Bring Light Sword Programming to Your Floor.
A federation-registered network, operating across the U.S. and internationally, with federal contracts held at U.S. military installations and municipal Parks & Recreation partnerships. The system that built that footprint is available to partner organizations: schools, parks departments, YMCAs, colleges, martial arts academies, entertainment venues and workplaces.
Two Paths. Zero Cost. See It Work.
Most partnership offers ask the partner to invest capital, manage operations, or absorb liability. This one is structured so the partner does none of those, and the LSTA instructor carries the cost, the work and the insurance.
What the Instructor Carries
- The Light Sword Training Academy curriculum: nine forms, the sash progression, the Code of S.A.B.E.R.
- All equipment, in and out of the building each session. Nothing stored unless you offer a corner.
- Certified instruction. Your staff never teaches.
- Program insurance. Your existing coverage treats the session like any other activity in your building.
- The sponsor packet that makes participation free, and the outreach to local businesses.
- A one-page monthly report: attendance, milestones, sponsor dollars, photographs with consent.
What the Partner Carries
- One protected weekly slot for one season or semester.
- A floor about 24 by 24 feet for a class; about 30 by 40 feet for a league night.
- One champion inside your organization with about 30 minutes a week.
- The announcement to your community.
What Your Organization Receives
The partner never pays a fee. The instructor brings the program; you provide the floor and the population. A share of program registrations and day passes run on your floor is the standard arrangement, defined in a one-season written agreement, paid monthly. Local sponsors can fund seats so participants play free, and nonprofit and public partners can collect that sponsor revenue directly for their own programs.
Start the Conversation
Start the Conversation →Your 13-Plus Students Are Aging Out. A Parallel Sport Keeps Them.
Light sword is a sport, not a style. Your karate stays karate. Your tae kwon do stays tae kwon do. A certified LSTA instructor runs it on your dark nights, with its own equipment, its own schedule and its own rank, and your academy shares in what it earns. Nothing to buy, nothing to staff, nothing to insure.
Your top students reach black belt and quietly drift. Nothing past it hooks them, and master ranks do not generate tuition.
Twelve to fourteen is where students drop out in every discipline. It shows up as an enrollment plateau.
Monthly tuition, maybe seminars, maybe a pro shop. Almost never league registrations, sponsors, day passes or event bookings.
Adding a second style confuses the market. You are right to guard what you built. This program is built to guard it with you.
The Boundaries That Keep Your Art Whole.
They are not suggestions. In this partnership they are the agreement.
Separate Equipment
LSTA sabers and scoring live in a labelled case in a corner you assign. Your weapons, pads, mats and uniforms are never touched.
Separate Schedule
The program runs on its own nights, typically Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. No class ever teaches both. Your instructors' vocabulary and the LSTA instructor's never mix.
Separate Rank
LSTA sash rank and your belt rank never cross-credit in either direction. Your black belts keep their full meaning; the sash keeps its own.
It Fits If
An academy with a real brand, fifty or more active students, a 24 by 24 floor available Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and a culture that respects sport-format sparring. Three seasons to fill, not three weeks.
It Does Not Fit If
Under about fifty active students; a floor you cannot occupy on a recurring cadence; a school that is mostly under 13; a worldview that treats rule sets and scoring as incompatible with traditional martial arts.
Mission-Aligned Programming for Every Member.
A structured competitive league where the Code of S.A.B.E.R. (Security, Aptitude, Bravery, Ethics, Resolve) maps directly onto the YMCA Four Core Values. Teens and adults train in one progression system, run by a certified LSTA instructor on your gym floor. Electronic scoring removes subjective judging. Your chapter pays nothing, your families can pay nothing, and your chapter shares in the program.
Teens age out of youth programming; young adults find boutique fitness studios. Engagement breaks exactly where the chapter needs it most.
January to March attrition is the retention crisis every chapter knows.
Programming has to evidence the Four Core Values in review-ready language.
New programming usually means staff who cannot certify in it. Here they never have to. Only LSTA Corporate certifies instructors.
