Here are some additional ideas about body mechanics. If you haven’t read Fencing with Ease, I would suggest that you read that first.

No Not the Front Toes

Think for a moment about the relationship between the movement of walking and the movement of fencing. When you take a step the first thing you do is gently support your weight on one foot and release the other hip, knee, and ankle. What I mean by that is your knee bends forward easily, your heel comes up a bit and your hip joint releases as your knee bends forward. This releasing of the joints allows your foot to swing forward freely without having to disrupt your pelvis–meaning your pelvis does not have to rise up and your head can stay level and your walking remains smooth.

As applied to fencing, this means that when moving the front foot on the advance, the first thing that happens is the front heel comes off the ground slightly as the hip releases and front knee bends (going forward–not up). From here the front foot can swing forward just as with walking without disrupting the pelvis. Moving the back leg seems to be more difficult for fencers because of the direction of the knee. Here, the beginning of the movement is the same as the front foot, release the hip knee and ankle (the knee goes out to the side). Only then can the back foot can come up without lifting the back hip (a common problem).

When you see a fencer who does not release the front leg and swing it freely forward, you see their weight go too far forward, and their foot generally moves forward fairly flat. At this point many instructors will make the correction, lift your front toe forward first. The intention is correct–on a good advance the foot does swing forward from the knee and the front toe swings forward and up. However, the correction can have the opposite effect of what is really intended. If you literally lift the front toe without releasing the joints (and lifting the heel) first, you literally have to lift the entire leg at once–a much more strenuous and awkward movement. Try walking by lifting your toes and see how hard and awkward this is.

Exercise: Try to get the connection between walking and fencing with the following sequence. First stand in a mirror with your feet shoulder width apart ready to walk. Walk a few steps and see what you notice. Now looking in the mirror isolate the beginning of the step which means release the hips, knees and ankles then swing the leg forward. Take some slow steps working with the release at the beginning of the step. Now before you begin to walk bend your knees about as much as you would if you were to get on guard. At first you might lose the smooth easy swinging of your legs, especially if you tightened your hips as you bent your legs. Hopefully after a little practice you should be able to get the same ease that you do when you walk. Now try the following exercise. Walk a few steps then walk a few steps in a low bent knee position, and the just turn and advance without thinking about it. Hopefully, you will feel more ease and freedom in your movement after trying this a few times. If you find the exercise useful, try it as a warm up each time you go to do footwork.

Aim Your Torso

In fencing, we tend to focus very carefully on the direction of the feet. Every fencer learns that the heels should line up, the toes should be at a 90 degree angle, and the stance should be about shoulder width apart. And every fencer intends to keep their feet pointed correctly as they move. Unfortunately most of us have trouble keeping the right position after a few steps.

Instead of fixing your feet, here’s a different idea. Looking in a mirror, start off putting your feet in the right position (with your knees still straight) and pretend that you don’t know anything about fencing. Now look in the mirror. If you haven’t twisted your torso (if you have go back to neutral position) where is your belly button aiming? It will be aiming directly in between your feet. You could also describe it as aiming toward the corner or at a 45 degree angle from the direction of your front foot. Now how do you see the opponent? You turn your head. If you keep this direction of your torso you shouldn’t have much trouble keeping your feet pointed in the right direction.

If you find that you twist your torso so that your belly button is facing your opponent (the most common mistake) you will have a hard time keeping your back foot at 90 degrees. If you’re like most, you’ll turn your back foot forward to compensate. Quite a few good fencers actually fence this way. It works ok, but you really aren’t able to keep your weight on the back leg like you can when your foot is at 90 degrees. You will have trouble changing directions when you are going forward, have less power on a lunge, have difficulty making lunges that last for a long time and will have more trouble recovering from the lunge.

If you are a real masochist, you may twist forward and keep your foot at 90 degrees (because you always do what you are told). Doing this twists your back knee into a very awkward position and over time this will take it’s toll on your knee (I can attest to this). The third correction that students make if they are twisted forward is to bring the back foot out (so that the heels don’t line up). This usually results in the fencer advancing and retreating in odd semicircles.

Some fencers will twist the opposite direction. They will turn sideways (aiming toward the side wall) apparently trying to hide their target by making themselves narrower. When you turn sideways you are in big trouble. First it becomes very difficult to protect your back from getting hit (which becomes a huge problem when you start fencing “B rated” fencers who know how to hit the back). Second, you’ll naturally change your feet to protect your knees. The sideways fencer will usually aim their back toe back (120 degrees or so from the front foot) and or aim their front toe toward the corner. As an alternative, they will change the alignment of their feet, moving the back foot back behind the front (so that the feet don’t line up the other way). The other option is to keep the feet lined up and now twist the front knee to accommodate the torso position. Now the other knee hurts.

