CM-I
CM-I is a nine-strike sequence built around completes, and it carries a piece of the history of saber choreography with it.
Matthew Carauddo developed the Novastar Caine Saber Combat System in the early days of LED stunt sabering and taught it through a series of instructional videos released as Saber Combat. SaberCraft's founder trained this sequence with him at a clinic. Saber Combat is no longer available, so the sequence is written down here for posterity — an example of one of the earliest saber strike sequences developed by a fan, for fans.
CM-I is based on choreography by Matthew Carauddo for Saber Combat, applied to the CM structure. To learn more about Saber Combat, visit SaberCombat.com.
Notation
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saberist A | 5 | 9 | 2© | 1 | 3 | 7 | 3© | 7© | 11 |
| Saberist B | 5P | 9P | 2P | 1P | 3P | 7P | 3P | 7P | 11P |
- Saberist B answers every attack with the parry of the same number.
5is met with5P,9with9P, and so on to the end of the sequence. Saberist A carries the whole movement. ©is a complete, taught in CM-C. The swing carries through the target instead of stopping at it, and finishes somewhere the blade would not have reached otherwise.- Three of the nine strikes complete:
2©at step 3, then3©and7©back to back at steps 7 and 8. The other six stop. - Steps 5 and 6 return as steps 7 and 8.
3and7are struck twice — the first time stopping, the second time completing. Same lines, different endings.
Telegraph
A vertical front propellor flourish.
The telegraph is the silent signal that calls CM-I before an exchange begins. See LUMINA Games for how telegraphs are used in play.
Advanced completes
CM-C introduces the complete as an idea: some swings stop at the target, and some carry through. CM-I is where that idea has to do real work.
A stopping strike ends where it lands. The blade arrives, it is met, and it is then somewhere known — which means the next strike starts from a known place, and a sequence of stopping strikes is a sequence of separate decisions. A complete does not offer that. It passes through the target and keeps travelling, and it ends wherever its arc takes it. What follows a complete is therefore not chosen freely; it is chosen from where the blade actually is.
That is the whole difficulty of this movement, and it is arranged in ascending order.
The first complete stands alone. 2© at step 3 sits between two stopping strikes, so a Saberist can carry it through and then re-set before 1 at step 4. It is a complete with a safety net, and it is the one to learn first.
The two at steps 7 and 8 have no such net. 3© runs straight into 7©, which means the second complete starts from wherever the first one finished, with no stop in between to recover from. Two carried swings in a row is a different skill from one, and it is the reason CM-I is called advanced rather than simply another sequence of completes. Get the arc of 3© wrong and 7© is not merely late — it starts from the wrong place entirely.
The repetition is what teaches it. Steps 5 and 6 strike the 3 and 7 lines and stop; steps 7 and 8 strike the same two lines and carry through. Running them back to back makes the difference impossible to miss, and it is worth practising the four steps as a block for exactly that reason. The same two lines, twice, ending differently — that comparison is the lesson.
Saberist B has the harder half of it. Parrying a stopping strike and parrying a completing one are not the same action: a complete keeps moving after contact, so the parry has to deflect and then get clear rather than hold position. A defender who meets 3© the way they met 3 will find the blade still travelling through where they are standing. Both Saberists must know which strikes complete, before the sequence starts, every time.
Nine strikes, six that stop and three that carry, is a small enough sequence to hold in the head and a demanding enough one to take a long time to make clean. That combination is why it has outlived the videos it came from.
Purpose
CM-I is designed to teach:
- completes inside a long sequence rather than as an isolated technique
- two completes run back to back, with no reset between them
- choosing the next strike from where a carried swing actually ends
- the difference between striking a line and completing through it
- parrying a complete, which deflects and clears rather than holds
- nine-strike phrasing held as a single movement
Training method
Phase 1: Static walkthrough
Take the nine strikes one at a time, standing, with a full stop after each.
Perform every strike as a stopping strike for now, completes included. Confirm at each step:
- both Saberists agree which target the number names
- the parry meets the attack cleanly
- distance is safe
- the step can be repeated the same way
Phase 2: One complete at a time
Add 2© at step 3 and nothing else.
Run steps 1 to 4 until the complete carries through cleanly, Saberist B's parry clears it, and step 4 starts from wherever the blade has ended up. Only then move on.
Phase 3: The pair at steps 7 and 8
Practise steps 5 through 8 as a block, out of sequence.
This is the heart of the movement. Run 3 and 7 stopping, then 3© and 7© completing, and pay attention to where the second complete begins. If 7© feels rushed, the problem is almost always the arc of 3© before it, not the strike itself.
Phase 4: Slow continuous flow
Put all nine strikes together at low speed, without stopping.
If either Saberist loses the sequence, restart from step 1 rather than picking it up mid-complete.
Phase 5: Performance pace
Add speed only once the completes are identical every repetition.
A complete run fast by a Saberist who is not certain where it ends is the least controlled thing in this movement. Certainty first, then pace.
Teaching note
CM-I should be taught as a language drill, not as a fight.
The hazard that belongs to this movement is the carried swing. A complete does not stop at the target, so the distance that is safe for a stopping strike is not automatically safe here — and steps 7 and 8 put two of them in a row. Set the working distance for the completes, not for the sequence's shortest strike, and check it again whenever the pace changes.
There is also something worth telling students about why this movement is in the library at all. CM-I is not an interpretation of a filmed fight, and it is not original to the Saber Standard. It is an early piece of community choreography, taught in person, recorded on discs that are no longer sold, and preserved here because notation is how a movement survives the medium it was taught in. That is a reasonable answer to the question of what the notation is for.
When CM-I is clean, continue to CM-J, which turns the saber around, or return to the Extended Library.