The Code of S.A.B.E.R. Against the Four Core Values.
The chapter does not retrofit its values onto the program. The program already speaks your language.
Internal stability allowing clear decision-making under pressure. Athletes learn to act from conviction, not anxiety.
YMCA Value: Confidence & StabilityCommitment to genuine skill. Rank is earned through demonstrated ability, not by time served or fees paid.
YMCA Value: Growth MindsetThe willingness to move forward in the presence of fear: competing, performing, and trying again after a loss.
YMCA Value: CourageConducting yourself with integrity whether winning or losing. The code holds in all directions, always.
YMCA Value: IntegrityStaying committed until the goal is achieved, not until it gets hard. The league reinforces this every week.
YMCA Value: PerseveranceWhat the Instructor Carries
- Complete equipment kit: electronic scoring vests, light swords, carry cases, ships to your location.
- Operator or instructor certification, no martial arts background required on your side.
- National competition-platform access: standings and athlete profiles from day one.
- The full run-sheet library: session plans, referee protocols, bracket formats.
- Branded marketing materials and the local-sponsor packet.
What Your Chapter Carries
- A standard gymnasium floor, about 30 by 40 feet, on a recurring Saturday.
- One champion inside the chapter who can codesign the launch.
- The announcement to your member families.
What Your Chapter Receives
Local businesses fund seats so members play free, and your chapter collects that sponsor revenue directly for its own programs. Where members register directly, the chapter receives a share of registrations on its floor, paid monthly. Results and athlete profiles live permanently on the national competition platform from the first match.
It Fits If
A branch director who wants to be first in the association to run this and is willing to codesign: we ship a version, you test it, we adjust together. A gym floor of about 30 by 40 feet supports 10 to 20 participants; equipment sets up in under 20 minutes and leaves nothing behind.
It Does Not Fit If
A chapter culture that rejects martial-arts-rooted frameworks on principle; a priority gap that is under-13 family programming; branch governance that needs six-week committee cycles at every step.
Your Rec Center Goes Quiet at 13. This Is the Program That Defends at Council Review.
Twelve-year-olds graduate from your leagues, camps and after-school programs and graduate to nothing. LSTA's structured curriculum ran in Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation from 2015 and runs in Norfolk Parks and Recreation now. A certified instructor delivers it on your floor at no cost to your budget, carrying the equipment, the insurance and the program risk, with a share of registrations back to your facility.
After-school is 5 to 11. Leagues are youth or adult. The 13 to 17 segment has nothing structured, and does not complain, it disappears from attendance.
"Sword sport for teens" is a headline unless the character framework, safety profile and credentials are bulletproof on the first slide. They are.
Empty sessions mean budget cuts. The enrollment curve here is documented, and the first-time-program risk is carried by the instructor.
Hiring certified staff takes a year. Here the certified instructor is the program.
Five Questions, Five Answers.
The briefing you walk in with.
Yes. Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation from 2015; Norfolk Parks and Recreation now. Both are public-sector references your staff can call.
The certified instructor carries full program insurance and is the contracting party. The city's exposure mirrors any third-party recreation program.
Structured discipline through individual rank progression reaches the kid not making varsity and not joining a club. Two municipal references confirm the curve.
None to the city budget. Gym time on a recurring weekly cadence, plus the cost-recovery structure your department already runs for contracted programming. No annual renewal cost.
What Your Department Receives
The facility receives a share of program registrations on its floor, fitted into the cost-recovery mechanism your department already uses for third-party programming. Local sponsors can fund seats for families your department identifies, so free access becomes a public benefit you can point to.
It Fits If
A director who has watched the 13 to 17 number shrink for several budget cycles and has council capital to spend on the right idea. Three sessions to fill, not three weeks.
It Does Not Fit If
A district in pure cost-cutting mode on teen programming; a council that requires novelty over track record; a priority for generic family programming rather than structured discipline for adolescents.
A Documented Character Program for the Students Nothing Else Reaches.
