Run a Six-Week
Light Sword Cycle
on Your Floor.
$997. Cycle 1 pays for itself. The on-ramp to a $30K–$60K/year Instructor side income (illustrative), or a $341K Partner license at full capacity (illustrative).
The four-module pilot LSTA’s Commanders ran before they ran anything else.
The 6-Week Pilot, Explained.
A Six-Week Specialty Cycle.
You Run It. We Built Everything.
A working specialty cycle you launch on your floor: or a rented rec center, school gym, community space. Most operators run their first cycle to 8–12 students at $300–$500 per registration. We send you everything you need. You execute.
A worksheet that produces one number: what one cycle is worth in your zip code, this quarter. Small? Refund and walk. Big? Run cycle 1.
Week 1 announce. Week 2 free Saturday open mat (scripted). Week 3 collect money. Week 4 you have data. Every email, post, and conversion script written.
Everything you teach across the six weeks. The LSMA Foundation (Basic Principles plus the 5 target & body zones) and Modules 1–3: Lower, Mid & Upper Blocks & Attacks. Each comes with master-demo videos and complete session plans built on the 60-minute format. Made for a coach who’s never held a saber.
I record myself setting up your Academy Launch System live for your cycle, the marketing engine and the academy-operations side. You follow along. It’s live by the end of the video. The whole system (normally $194/month), bundled free for 90 days.
What the 6-Week Cycle Actually Looks Like.
First you fill the cohort with a free intro/open-mat session (scripts included). That’s how you enroll before the cycle starts. Then each paying student trains six full weeks and graduates ranked. Here’s the LSTA difference: every 60-minute session ends with 25 minutes of live sparring. They spar on day one, and every day after, not after months of waiting. That’s what their $300–$500 buys.
The LSMA Foundation, Understanding LSMA, the S.A.B.E.R. Code, safety, the weapon, and the 5 target & body zones. And like every session, it ends in sparring: they duel on day one.
The lower line, the attacks and the blocks that stop them. Technique, drills, then live sparring to make it stick.
The mid line, the core exchanges most duels live in. Each layer sharpens the sparring they’ve done since day one.
The upper line, head and shoulder work, the most dramatic exchanges. By now their sparring looks like the real thing. Taught from master-demo videos, so you lead it even if you’ve never held a saber.
A friendly in-house skirmish run like an actual LSTA/LSMAF event, open format, everyone fights everyone, with brackets and live scoring. They feel real competition for the first time and leave wanting the next one. You run it on the Academy Launch System’s competition module: auto-brackets, tablet scoring, and a live scoreboard, a premium feature, locked into your pilot, free.
A rank test across the Foundation and all three modules, plus a showcase with families watching. They graduate ranked, and you re-enroll them into the next cycle or an ongoing membership.
$3,958 of Real Value.
$997 to Run It.
| The Light Sword Pilot Program (4 modules above) | $997 |
| 90-Day Academy Launch System. Complete marketing + academy software ($194/mo after trial) | $582 |
| Competition Module. Auto-brackets, tablet scoring & live scoreboard (a premium feature, locked in free) | $300 |
| Legal & Liability Starter Kit. Student waiver templates & we reveal the liability coverage we actually use that fits perfectly for this type of activity | $297 |
| Operator Growth Vault. 5 Response-Marketing modules (Vol 10): Seven Channels, Path of the Prospect, Compelling Materials, Referral Systems & Enrollment Systems | $1,485 |
| Group Launch Coaching + the recorded First-Cycle Launch Masterclass | $297 |
| Total Real Value | $3,958 |
| Your Investment | $997 |
You save $2,961. The math doesn’t require a calculator.
The Bonuses, What They Actually Do.
Not filler to pad a price. Each one removes a specific reason operators stall on launching.
Ready-to-use student waiver templates, plus we reveal the exact liability coverage we carry. The kind that actually fits a contact-combat activity (most generic policies don’t). Day one you operate like a professional instead of improvising. Templates & guidance, not legal advice, your attorney reviews.
Five marketing modules from our Business Academy (Vol 10): the seven channels students come from, the funnel that turns a curious parent into a paid registration, done-for-you materials, referral systems, and the enrollment conversation that closes. This is how you get the 8–12 students that make Week 3 pay for everything.
A live group onboarding cohort with an LSTA master coach, plus the recorded First-Cycle Launch Masterclass, so you launch with a room of operators solving the same problems, not alone. Bring your market and your questions; leave with a plan for your floor.
The Academy Launch System’s competition engine, auto-seeded brackets, live tablet scoring, and a public scoreboard, is normally a premium upgrade. For pilot members it’s locked into your account at no extra cost, so your Week-5 skirmish (and every event after) runs like a real LSMAF tournament.
The Academy Launch System. Set Up Live, Runs on Rails.
$194/Month After 90 Days, One Student Covers It.
Sifu Edward Armstrong built the Academy Launch System, that’s why your pilot includes 90 days free. Every other program hands you a course and says “go build your own funnel.” We set the system up live with you during Module 4, so you start your cycle on rails: your CRM capturing leads, scheduling live, follow-ups firing. Keep the whole thing after 90 days for just $194/month total (about one student’s tuition), or export your data and cancel in three clicks. No annual contract. No lock-in.
