CM-G

CM-G is the locking movement, and the second lesson in the Extended Library.

It interprets the duel between father and son in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. No official notation exists for that fight, so what is written here is one reading of it, and in places the order of the filmed moments has been rearranged so the sequence tells a clean choreographed story rather than following the cut of the film.

What makes CM-G its own lesson is the locks. They arrive in the first few steps and recur throughout, and every one of them is a point where the exchange stops moving. Those stops are the movement's real subject: they are what let a pair hold a beat, play a moment of struggle, and give a long fight its pacing.

Notation

CM-G runs eleven steps in a single table.

Wide tables

The table below is wide. On a phone, turn the device landscape; the table can also be scrolled sideways.

Player	s1	s2	s3	s4	s5	s6	s7	s8	s9	s10	s11
Saberist A	0	X	X, Pull R	10©	2©	5X	1	11	11X	9©	9©
Saberist B	3P>9PX	9P, S+S: Pull L	X	Duck	Duck	5X	1P	11P	11PX	Dodge	Dodge

Read down each column as usual, and notice how often both rows hold the same thing at the same time.

X is a lock, the symbol introduced in CM-E. It appears in both rows at the same step, because a lock is something two Saberists do together rather than one doing to the other.
S+S is a saber stand-off — a lock held rather than broken. Steps 1 to 3 are one continuous engagement: the thrust is parried into a lock, the lock is held, and each Saberist pulls away from it in a different direction.
3P>9PX reads left to right. Saberist B parries the thrust on the 3 line, carries that parry up to 9, and finishes the movement in a lock.
0 is a thrust, as in CM-D.
© is a complete, taught in CM-C. The swing carries through the target instead of stopping at it.
Not every attack is answered with a blade. Duck and Dodge fill Saberist B's row at steps 4, 5, 10 and 11 — a completed swing is travelling too far to be met, so it is left instead.
There are three locks in the movement: the stand-off at steps 2 and 3, 5X at step 6, and 11X at step 9. They divide the eleven steps into short bursts of exchange separated by stillness.

Telegraph

A forward eight flourish, or a helicopter flourish into Position 3.

Either version calls CM-G. Agree which one you are using before the exchange begins.

The telegraph is the silent signal that calls CM-G before an exchange begins. See LUMINA Games for how telegraphs are used in play.

Locks and stand-offs

A lock is written X, and it is the one thing in the notation that neither Saberist performs alone. Two blades meet and stay met. Nothing advances until the lock is released, so a lock is a shared decision as much as a shared position.

CM-E puts a single lock at the end of each exchange, where it marks a seam. CM-G does something different: it builds a whole movement out of them. Three locks break eleven steps into four short runs of blade work, and the movement spends as much time held as it does moving.

That is the lesson. A long exchange performed at one continuous speed has no shape to it — everything reads as equally important, and an audience has nowhere to rest. Locks give a fight its punctuation. Each one stops the sequence at a chosen moment, holds the two Saberists face to face, and then lets the exchange restart from a new footing.

The stand-off at the opening is where this is clearest. Saberist A thrusts, Saberist B parries the thrust on the 3 line and carries the parry up to 9, and the two finish bound together. S+S marks that bind as prolonged — not a lock that is broken as soon as it forms, but one that is deliberately held. Both Saberists then pull, in opposite directions: Saberist B to the left, Saberist A to the right. The pull is what makes a stand-off read as a struggle rather than a pause. Neither Saberist is waiting; both are working, and the tension is visible.

The two later locks work faster. 5X at step 6 catches a low attack and stops the exchange dead in the middle of the movement. 11X at step 9 catches a high one and sets up the finish. Both are entered from an attack that is met rather than parried away, which is why the notation carries the target number into the lock: 5X is a lock on the 5 line, 11PX is a parry on the 11 line that becomes one.

Entering a lock safely is the whole technique. The blades come together at a controlled speed, at a controlled angle, at a distance both Saberists have agreed on before the sequence starts. A lock is never collided into. Leaving one is the same in reverse: the release is choreographed, both Saberists know which way each is going, and the pull that follows is a performance of force rather than an application of it.

Then the movement resolves. Saberist A completes twice on the 9 line while Saberist B dodges both, and the exchange ends with the two Saberists apart rather than bound — which is only legible as a resolution because so much of what came before was spent locked together.

Purpose

CM-G is designed to teach:

locks as the structure of a movement rather than as a single milestone
X, and S+S for a lock that is held
entering a lock from a parry, and from an attack that is met
carrying a parry from one line to another, as in 3P>9PX
pulling against a stand-off safely and convincingly
answering a complete with movement instead of a blade
pacing a long exchange with deliberate stops

Training method

Phase 1: Static walkthrough

Take the eleven steps one at a time, standing, at no speed at all.

Walk into each lock and stop there. Confirm before moving on:

both Saberists arrive at the lock at the same moment
the blades meet at an agreed angle and height
distance is safe, with room for both Saberists to pull
the release is agreed before it happens

Phase 2: The locks on their own

Practise the three locks as isolated pairs of steps, out of sequence.

The opening stand-off needs the most work, because it is the only one that is held. Set the thrust, the 3P>9PX parry into the lock, and the two pulls as a single unit, and repeat it until entry, hold and release are the same every time.

Phase 3: The runs between the locks

Now practise the blade work on its own: steps 4 and 5, steps 7 and 8, steps 10 and 11.

These are the parts of the movement that travel, and they are short by design. Run each one until it is clean before joining it to anything.

Phase 4: Slow continuous flow

Put the whole eleven steps together, slowly, without stopping.

The seams are the transitions in and out of each lock. If either Saberist loses the sequence, stop and restart from step 1 rather than picking it up mid-lock.

Phase 5: Performance pace

Only once the sequence is reliable, add speed to the runs — and leave the locks alone.

A lock does not get faster. It gets longer. Bringing the exchange up to performance pace means the blade work quickens while the held moments stay held, and the difference between the two is what an audience actually sees.

Teaching note

CM-G should be taught as a language drill, not as a fight.

The hazard that belongs to this movement is close quarters. Every lock brings two Saberists within a blade's length of each other with weapons engaged, and CM-G does that three times in eleven steps. Locks are entered slowly and by agreement, always — and a pair that is comfortable with the sequence is exactly the pair most likely to start arriving at the lock a little faster than they agreed.

It is also worth naming what the film reference is and is not. CM-G is an interpretation of a filmed duel, worked out and written down by Saberists. Learning it teaches the notation, not a reconstruction of anyone's performance.

When CM-G is clean, continue to CM-H, which trades the stops for continuous flow, or return to the Extended Library.