Every school has thirty to fifty students who do not fit sports, do not join clubs and slide toward disengagement. A structured-discipline program for ages 13 and up, with the Code of S.A.B.E.R. mapped to all five CASEL competencies, delivered by a certified, background-checked instructor who carries the insurance, with local sponsors funding every seat. Zero cost to the district. Zero cost to the family.
SEL programs miss them. Athletics excludes them. Counseling cannot reach them all.
Compliance binders, not programming. Administrators are audited on outcomes nobody produces at the student level.
Not weapons. Instruments. The training saber is closer to a fencing foil or a kendo bokken than anything else. Full protective protocol, certified instruction, insurance carried by the instructor.
The district does not pay for new programming. Here it never does. Sponsors fund participation; families pay nothing.
The Code of S.A.B.E.R. Mapped to CASEL.
All five competencies, addressed structurally through the curriculum, not bolted on.
The bow, the equipment check, the acknowledgment of the partner before contact.
CASEL: Self-Awareness & Emotional RegulationChosen willingness: show up, try, fail, try again.
CASEL: Growth Mindset & Self-EfficacySash testing before peers; stepping into an exchange knowing you might lose.
CASEL: Self-Management & Goal-Directed BehaviorThe standard held when no one is watching; integrity in scoring; never using skill to harm.
CASEL: Social Awareness & Responsible Decision-MakingRank takes time; reliability to partners and instructor.
CASEL: Relationship Skills & PersistenceHow It's Funded
Sponsor-funded seats: local businesses pay for recurring visibility with your families, and every student plays free. The school provides the room; the instructor delivers the program; sponsors fund participation. Formats: after-school program, PE enrichment unit mapped to the 2024 SHAPE America National Standards, or a student club.
It Fits If
A principal, assistant principal, athletic director, after-school coordinator or SEL director who can see the thirty to fifty and wants a real vehicle at zero cost, with a partner who stays past the launch quarter.
It Does Not Fit If
A district that excludes anything sword-adjacent on principle; an elementary-only school; a request for a one-time assembly.
A Co-Ed League That Fixes the Sophomore Cliff and Reads Title IX Clean by Design.
Electronic scoring is touch-based and gender-blind, so the league runs as one co-ed bracket: intramural, inter-house Greek, open division. A certified LSTA instructor runs it on your rec floor, carries the equipment and the insurance, and your department shares in registrations.
Freshman participation looks good; sophomore, junior and senior participation craters. Nothing has a progression worth a Tuesday night.
Inter-house rivalries are real and under-channelled. A structured league gives them a floor.
Movement, community and structured discipline. Most campuses have the first two.
"Things to do on campus" is where applicants compare schools. The first campus to run this owns the story.
Four Points, Structurally Equitable From the Equipment Up.
A point registers on contact at the impact threshold, not by force. Competition becomes positioning, timing and decision-making.
The position is not "equivalent programming," it is "the same programming." Simpler to administer, harder to challenge.
Houses compete house against house as a single league, rosters mixing freely.
Same training saber, same scoring, same win condition for every participant.
What Your Department Receives
The department receives a share of registrations on its floor, or the facility fee it already applies to outside programs. A chartered student club can pay season registrations from student-activity funds. Local sponsors can fund seats. Standings live on the national competition platform from the first night.
It Fits If
A director who has watched the sophomore cliff for several cycles, is under Title IX scrutiny, and wants a signature league before a conference rival has one. Formats: intramural league, inter-house Greek league, open division and showcase.
It Does Not Fit If
A campus with no Greek life and no measurable intramural drop-off; a culture that treats club sports as a stepchild; a campus too small to measure participation.
Guests Come Once. A League Brings Them Back Every Week.
A six or twelve week light sword league on your dark Tuesday and Thursday, a Saturday day pass that feeds it, and Friday event formats your desk can sell. A certified LSTA instructor runs it on your existing 24 by 24 floor, carries the equipment and the insurance, and your venue keeps the bar, the food and the door, plus a share of the program.
Tourists, birthdays, corporate groups check the box and never return. A bracket position to defend is the only thing that makes a visitor a regular.