The Marketing & Lead-Conversion Platform
Included free for 90 days · part of your Academy Launch System. A full business training library, a 500-contact CRM with scheduling, missed-call text-back, an AI chatbot builder, and pay-as-you-go SMS, email & Voice AI. The toolkit operators use to scale from $10K to $50K+/month.
A 500-contact CRM holds every prospect, member, and former student. With scheduling built in, so a parent books their own trial slot. Set up live in Module 4, so the day your cycle launches, every inquiry lands in one pipeline instead of a sticky note or a missed DM.
Missed-call text-back fires automatically, and basic workflow automation sends your welcome series and follow-up nudges the moment someone enters their email. The leads you didn’t have time to call back get reached, without you having to remember.
An AI chatbot answers website visitors day or night and books them in, and pay-as-you-go AI drafts your emails, posts, and SMS in your voice, you stop staring at a blank page. Plus the full Executive Success Academy business library, included.
The Academy Operations Platform
Included free for 90 days · part of your Academy Launch System. Registration, scheduling, automated billing & payments, attendance, member communications, and a branded member portal, runs your first cycle of up to 75 students. Plus the competition module (a premium feature), locked into your pilot, free.
Every walk-in, free-trial attendee, and paid registrant tracked in one place, from first contact to first payment. You see at a glance who’s about to enroll, who’s stalled, and who needs a follow-up call. Nobody falls through the cracks because you forgot to write a name on a notepad.
Registration payments hit your account in two days, not ten. You own the merchant account. You set your own prices, plans, and contract terms. Branded online shop for saber resale built in. Platform fee is 0.5%, about a tenth of what most academy software charges.
Set up six weeks of classes once. Students book their own spots. Walk in with a tablet, tap names, attendance done in thirty seconds. A parent signs up themselves and the kid on one family account. Rank tracking, staff-only medical notes, and tap-card check-in built in.
Reach members through email, text message, and phone notifications: welcome sequences, week-by-week class reminders, payment-failed nudges, cycle wrap-up emails. You write it once. It runs forever. Every new student gets the full sequence automatically. You stop wondering “did I send that email?”
The operations side runs registration, billing, and attendance; the marketing side runs your follow-up and nurture. Your member data and your marketing stay on the same page. One Academy Launch System, not two disconnected apps and a spreadsheet you update on Fridays.
Members see your logo, your colors, your web address, not ours. Receipts arrive from your email. The login page lives at your URL. They never know there’s a platform behind it. You look like an established academy with custom software, not a tenant in someone else’s app.
By Day 90 you’ll have a branded landing page that pulled real registrations, a CRM pipeline of leads who didn’t convert this cycle but might next, a roster of paying members, attendance from every class, and conversion numbers you can act on. Continue the whole system for just $194/month. About one student’s tuition, keep one, or kill both. Your pages, leads, members, and data are yours, export anytime.
The Sabers Fill the Room,
and Pay You Twice.
These aren’t toys. Every blade is combat-rated polycarbonate on a weighted hilt, with an internal LED bright enough to glow under gym lighting. Built for full-contact under sanctioned LSMAF rules, the same standard used at federation events. Hand one to a prospect and they feel it in the first thirty seconds: this is the real thing. That feeling is what turns a free intro into a paying cohort.
And the sabers don’t just fill your floor. They pay you a second time. You buy them wholesale, shipped to your door, and resell them to your members at retail through your own branded shop, a 35–50% margin on every one. Most operators recover their entire equipment cost from the first few paid registrations; every saber after that is profit that compounds with the cycle.
Cycle 1 Pays the Pilot Back.
The Path After Pays Your Mortgage.
10 students × $300–$500 = $3,000–$5,000 in cycle revenue.
Six weeks. Saber wholesale recovered Week 3. Pilot paid for in cycle 1.
The Pilot Is the Front Door.
Three Real Incomes Behind It.
$30K–$60K/year net (illustrative). 5 sessions/wk × 8–12 students each. Teach at academies. Keep your day job. License typically paid back inside your first quarter.
$60K–$180K/year (illustrative). 4 events/mo × $800 avg. Birthdays, corporate, schools, festivals. Your van is your dojo. No academy overhead.
$341K net at 120 students (ILLUSTRATIVE YEAR 1 EXAMPLE). 8 revenue streams. Rec center model, no lease. 4-month break-even.
Every tier credits in full toward an upgrade. Start where the math works for you.
You’re Buying Eleven Years of Operating.
Not a Federation That Just Started.
- 2015, LSTA founded. 68 students within months. A landmark US light sword academy. Edward named Entrepreneur of the Year.
- Featured nationally: ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox. America’s Real Deal. Total Health Magazine.
- 60+ five-star reviews. Zero exceptions across the network.
- U.S. military contracts delivered: Joint Base Langley AFB and Fort Eustis. The DoD paid for this curriculum.
- Parks & Rec contract active across multiple municipalities.
