A Defined Progression
A curriculum with an order to it. The 9-Form system and the sash progression give every practitioner a clear path from first form to advanced work, so nothing is left to guesswork on the floor.
Saberation Inc.
Where Light Sword Martial Arts
Became a Sport.
Saberation gave the art its structure, its training standard, and the name it competes under. Endorsed by Sijo Nathan Young, the Father of Our Forms, it is the athletic step in a lineage that is documented, not invented.
The Athletic Association
Structure. Training.
Structure. Training.
A Competitive Identity.
Before an art can be governed, it has to be practicable. Saberation is the organization in the lineage that made light sword martial arts something a person could train, progress through, and compete in.
A Standard That Travels
One way of teaching, held from one floor to the next. Structure, drills, and rank standards mean the art is trained the same way wherever it is trained, and a student who moves keeps their footing.
A Name the Art Can Carry
Saberation and Light Sword Martial Arts is the identity the art competes under. It is what put the discipline into the international competitive record, and what gives every practitioner something to represent.
The 2019 World Stage
WAC World All-Style Championship
Sijo Nathan Young competing at the 2019 WAC World All-Style Championship, Portugal and Spain.
In 2019, Sijo Nathan Young carried the art onto the world stage. Competing as Saberation and Light Sword Martial Arts at the WAC World All-Style Championship across Portugal and Spain, he put the art into the international competitive record for the first time. The competitive identity stopped being a name on paper and became a result on a mat.
The Classical Heritage
Roots Older Than the Forms
The discipline behind the forms has classical roots. The jujitsu tradition Sijo Nathan Young trained in is carried into the structure, rank progression, and technical foundation of the art.
Sijo Nathan Young receiving rank under Professor Kai Li, Elite Training Systems.
Elite Training Systems
A Nidan in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu
Sijo Nathan Young holds a Nidan rank in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu, earned under Professor Kai Li. That rank belongs to a lineage carried by the American Jujitsu Institute: a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution founded in 1939 by Professor Henry Seishiro Okazaki, which perpetuates the Kodenkan and Danzan Ryu tradition to this day.
A note on this lineage. Sijo Nathan Young’s Nidan is a personal rank in a classical art, part of the heritage he carries into Light Sword Martial Arts. It is distinct from how the art is governed: the curriculum, rank system, and competition standards are administered by the Light Sword Martial Arts Federation, a Virginia nonprofit with its own bylaws and policy documents.
The Organizational Lineage
From One Academy to a Federation
Light Sword Martial Arts grew through a documented chain of organizations. Each founded or endorsed by Sijo Nathan Young. Each a step toward the structured federation that governs the art today.
Step One / The Home Academy
Sifu Nate Martial Arts Academy
Founded by Sijo Nathan Young. The home academy where the teaching began, and the foundation from which the light sword forms were first developed and passed on.
Step Two / The Athletic Association
Saberation Inc., Light Sword Athletic Association
Endorsed by Sijo Nathan Young. The step that organized light sword practice as an athletic discipline: structure, training, and a competitive identity for the art.
Step Three / The Private Association
Light Sword Martial Arts, PMA
A Private Member Association, endorsed by Sijo Nathan Young. The membership framework that carried the practice forward and connected practitioners under a shared standard.
Step Four / Today
Light Sword Training Academy and the LSMA Federation
Light Sword Training Academy is the current competitive and educational standard-bearer of this lineage, training under a single 9-Form curriculum and the Code of S.A.B.E.R. The art is governed by the Light Sword Martial Arts Federation, the Virginia nonprofit that carries the heritage forward as a structured, documented sport.
The Lineage Continues
One Lineage. Every Floor.
Every academy and instructor that trains this art inherits the same documented heritage. If you want to see where it is taught, or read the chain in full, start here.