Promotions and theme nights do not produce reliable weekly attendance. Forty registered players for twelve weeks do.
Every operator needs a signature attraction the next venue does not have.
Combat-adjacent attractions stall at underwriting. Here the program carries its own insurance and a safety protocol runs before every exchange.
One Floor, Several Ticket Types.
Founding-model price points, shown as illustrations. Your traffic sets the real numbers.
$247 per player, founding model.
$197 per player.
$25 per visitor, the funnel into the league.
$395 per event, booked by your events desk.
$795 per event, weeknights.
$15 per spectator.
What Your Venue Receives
Two splits, your choice: a program share of league registrations and day passes on your floor, and an event share for the formats your desk sells into the floor time. Your food and beverage revenue on a league night is entirely yours, and it is usually the number that decides it.
It Fits If
A family entertainment center, axe-throwing facility, escape-room complex, indoor mini-golf, lounge or experiential venue three or more years in, with a customer base to seed from and a dark Tuesday. A 12-week season commitment.
It Does Not Fit If
A venue under 18 months old still building base traffic; a floor that cannot host a dedicated 24 by 24 area without disrupting the core attraction; an underwriter that excludes combat-adjacent programming.
Corporate & Community: The Same Arrangement, Two Audiences.
Two tracks under one arrangement. Workplaces book a team event or a recurring wellness track. Community centers, chapters and departments run a sponsor-funded league where members and athletes play free. Either way, a certified LSTA instructor carries the equipment, the insurance and the instruction.
A 2 to 3 hour guided experience for teams and departments: safety briefing, saber fundamentals everyone can do, pad-target drill rotations, and a refereed team tournament finale with electronic scoring. No fitness prerequisite. Runs anywhere: your space or the instructor's floor, all equipment travels, setup under 20 minutes. Group size 8 to 100-plus, larger groups run parallel stations with additional instructors.
A recurring on-site program built on Saber Kinetics: saber-based movement training drawing on traditional practices used for focus, stress reduction, balance and wellbeing, paired with modern movement coaching. Weekly or bi-weekly sessions, 45 to 60 minutes, no gear-up required, desk-friendly. Movement and relaxation training, not medical care, and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition.
A structured, electronically scored competitive league for community centers, chapters and departments: weekly sessions, real brackets, standings updated on the national competition platform. Three formats, athletes enter where they are comfortable. Fully mobile, sets up in under 20 minutes on a standard gym floor.
LED training sabers with no edge, protective gear where contact is involved, certified instructors at every session, only LSTA Corporate certifies instructors. Written safety protocols, strict "stop on command," and a documented incident procedure. Waiver and insurance documentation ship with the booking packet.
What the Instructor Carries
- The equipment: training sabers, scoring gear, protective gear, carried in and out each session.
- Certified instruction and referee-led match control.
- Program insurance and the written safety protocol.
- The sponsor packet and outreach framework, for community organizations that want it.
What You Carry
- Your space: a conference room cleared, a gym floor, or a community room.
- One point of contact to schedule and confirm headcount or roster.
- The announcement to your team or your community.
How Community Programs Are Funded
The season is sponsor-funded: local sponsors cover participants at an agreed rate, your organization collects and keeps the sponsor revenue, and members or athletes pay nothing. The season is collected in advance, before registration opens, so a sponsor pulling out mid-season carries no risk to the program. Workplace team events and wellness tracks are quoted per event or per cohort on a short call, and confirmed in writing before you book: no procurement surprises.
It Fits If
A workplace that wants a team-building event nobody else has done, or a recurring wellness track people actually show up for. A community organization with a floor, a champion to run point, and members it is losing at the 13 to 22 retention cliff.
It Does Not Fit If
A one-time ask with no internal champion; a floor that cannot host a recurring weekly slot; an organization that needs the event delivered with zero lead time.
Tell Us About Your Organization.
A 30-minute conversation, then, where it fits, a free demo class on your floor. No fee to hold the conversation, and no obligation on either side.