Mouse Movement Techniques
The sabering system of vanilla Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy allows players to utilize mouse movement during a swing animation to adjust the direction and velocity of the swing. Such a degree of freedom opens up an additional technical dimension to sabering combat, namely the various styles and techniques associated with using mouse movement during swings. However, due to the way damage is calculated by the game's engine, maneuvers that increase the velocity of a given swing can greatly enhance the damage inflicted upon other players, so much so that it can be reasonably questioned whether said maneuvers are exploiting the engine or not. Regardless, analogous to strafe jumping in Quake Live or bunny hopping in Counter-Strike, certain mouse movement techniques in JKA have become part and parcel of the mainstream way of playing the game and their removal unthinkable from the competitive community.
Wiggle
The most widely used mouse movement technique is the "wiggle". During a wiggle, a player quickly moves their mouse back and forth during the swing animation of their saber. This can be done to great effect with all swings, all saber types and all saber stances, although it most notably increases the efficiency of the slow red stance by sidestepping its only weakness, namely its lack of speed compared to other stances, and capitalizing on its greatest strength, namely the effective range of its swings. Thus a wiggled red swing becomes especially powerful.
The objective of wiggling is threefold: First, the velocity of the swing is increased by moving the mouse very quickly, which on the one hand increases the chances of breaking through the opponent's defenses and landing a hit and on the other hand increases the damage dealt by the swing. Second, by moving the saber back and forth, the player has the chance to hit his opponent multiple times in a row with the same swing, increasing the efficiency of his swing and multiplying the damage done. Third, a wiggled swing has a much larger area of effect compared to a standard swing, thereby increasing the chance of landing a hit on the opponent without having to put much effort into aiming the saber at his character.
To maximize the efficiency of wiggling, most competitive players either use a high general mouse sensitivity or a high m_yaw value to increase their mouse's horizontal responsiveness. If done right, a single wiggled red swing can do over 200 points of damage and instantly kill the opponent, even with a full health and shield bar.
Aim
A less effective and therefore also less common technique compared to the wiggle is called "aiming". An aimed swing is done by moving the mouse in such a way that the saber stays pointed in the opponent's direction. This technique is most commonly performed with the red stance swings of the single saber because of their slowness. Faster sabering stances make it more difficult if not impossible to effectively aim the saber at the opponent, although with practice, it can be effectively done with the yellow stance as well.
The point of aiming is to extend the duration of the aimed swing's effectiveness. Normal swings are only effective at one specific moment, namely during the contact of the saber with the character of the opponent, which can happen during the beginning, middle or end of the swing in question. An aimed swing stays effective throughout the entire swing animation because it points the saber at the opponent at all times. Although this can potentially amplify the damage of the swing, the primary objective of aiming is not dealing damage but hitting the opponent by a precise use of the mouse.
Because aiming requires more effort to execute properly than wiggling and is not primarily concerned with the damage output of the swing, it is nowadays much less common if at all used in competitive play. In fact, although the technique in itself is less competitive than the available alternatives, especially when faced with opponents who wiggle, some players and teams who specialized in aiming have nonetheless been competitively very successful in JKA, most notably such teams as the Jedi Academy Aurochs and players like Masta.
Spin
Whereas aiming can be considered the tempered, refined and precise version of wiggling, the spin can be found at the opposite end of the extreme. The spin is exactly that: a very fast saber movement that aims at spinning the character during a swing by at least 360 degrees. Spinning gives up what little claim wiggling had to 'aiming the saber at the opponent' and replaces it with pure damage output. Due to the very high velocity of the swing, spinning deals a great amount of damage and has the potential to hit the opponent multiple times with the same swing, oftentimes killing him instantly. As is the case with wiggling, the spin is effective in all saber stances and with all swings, but most notably so with the red stance due to its range.
However, the major downside to the spin is that the spinning player's character will remain predictably fixed at one spot during the entire swing animation, making it an easy target for counters and potentially even disorienting the player. Spinning is therefore most useful when the opponent is already in the range of one's swing with little to no opportunity for escape.