- Pandemic-tested. Shadow Warrior online platform born during COVID lockdown. The system replicates remotely.
- Saber Core CT, the proof point that matters most. Keith Nye opened Charter Club #1 entirely online. No travel. No founder in the room. First students enrolled within 90 days.
- A federation-registered network across the U.S. and internationally.
- The S.A.B.E.R. Code: Security · Aptitude · Bravery · Ethics · Resolve. The operating philosophy your members internalize, not just a curriculum.
The federation incorporated in 2026 is the latest layer. Not the foundation. The foundation is eleven years old and operating.
Four Masters.
One System.
Few light sword organizations bring together a credential team like this. Champions, military, and Hollywood, together, on the same standard.
Built a landmark U.S. light sword academy · Entrepreneur of the Year · Featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox · Parks & Recreation Contract
3× WEKAF National Champion · NASM-Certified Trainer · Former U.S. Military Contractor, Langley AFB & Fort Eustis
2× World Champion · 2004 Olympics Performer · Black Belt Magazine Feature · 2nd-Gen JKD, Bruce Lee lineage
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 · Tenet · The 5th Wave · 101 Stunt Credits on IMDb · JKD · Capoeira · Kempo · Judo
Built. Betrayed.
Rebuilt by four masters.
In 2015, Edward Armstrong built a landmark light sword martial arts academy in the United States: 68 students, Entrepreneur of the Year, featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox.
In 2016, the franchise that gave the sport its only international structure betrayed the warriors it was supposed to serve, and the operators who had trusted it.
In 2017, Edward and three other masters walked away at the top, and rebuilt from scratch, on their own terms, engineered against the exact failure modes they had collectively survived.
That organization is LSTA.
The pilot you’re considering was built by people who know what an organization looks like when it stops supporting its operators. The pilot exists so you can prove the system on your floor in six weeks, before you commit to anything bigger. That’s the structure we wish we’d had in 2015.
You’ve Heard the Founders.
Now Hear the People They Trained.
Nobody talks about reps. Nobody talks about PRs. This is the demographic walking into your space the day you put a sign up.
No Surprise Charges. Ever.
Your Academy Launch System continues after the 90-day trial at $194/month. We send reminders 30, 7, and 1 days out. Cancel anytime from the dashboard in three clicks, no phone call, no retention specialist.
Pilot didn’t pull? Kill both trials before Day 90. Total spend: $997 (or $1,297 with the saber kit. You keep the sabers). The modules, bonuses, Growth Vault, Legal Kit, and your 1:1 session stay yours.
I Take the Risk.
You Take the Seat.
LSTA’s pattern: every tier carries a guarantee that the work continues until you’ve made it work. The pilot is no different.
1 · Fourteen days. Full refund. No questions.
Open every module. Run your zip-code numbers. Not a fit (for any reason or no reason), email support, every dollar back. Keep the Legal Kit regardless.
2 · $997 credited toward any license tier. 12 months to use it.
Advance to Instructor ($2,997), Mobile ($14,997), or Partner ($47,997) within a year, the $997 you paid today comes off the tuition.
The same pattern carries through. Instructor tier has a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. If you’ve followed the playbook and aren’t generating revenue, LSTA keeps working with you. Partner tier carries the 15-Student Launch Commitment. 15 students within 90 days, or LSTA keeps working alongside you. The work continues until you make it work.
Things You’re Already Wondering.
Three reasons
this isn’t your pilot.
$997 is small. Six weeks is short. But this still isn’t the right move for everyone, and we’d rather you know that now than at week three.
The pilot is designed to test Light Sword on a floor you’re already paying for: a martial arts academy, gym, dance studio, rec center, or community space. If you’re still looking for the space, you’re too early. Come back when you have keys.
The pilot includes scripts, templates, and a week-by-week playbook. It doesn’t include us running your social or making calls on your behalf. If you won’t actively recruit your first cohort, the system can’t prove itself on your floor.
$997 is the cheapest way to evaluate Light Sword, but it still requires six weeks of focused execution. If you’re collecting curiosities (this one, jiu-jitsu, axe throwing, escape rooms), this isn’t the pilot for you yet. Pick one and commit, and we’ll be here when it’s us.
If any of those is you, we’ll do you a favor by saying no. The pilot is for operators ready to execute, not browse.
Pilot not the right next step?
Here’s where you might actually belong.
Already convinced and ready to launch your academy? Skip the pilot, talk to us directly.
VIEW ACADEMY LICENSE →No floor of your own? Get certified, teach on someone else’s floor (academies, gyms, YMCAs).
EXPLORE INSTRUCTOR →No fixed floor, no daily operation. Saturday-only league format with federation pathway.
EXPLORE LEAGUE →Not sure yet? Four questions and we’ll route you to the right tier.
FIND YOUR PATH →
Someone in Your City
Will Have Built This Academy.
The founding cohort has filled. This is the standard rate moving forward: same system, same support, no cap to race against.
The only question left is whether you start now or later. Six weeks either way. The sooner you start, the sooner Cycle 1 pays for itself.