So this makes sense to you but you’ve been doing it different way for years and you’re not sure if you can or want to change. I suggest that you try it the new way then compare it to the old way really paying attention to the feedback that your body is giving you (not your brain!). If your paying attention, you’ll realize that it strains your body less and is more natural. If you can get past your old ideas you’ll fence better and longer with your torso (and feet) aimed correctly.

Don’t Stop Now

We can learn some other things from walking too. When you walk notice that your legs stay in constant movement and you keep readjusting your hips knees and ankles as you move forward. Unfortunately this constant readjustment typically does not happen with fencers. Most fencers advance and stop the movement in their joints, then advance and stop over and over again as they advance down the strip. Face it. It really looks stupid when you move this way. How does that one fencer at the club look so smooth? They simply keep the joints in movement, constantly readjusting their weight and keeping the legs in constant motion.

To practice try taking a wider than normal stance and simply transfer your weight forward and back without stopping and keeping your torso upright. Now take this feeling into a series of advances and retreats and see if you can keep the same flow. Also try the walking exercise in no not the toe.

If I Could Only Get Rid of this Shoulder Tension

Shoulder tension is typically the fencer’s biggest technical problem. It gets in the way of a good thrust, parry, flick or lunge. Unfortunately it’s fairly complicated to work with too. But the essence is that to fence you need to be able to lift your arm into the guard position with out adding any tension in your shoulder. If you start with your arm relaxed and at your side begin to lift your fingers first bending the elbow and then reaching forward a bit. At each point see if you’re adding any tension. Lots of people start tightening when they begin to bend the elbow. It’s as if they are lifting a 20 lb weight, not a 1/2 lb foil. Others will tighten when they bring their hand forward and their elbow goes forward. This movement requires freedom in the shoulder joint and requires that the scapula (in your back) rotates. If you let (does not require muscular effort) the scapula move the shoulder doesn’t have to tighten. If you don’t you the shoulder must tighten to move your arm.

Most people can teach themselves this movement simply by trying it with the non-fencing arm (which doesn’t have any habit) and noticing how easy it is.

One final point, when you get to the guard position don’t lock your arm. Many people think of it as a position and stop all movement when they get to the right “place”. Stay open and able to move. I test this occasionally by lowering the foil (to check the elbow) and moving my elbow forward and back (to test the shoulder).

Now there’s my wrist

Tightening the wrist is an almost universal problem. I think that in many cases it’s done to have a sense of where the wrist is. When you keep the wrist open and easy, it may feel like your wrist has disappeared, which can be disconcerting. What you gain, however, is a better sense of where the foil is. Also, when your more open, your ideas can travel from your brain to your point and your point control may get much better.

Wrist tension can also be the result of gripping the weapon too hard. When you wrap your fingers around the grip look to see if you’ve shortened and tightened your wrist. If so, try again paying attention to this issue.

Where’s my back foot?

In any physical activity it’s easy to be entirely focused on the parts of the body near the action. In fencing we can lean forward and tighten to “get into it”. We lose attention to the back arm and back foot. Your back foot is really important–when you stay on it you can change directions faster, lunge better and recover better. I now concentrate a lot on staying aware of my back foot and my back. It helps me to stay balanced and ready to react. It also helps to keep me from impaling myself as I go forward.

Inside outside

If you start to pay attention to what’s going on in your body the question becomes will this hurt your fencing. The answer is definitely yes if you also don’t pay attention to your opponent. The answer is definitely no if you can think about being in your body, and your opponent, and the distance and your strategy. Can you do it? Absolutely with practice. In Alexander Technique there is a name for this skill, “concentric circles of concentration”.

Big as a house

This is a very simple but extremely important idea. Keep your full size. You will see a lot of fencers pull into themselves and get smaller and tighter when they get on guard. If you simply keep your full size, movement will be easier quicker and smaller. I think to myself sometimes, I’ll be as big as I can be–almost feeling like I’m filling up like a balloon.

The key is the knee

Begin to advance. As the weight transfers to the front leg most fencers stiffen the front leg and knee. This sends the weight over your front leg and when you finish the advance you won’t have any weight on your back leg. If instead you continue moving your knee forward as your weight is shifting on to the front leg, when you bring the back leg up you will sort of fall into the back leg and be back (for a moment) into a 50/50 (weight distribution) position. Similarly when retreating it is just as important to let the knee continue to bend out, so the weight falls into the front leg when you bring it back. Continuing movement in the knee also affects acceleration as discussed below.

