star wars - Does spinning help Jedi fight?

I noticed that in almost all of the Jedi lightsaber fights they are constantly spinning as they fight.

I know because it's a movie it looks cool, but does it actually help?

It almost seems like it would hinder their fighting not help their fighting.

Answer

[EDIT: I am concentrating on light saber duels: that is a Force user versus a Force user, which is where the spectacular moves come in. Against a non-Force-User, spins and tricks could be helpful -- or just plain fun -- but the Force is a large enough advantage that you could spin all you want and not disadvantage yourself.]

An excellent read by a Broadsword instructor thinks not:

http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/production/clements_tutorial/index.asp

Perhaps, you could say that in-universe the Jedi can see the future and therefore can afford to turn their backs to their opponents. But in a more realistic world, the answer is basically "No".

To quote:

As a personal anecdote, in my 25 years of training with swords (mind you, that’s martial, not choreographic or sport practice) I’ve had countless students and people attempt this spinning move without success in sparring against me with all manner of long swords. I’ve heard countless claims that they or someone else made it work against others. But the reality is, it’s silly and leaves you horrendously vulnerable. I cringe every time I see it in a sword fight scene. To show you what I mean, stand on guard with your partner and ask them to try to spin around and hit you high or low. When they do this, simply step in with your weapon and tap him between the shoulders or on the back of the head as soon as they turn their back. Or, right when they spin step backward out of the way and just stand there waiting for them to miss you. Or to be safe, try it without any weapons at all using just your open hand and finger tips. Even a child playing innocently understands how useless a move this spinning is.

Fighting is about perception, about footwork, timing and spatial awareness of distance, and about proficient delivery of deceptive technique. But this spinning move violates just about all of that.

[EDIT 2: I'm not trying to be the out-of-universe spoiler here, as some comments seem to be suggesting. For example, when discussing comic books like the Flash, someone might ask, "When the Flash grabs someone as he Flash's by, how come the sudden acceleration doesn't break that person's neck?" But the fact is, the Flash does do this, so there is an in-universe explanation, even if you have to struggle to find it. I'm not doing that.

This question is different. Even the accepted answer -- and it does show a lot of thought and has some great quotes -- can't show that acrobatic fighting actually provides an advantage against other Force users. In fact, the quote that most directly addresses it -- the Dooku v Skywalker/Kenobi fight -- clearly says that the acrobatics adds nothing and is actually laughable. The real threat is not Skywalker's acrobatics, but his speed and attempts to flank Dooku. (Which if spinning and turning your back on your opponent doesn't matter, why would Dooku care about being outflanked?)

So I'm not trying to argue that the physics of our real world disprove that something that does happen can't happen in the Star Wars world. I'm disagreeing with the idea that the acrobatics gives a Force user an advantage over another Force user. And that's the key: Force user on Force user. A Force user fighting a non-Force user negates the disadvantages described in my link because the Force user has foresight that the non-Force user does not.

Copying and pasting the accepted answer's fourth quote (emphasis mine):

Oh, they were certainly energetic enough, leaping and whirling, raining blows almost at random, cutting chairs to pieces and Force-hurling them in every conceivable direction, while Dooku continued, in his gracefully methodical way, to out-maneuver them so thoroughly it was all he could to do keep from laughing out loud.

It was a simple matter of countering their tactics, which were depressingly straightforward; Skywalker was the swift one, whooshing here and there like a spastic hawk-bat-attempting a Jedi variant of neek-in-the-middle so they could come at him from both sides -while Kenobi came on in a measured Shii-Cho cadence, deliberate as a lumberdroid, moving step by step, cutting off the angles, clumsy but relentlessly dogged as he tried to chivvy Dooku into a corner. - Revenge of the Sith Novelization

So why, in-universe, do they spin? I would say because of a sense of style. It's like watching the Princess Bride sword fight. There were flourishes because two extremely skilled swordsmen enjoyed doing flourishes, and could appreciate their opponent's flourishes. It didn't change the battle.