s go back to the beginning, what drew you to the idea of the Lightsaber as a martial discipline, and how did you go from seeing the incredible duels in the films to thinking “we can make a sport from this!”

Thank you for this opportunity and for your involvement in the Saber Tour community.

It started out as a joke! Then we told one person, then another, and another, and it turned out people were really excited to play this sport.

We immediately gained traction quickly and strongly thanks to the support of people and the media.

It was in 2015 when the first images of the final trilogy were released.

You’re the Founder of Sport Saber League, could you tell us a little about how you created the organisation, and how you developed the combat system? Is it based on Historical European Martial Arts, Kendo, Fencing or something else entirely?

I talk about the real story in an episode of the podcast “Pop Culture Experience,” which I invite all French speakers to listen to, on all platforms. 

At the very beginning, we were planning to create a Ludosport school! They’ve simply been around and organized for longer than any of us. We have to give them credit for that. The system works.

My partners and I were in Milan, Italy. We discussed a lot.

We asked ourselves a lot of questions because the license fee was very high at the time for the budget we had planned.

So we decided to do it ourselves, and the Sport Saber League was born.

We even included INTERNATIONAL in the name even though we had only opened in Paris! It was ridiculous, but fun. We quickly removed the term to focus on the sport, the rules, and the development. Seriously, without taking ourselves too seriously.

The first sports lightsaber school in France was born.

Be careful, there were already clubs that practiced it artistically.

Combat system is based on every sport with a stick 😉 

Did you ever face scepticism from more traditional martial arts communities in the sport’s early stages? How did you go about gaining legitimacy for lightsaber combat as a serious discipline?

After 10 years of existence, we still have to convince. Sport remains a niche sport, and we have to fight to make it known. COVID was very difficult, but we bounced back well.

I think legitimacy comes from the seriousness of the approach, the vision. We have a vision.
Lightspeed (USA) and Ludosport (ITALY) also have that. That is why it works, i think?

And I repeat, a serious approach to our challenges while not taking ourselves too seriously. Let’s not forget that we are children, or big children, playing with light-up sticks.

Furthermore, our team includes many people with extensive experience in sports, marketing, all types of sports competitions, and visual design.

For example, I have significant experience as a competitor, but also in sports marketing and sports events.

When it came to Saber Tour, what was the initial concept behind it, what drove you to move from a club setting to an international system and what were the main challenges you faced in establishing the circuit?

Here’s the history of the Saber Tour.

Initially, we wanted to unite French clubs, and we created the FF Saber Lightsaber. A sort of French lightsaber federation. The beginnings were promising, but French egos being what they are, and the martial arts community as well, we quickly realized that:

1) The French are ungovernable because they simply don’t want to be.

2) A Federation rhymes with “taking oneself seriously,” and we lose all the brilliant and inclusive influence of pop culture.

3) People want to be free.

We then created the LSOT (Led Saber Open Tour) with the SSCA.

Then Covid.

Then we relaunched the LSOT after COVID with the SSCA and the Saber Authority in Singapore.

Then we took different paths, as mentioned above, and we were able to create the Saber Tour as it exists today. And its now a European circuit. 

The concept was therefore as follows:

– Create a set of rules as coherent as possible so that a majority of people can understand and practice them easily.

– Make it available to people.

– Create a tournament circuit that uses these rules.

– Create an annual ranking to provide a bit of a challenge.

All this is free (excluding tournament registration fees, of course), without requiring any signatures or memberships.

100% inclusive, meaning that no matter which club you come from, it’s OK for the Saber Tour. Difference is a source of wealth.

100% free, meaning that the people or clubs that come to tournaments are under no obligation to practice the Saber Tour rules for the year. They don’t report their lightsaber activities to us. We don’t need to display the Saber Tour logo on their club’s communications, except for Saber Tour tournaments of course.

In a nutshell, we organize tournaments, people come, they fight, they exchange, they experience emotions, and they leave. And that’s it 🙂

What unites us is the rankings, the circuit, and our shared passion for sport and the universe.

Now, Sport Saber League wasn’t the only LED saber organisation established in 2015, Silver Sabres and First Strike were also set up that year in the UK. Did you have any contact with their founders before you launched the clubs and was there any sort of collaboration between you in the creation process?

Initially, we worked on a common rules system with the Silver Sabre school in London. We discussed this topic for a long time. We managed to connect for a while on a shared language basis and tournaments. Then personal disagreements and COVID-19 put paid to this partnership, even though they were recently able to travel to the latest UK Open in London and we are SO happy for that. 

For example, while the topic of armed strikes exists in several schools, it’s a subject we brought to the table thanks to the SSCA (Silver Sabre Combat Academy). The rules have evolved considerably since then, but it’s worth mentioning.

The Lyon school was also already practicing this method at the time.

The others were inspired by it. The Sabre Tour adopted it, then adapted it.

The First Strike collaboration, for its part, is long-standing. A very different music system was also inherent to Ludosport’s departure. But I still remember Wayne J Bell, your founder, who was there during my victory in 2017 at the SSL internal championship in Paris! He came with Izam Rayan.

Of course, you’re not only an organiser and instructor but also a world class fighter in your own right, how would you sum up your combat style in the arena?

I come from a long experience in high level rugby. (3rd French division).
I fight like i played. Hard. Strong mind. Lot of instinct. Lot of competitive awareness. Defeat is not an option.

Not a lot of tech skills i must say but in my opinion, when you practise sport, you can understand and play at least at mid level, every sport. 

With the recent surge in new and young talent across Saber Tour, are there any up-and-coming fighters you’ve been especially impressed by—either for their rapid development or their impact on the circuit this past year?

It seems logical to me to talk about Alexis Amegah, who, after barely two years of training, is ranked in the top 10 of the Saber Tour. It’s very impressive. They train hard, especially with their father, who also recently reached the top 16. He’s strong, very strong.

Victor Charlu certainly has great potential. Still a little soft, a little naive in combat, in a year or two as he gains experience, it won’t be the same, that’s for sure.

We have the 8th edition of the Open de France just around the corner (on the 20th-21st of June), how do you typically prepare for an event like this? Is it just an extension of normal training or do you increase the amount you practice in the run-up to the event?

I’m mainly focused on the overall organization. This is the first time Alexis Leperlier, Arthur Gautier, and I will be participating, although we were completely dedicated to the organization in previous years.

Our friend Sébastien Bérard, Le Champion, convinced us to participate.

We’ll see 🙂

I never train much. I do, a little. But having done it a lot in rugby in previous years, I find it harder to get into it now. Although I recently changed things a bit, which allowed me to reach my highest ranking, TOP 3.

Saber Tour is already a huge international circuit of tournaments and fighters, but where do you see the organisation going next? Are you planning to expand into more countries and regions? Or simply increase the number of participating clubs and fighters?

The plan is to continually refine the rules to offer the most comprehensive experience.

Develop our tournaments as an organization.

Emphasize the French Open, the ultimate showcase of the Saber Tour.

And travel to as many locations as possible.

Next season’s goals (currently being discussed and organized): Lyon in France, Liège in Belgium, and then return to Italy after a great 2024 edition in Rimini (Turin, Milan, Bologna), and that will already be VERY GOOD.

You typically fight with a purple saber, did anything in particular draw you to that colour?

The style !!

Finally, if you could step into the arena for a full three-round match under official Saber Tour rules against any opponent—historical or fictional—who would you choose to duel, and why?

My father 😉

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A huge thank you to Adrien for agreeing to take part in this interview, I had an incredible time writing the questions and reading his responses, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different style of content and I’ll see you again soon for more Saber Talk.

May The Force Be With You