Accelerating on the advance

In traditional teaching of the advance, the student is encouraged to move the front heel forward (one) and then bring the back foot up as you put the toes down (two). This methodology does encourage the student to bring the back foot up at the correct time. But it has a very negative effect as well. When the student concentrates on bringing the back foot up and putting the toes down the weight typically does not go fully onto the front foot. This results in an advance that is slowing down as it finishes—a very bad result for the fencer. An advance should accelerate through the motion. To do this all you have to do is step fully onto the front foot with the knee going forward smoothly through the finish of the advance.

Exercise: Here’s a simple exercise that I do all the time. Stand with your feet at shoulder’s width apart. Stand on one foot and step on to the other foot. Do this in any direction, simply go from foot to foot, back and forth to get the right feeling. Now try this from an on guard position. If you can’t balance comfortably on either foot, with your weight balanced between your legs something is wrong—there are a number of possibilities (knees stop moving, hips push forward or back). Keep working until you can step forward or back from on guard and balance on the other foot—without leaning over and without pulling the other hip with you (in other words to the observer you still look like you are standing on both feet with the proper on guard width). When you just step onto a foot, you don’t have to force the other foot to move, it simply comes with you.

Source: http://web.me.com/david_littell/Learning_to_Fence/Tips.html

Here are some ideas about fencing and movement. Most come from the discipline of Alexander Technique that I have been studying for a number of years. Clearly it’s easier to convey these concepts in person, but along with some of the exercises, hopefully you will find this material useful.

Alexander technique is a methodology for teaching people how to use their bodies efficiently (in Alexander terminology “developing good usage”). An important objective is to help eliminate excess tension so that the body returns to a natural posture using the correct muscles for support. Of course this can be incredibly useful to fencing–as it is for any other movement. Think of parries that are too big, extensions that are too stiff, or movement that is awkward and out of balance. A good Alexander teacher will be able to solve any of these problems and more. Unfortunately, Alexander technique is not well known in the world of sports. It’s much more likely that actors and musicians will know what it is, since it is taught in acting schools, and musicians with injuries will seek out an Alexander teacher. To learn more or to find an Alexander teacher world wide go to www.ati-net.com

Always In Movement

In fencing (and in other sports) it’s easy to think that you have to tighten or somehow get prepared to move. There’s something that feels good about exerting a lot of effort to lunge or retreat or even to thrust. I think that we also can equate mental intensity with physical tension. The reality is that if you tighten to move then it takes longer to get started. The quickest most efficient movement actually comes when you are already in movement and joints are free and moving easily. Think of animals in movement. Even the quickest and deadliest of movements, like a tiger pouncing, looks easy and graceful. Also, we often admire the ease and effortlessness of movement in our greatest athletes, like Roger Federer in tennis or Golubitsky in fencing.

With Alexander technique you help the student make a transition from this idea of tightening or gathering to move to learning to release or free into movement. Alexander also described this as learning to inhibit the desire to tense. I have gone through this transition myself, and it is quite a powerful change. I can change directions more easily, hide my intention longer, and react to unexpected responses more easily. I feel a very clear sensation of freeing or releasing the joints as the beginning of any movement. To get an understanding of how this applies to leg movements try this exercise.

Exercise: Standing with feet shoulder width apart and legs straight begin to let your weight go into one leg. Respond to the extra weight by letting the leg bend a little as it accepts the weight. There is clearly a difference between focusing on bending the leg and responding to the added weight by letting the joint soften. This is a subtle movement that can be accomplished without moving the hips or torso very much. I mention this because as soon as you ask someone to put their weight in one foot they exaggerate and move the whole torso over. Think about walking. We transfer weight from foot to foot with very little side to side movement. Once you have the feeling softening the leg to accept the weight, push off that foot and jump to the side. For example, weight the right leg and jump to the left. Then weight the left leg and jump to the right. This should feel easy and natural. From the bend to the jump should also feel like one action.

This simple exercise can teach you a lot. First, you’re learning to pay attention to what needs to happen first (weighting the left foot)—not the outcome of the movement (moving to the right). Second, you’re learning to take the time to begin the jump by releasing into the left foot, not by pushing off a stiff and static leg. Third, you notice that the movement is not entirely lateral, it has some roundness to it—and a little bit of up and down.

An important part of Alexander technique is developing awareness of freedom of movement as well as awareness of your tension—and lack of movement. To begin to build more sensitivity in your fencing try the following exercise.

