Lightsaber Combat Gripping the Lightsaber The classic grip for the most common two-handed style is to have the left hand at the bottom of the hilt, and the right hand at the top. The left hand actually does all the work of moving the weapon up and down, whilst the right hand steers the weapons direction. The grip used by each hand forms a "V" between the thumb and first finger on top of the hilt. The strongest force is applied by the ring and little fingers, not the forefinger and index finger. On occasion, a one-handed grip is employed, particularly when first drawing the weapon from its place on the left hip. The blade of the Lightsaber has no appreachable mass, this means when the saber is swung a Jedi can often in their begining overswing their saber. The three rings of defense The outermost ring consisted of four guard positions: upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left. The lightsabers hilt would end up wide of the body, with the tip coming back toward the middle to pick up the grand sweeping blows that are very powerful, but also take longer to deliver. The middle ring also involved four guard positions: high, low, left and right. Whereas in the outer ring the blade tended to be held at a diagonal, in the middle ring up and down were parallel to the ground at head and knee height, while left and right were perpendicular to it. The idea with the middle ring was to pick up quicker blows and stop them before they could intersect with the body. Luke also noted that the middle ring was effective against picking off blaster bolts. The inner ring involved parries instead of blocks and was proof against lunging attacks. For this third line of defense, the lightsaber was kept in close, with the hilt covering the navel. By angling the blade, attacks could be shunted aside, and a riposte to the opponent's chest or stomach became a very real possibility. The inner ring was the last line of defense, dangerous to be defending from, and dangerous to be attacking from. Deflecting shots with the blade A saber can deflect energy weapons directed at them, with sufficient training a Jedi can direct the deflection as to target a specific location as the Jedi wishes. A Jedi "feels" for the impending attack upon themselves and through the Force position their blade as to intercept it preventing themselves from being hurt. The shot will then deflect at a random angle, but would not hit the Jedi. A Jedi can also feel for the location of where they must place their blade as to ensure the blast is directed to a particular location. Directing the shot takes immense concentration, even Jedi Masters will often randomly deflect the shots choosing to target only a few of them.