Today on the blog, I’m joined by Open de France champion and one of the most distinctive fighters in Saber Tour—Amaury Mouhtajjib. He’s recently climbed to the number one spot in the World Rankings, surpassing even Sebastien Berard!

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Amaury, welcome to Saber Talk, let’s start at the beginning, how did you first get involved with LED Saber as a sport? Were you at all involved in the initial establishment of Sport Saber League?

Well, LED Saber was introduced to me by an old friend. We both took the same Martial Art lessons (Karate from School Uechi Ryu) and were used to fighting together.

He advertised it to me by saying he had the same sensations as when we were fighting but with a LED Saber. I tried with Adrien K., who is still my instructor, and fell in love with the sport side, as I’m not a big fan of the Star Wars universe.

LED Saber has seen a huge surge in popularity in recent years, what do you think makes it so special? And what would you say is one misconception that most people have about the sport?

I believe two huge factors do create curiosity in everybody : 

First : the families that grew up with the films who can now fight as their favorite character (well not Grievous obviously). We often have some students talk about how this character fights and how this technique is used by this character instead of this other one.

Second : all the … I’ll say “nerds” … that don’t find their place in more traditional weapon sports like HEMA or Fencing. LED Saber is a good mix of the traditional techniques we can find in Martial Arts and a less serious side of the sport because we fight with LED Sabers with plastic blades.

The one misconception I hear the most when I talk about LED Saber is that people tend to think it isn’t a sport because we “only play” and we only learn some choregraphies.

As the newly-crowned single best player in the world, you’re obviously a highly skilled fighter, how would you sum up your style in the arena? Has it changed at all over your time competing?

Hum … my other sensei and I, when we watch the matches I fight, we agree on the fact that my style is mostly defensive and I tend to “hypnotise” my opponents, make them “sleep” during the fight, like a Snake Charmer would do. I have been doing the snake charming thing since 2018 and I play more defensively since I took a lesson from Silver Sabers, changing the way I handle a fight from “getting the most points” to “survive”.

Now, you’ve recently won the JPPJSL Open de France, after defending Champion Sebastien Berard was eliminated in Quarter-Finals by Francois Ducrohet. When that happened, was there an immediate feeling of “oh, I could win this now!”? And if so, do you think all remaining fighters had the same thought?

This sentence is everybody’s goal, even though they tell us they don’t have a chance, we still motivate them by saying : “You don’t know unless you try ! In a LED Saber match, you don’t know what can happen.” François winning over Sebastien is the best example we can have !

A lot of fighters will listen to music while warming up or practicing, is this something you’ve ever given a try? If so, did you find it helped you to focus or improve your performance at all?

I tried but it didn’t help me. But I listen to music during my training and the lessons I give to work on the focus we have to have during a fight or when we’re referring.

Do you have a favourite match from any tournament you’ve attended? If so, who was it against—and why does it stand out to you?

I like having fun, that’s also why I still fight in nearly all the tournaments because we meet old and new people with whom I don’t train. But the fights we fight with Mycki are extraordinary, epic and gorgeous. We’ve known each other for a long time now, we helped each other during lessons, and we still attend the same LED Saber class every Wednesday !

I can’t pick one from all the matches we fought together but I really enjoy fighting with him.

You’re an instructor at Sport Saber League Paris, would you say SSL has a distinctive teaching philosophy or method compared to other saber schools or clubs around the world? What makes the SSL approach unique?

I don’t think it’s a magic formula we invented, we have instructors with different backgrounds, some made some sport, others didn’t, some others are still taking fighting classes. We don’t want to confine the LED Saber in a box made of techniques we create or steal from other sports. We take inspiration from other sports or weapons to broaden our knowledge so we can answer all demands from our students. Sometimes when we aren’t good in a specific area of expertise, we ask, even sometimes a student, to explain or teach.

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?

That’s a tricky question because we have to assume they trained for these rules and fight so their way of fighting might change.

As a polearm fan, I’ll say Guan Yu so i can finally fight with a LED Glaive against someone who knows how to handle them.

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A huge thank you to Amaury for participating in the En Garde series, and huge congratulations to him on his victory in the Open de France!

Thank you all for reading and I’ll see you again soon for more Saber Talk.

May The Force Be With You