Exercise: To test yourself, get on guard try moving all your joints a bit to ensure that you haven’t added more muscular effort than necessary. Can your elbow bend easily, is there the ability to move at your shoulder joint? Have a partner move your arm around. Can you let go and let them move your arm freely? To test your legs get on guard and just straighten and bend them a little (slowly) to see if the movement is easy and effortless. Are you allowing all your leg joints (hips, knees, ankles) move freely. See what it’s like to advance or lunge from this place. Now try tightening your joints. What’s it like to advance or lunge now? Be aware that when you start to make these changes, you may experience more physical ease, but it might not feel all that great. We are so accustomed to excess effort, that this new condition may not feel right. Try and trust that if you keep working toward more ease that it will help your fencing. You will begin to move more quickly and be able to react to changing circumstances more quickly.

Weight In The Floor

There isn’t a saying that I use more when teaching fencing. The only way to explain this is to try the following exercises.

Exercise: Try getting on guard and then tighten your whole body, now release. Notice that when you tighten your weight doesn’t feel like it goes through your legs into your feet and into the floor. When you release, you feel the floor much more. Staying connected to this grounded feeling is one of the simplest ways to help yourself stay more relaxed and at the same time in the present.

Exercise: This one might seem a little strange but it’s a great way to get grounded. Start lying on the ground flat on your back. Think about letting your whole weight sink into the floor. Now roll to your side and think again about sinking. Roll back to your back and sink again. Now go up to your knees and back to the floor. Try again up to your feet but crouching. Finally stand all the way up. In each position and while your making transitions keep thinking about gravity and the incredible support that you get from the ground. By the time you’re standing, you will probably feel like nothing can knock you over.

These exercises help you to begin to think about your body and movement differently. Instead of ordering your body around with your brain (arm go here leg go there) you are using your brain to pay attention to your body. You can pay attention to sensations (like feeling the ground), whether you are allowing movement, or whether you are experiencing balance or lack of balance. I can learn a lot simply by making simple footwork movements while seeing if I can get a better feeling of the ground or allowing more movement. It’s a process of trusting that your body has something to teach your brain and letting your brain record the information, versus using your brain to teach your body how to move. Here’s a final exercise to explore your balance.

Exercise: With a friend have one person stand on guard with relaxed soft joints while the other person gently pushes the fencer in different directions. It is quite typical for the fencer to try and retain balance by bracing against the force. Instead, try moving with the push and retaining balance by making adjustments in the joints, especially the hips, knees and ankles.

I Wish My Head And Neck To Be Free

This is a classic Alexander suggestion. If your head is not balanced and moving freely over your torso, your spine will be out of alignment, and it will be difficult to have full freedom of movement in your arms and legs. Most people tighten the back of the neck shortening the neck and lifting the chin. As your neck frees your head rolls forward, comes back over your torso and your neck lengthens and your spine can move in relation to the head and neck. To understand this fully it’s helpful to have an awareness of the head-neck joint—which is located behind your ears. Many people perceive the joint to be somewhere lower than that. Try touching your ears and visualizing the joint in the middle, and bend your head forward and back.

Exercise: Take some time and look in a mirror. Stand sideways and see if your chin is up or your head seems pushed forward. Experiment with trying to find tension in your neck, releasing it and see where your head moves to. Think about the weight of your head. See if you can find a balance point where it takes the least amount of effort to balance your head over your torso. Experiment by sending your head forward and backward and even sideways to see how this feels. Also try lifting and dropping your chin and see which position requires the least effort.

After developing some awareness of not tightening (freeing) the head and neck while you are relatively still, now your job is to continue to pay attention to freeing the head and neck and how the head and neck relate to the rest of the spine as you move. Alexander calls this leading with the spine as you move. The whole Alexander suggestion is actually “I wish my head and neck to be free so that my spine can widen and lengthen”. Alexander calls this the primary control. If you focus on this connection, the rest of your movement will be more coordinated.

Exercise: Try some simple movements while paying attention to the primary control. For example, extend your arm. Does your head move forward or down, or does your torso come with you. If you pay attention to freeing the head and neck and leading with the spine, the extension might look quite different. A good way to test whether you are leading with the spine is to take some light weights and while looking in the mirror try a few exercises. As you do the exercises continue to focus on the head and neck concentrating on not letting the exercises tighten or move your head. If you do this, you might notice that the weights feel heavier—which means that you are moving freely and you are more likely to be using the appropriate muscles to execute the exercise.

I often find myself making more and more complicated suggestions to students to resolve their movement issues. Then something happens that brings us back to the central Alexander idea–focusing on the head, neck and spine and all the other problems seem to disappear. I’ve had this happen repeatedly and each time the student and I learn at a deeper level about “primary control.”

