ITHACA, N.Y. (WENY) -- Martial Arts is usually done with your hands and feet. But in Ithaca, they use lightsabers. Ben Judkins is the Ithaca Sabers Instructor and he says the whole idea came from his interest studying martial arts.

"I became involved with a research project where I was looking at hyper-real martial arts," said Judkins. "I started studying lightsaber combat and I was like, 'This is a lot of fun.' And it's a pretty rigorous martial arts experience and I want to do this more often, so I need to get a study group and a club going."

Growing up, many people buy lightsabers to be like the Jedi knights in Star Wars.But this class goes beyond playing with a lightsaber at home. 

"What's different is we have a progressive curriculum that is based on historic martial arts," said Judkins. "A lot of what we do comes out of historic Chinese swordsmanship. We have levels of skill and complexity that we take you through. So in addition to having the fun and getting the Star Wars aspect, you are going to learn a lot about different types of Asian and European fencing as you do this."

in order to become a Jedi knight, you have to master the first four of the seven classic lightsaber forms. So our very own Brandon Menard grabbed himself a lightsaber to see if he had what it takes to be worthy of knighthood. 

While he might not be a Jedi Knight just yet, if you're interested, you can join in the fun too. You can visit their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/IthacaSabers/ .