May the Force be with them at lightsaber camp

It’s 8:45 a.m., 15 minutes before the start of class, and the Padawans are awake, alert and ready to report for duty.

Some are training to become Jedi masters, others Sith warriors.

Nine-year-old Cate Cummings charges her way across the dojo, purple light from her saber gleaming.

“Yaaaaaaa! For the Sith!” the Yorba Linda resident yells.

The Emperor would approve. This is how it is at Yorba Linda’s Light Saber Academy camp. Good kids play characters from the dark and light sides of the Force.

The students, ages 5 to 14, spent July 20 to 24 learning techniques and movements to perfect their skills with the replica sabers. This involved studying not only the fundamentals of sword fighting but also martial arts. (Two more camps are planned for Aug. 10 to 14 and Aug. 24 to 28).

The dojo, the United Studios of Self Defense in Yorba Linda, provides four of these lightsaber camp sessions during summer.

As students warmed up that morning, some turned on the lights of their plastic swords and practiced sparring. Beams of orange, blue, red and green struck each other with full force, er, the Force, to be exact.

Cate was one of many students who returned to camp for its second year.

“(Last) year, me and the instructors were going over ideas for something new we could do for summer,” studio owner Trent Zappen said. “One instructor said, ‘I know this might sound stupid but … .’”

Despite that initial doubt, last summer’s academy was a huge success and, like “Star Wars,” spawned a sequel.

Dojo instructors taught four camps that summer, some sessions having as many as 50 Jedi-in-training or soon-to-be-Sith. Zappen even recalls adult students working up a sweat in the academy that season.

“Some of the adults took their vacation days for the camp,” Zappen said. “The oldest we had last year was 67.”

This second session of camp allowed an intimate group of around 20.

After learning the basics of how to block, strike and counter with their “laser” swords, pupils put their newfound skills to good use for the camp’s big finale, an evening performance allowing family and friends to watch choreographed scenes.

Besides learning technique and movement, there were other lessons of importance — and safety — throughout the academy. The sabers are plastic and are not used to strike opponents; the dojo stresses safety.

“For most kids, if you put a saber in their hands, they’ll probably start swinging it,” Zappen said. “But we want to incorporate the fine motor movements, and they practice a lot of discipline with that.”

There is also the necessity to separate the fiction of films with the greater truths found in martial arts.

“Every kind of karate movie will show people beating each other up, but they don’t portray what martial arts really is,” Zappen said. “There are kicks and punches, but you also have to learn self-control, respect and focus.”

During the camp, the kids spend roughly half the day without sabers in their hands. They devote this time to perfecting their butterfly kicks and learning how to safely tumble.

The students practiced kicks on the studio’s weight masters, which are tall, padded cylinders.

Instructor Kenny Pham, 22, of Garden Grove used chalk to draw faces on the padding — one of Darth Vader, the other of a storm trooper.

“It gives them a good feeling when they’ve made a target,” Pham said. “It’s all in good spirit of the lightsaber camp.”

For the fight scenes, students split into groups of two or three. Each created their own two-minute story for a Jedi-Sith battle.

Vihaan Parekh, 8, of Anaheim slips easily into character.

“In my skit, I think vicious, tall and dark,” Vihaan said. “If you’re a Sith, you need to be those things. But outside the dojo, I’m nice.”

His group’s scene had the Sith invading a Jedi hideout.

About skits, Amanda Collins, 13, from Yorba Linda added, “Most people think you need to be angry, but it’s more about concentrating on your moves, channeling your energy.”

After all, wasn’t it Yoda who said, “Anger, fear, aggression — the dark side of the Force, are they ...”

Like the film series on which the camp is based, some scenes ended with the Jedi conquering all adversity, others with the Empire striking back.