Exercise: Try some fencing footwork in the mirror focusing on the primary control. Add arm movements. Notice what you see and keep practicing until your head and neck remain neutral and relatively still (not stuck) while you execute your fencing actions. Try it again against an opponent. See if you feel more control and balance and whether you have more control of the weapon. Keeping the torso stable almost always improves point control.

Good Movement Begins With Bending Correctly

Getting on guard primarily involves bending the legs by releasing the ankles, knees and hips. When your knees bend they go way forward. Your pelvis, which is angled forward when standing upright, straightens when the knees are bent, putting your sit bones more underneath you. This slight change in direction straightens the lower spine somewhat, which feels good as you feel a slight stretch in the lower back. Many fencers do not ever get into this optimal position. They will either not straighten the pelvis (which results in the buttocks sticking out) or they don’t bend at the hip joint enough (which appears as tucking the hips forward.) Many fencers never think about the ease of movement in their knees or ankles either.

Exercise: You need a mirror and your hands. Stand sideways to the mirror with your feet pointing forward and shoulder width apart. Put one hand on your lower abdomen and the other at the base of your spine. Begin to release your hips knees and ankles. As you begin the movement do your buttocks release down (as your pelvis angle changes slightly from tipped forward slightly to upright)? If you don’t adjust your pelvis, your buttocks will stick out a bit. If you tilt your pelvis too much your hand will notice your lower abdomen coming forward. This problem usually occurs if their isn’t any bending in the hip joint. The pelvis follows the direction of the legs. I find that this is the more common problem. One thing that can help is to pay attention to leading with the spine thinking up with the spine and torso as the legs are bending. A simple way to determine if you’re doing this correctly is to look in the mirror to see if your torso looks the same when standing upright as it does after you’ve bent your legs. It should look exactly the same—upright and full sized. If you haven’t bent your legs correctly, you’ll see your shoulders coming down or your pelvis coming forward.

Exercise: Most people that I work with struggle with bending at the hip joints. A simple way to get a better feeling of this is to stand in a mirror and lift your knee forward and flex your ankle (lift the toes). With your hands feel where the bend is in the hip joint. Now from a standing position bend both legs using your hands to feel if you are still bending in the hip joint. Also, think about using the same muscles to bend the legs as you did to lift the leg forward.

Fencing And Walking

I never thought much of the relationship between the movement of fencing and walking. There are some similarities and some differences. One similarity is that the lower part of the front leg needs to swing forward when you walk and when you advance or lunge. This concept seems difficult for fencers to understand and for instructors to teach. A major difference between fencing and walking is that in the low on guard position the body weight doesn’t come over a straightened leg. To stay down the knees have to continue bend as your weight moves on to a leg.

Exercise: Part 1—Walking: First stand in a mirror with your feet shoulder width apart ready to walk. Walk a few steps and see what you notice. Now looking in the mirror isolate the beginning of each step. Notice that before the lower part of the leg swings forward, the front hip bends in as the knee bends forward. As the knee bends forward the heel naturally comes off the ground a bit. This freeing of the three leg joints facilitates the swinging forward of the lower leg.

Part 2—Low Walking: Now this is the tricky part. Standing in the mirror, bend your legs a bit. Now begin to take steps forward maintaining this low (bent leg) walking position. Many people who try this find that when they bend the legs the hips and knees tighten and stop moving. The lower leg stops swinging and the whole leg moves as one solid mass (it isn’t pretty). If this is happening, you are also probably struggling with swinging the leg forward on the advance. To improve, just keep practicing until you can swing the lower leg forward with each low walking step. Change back and forth from regular walking to low walking until they both look the same. The low walking also helps you to understand the difference between fencing and walking—that is that to maintain this low position you must let the knees drive forward as your weight comes on to each leg. Learning about this will help you keep your weight back, and more in between your feet when you are fencing.

Part 3—Advancing: The hard part is learning the low walking. Once you can do that you should be able to turn to an on guard position and take advances that look just like the low walking—stepping from foot to foot. Try moving down a strip going from high walking to low walking to advancing. No matter how good your footwork, this exercise will help you feel smoother and more balanced. It’s a great warm up exercise before you fence.

Lunging

One of the biggest problems with a lunge for most is falling forward. For many, the weight moves forward much too quickly. This telegraphs your intention, makes it impossible to change the distance of the lunge once you start, and even makes it more difficult to avoid a parry once the lunge begins. To maintain balance, control and the ability to make decisions about the length of the lunge, the back foot needs to be fully weighted as the lunge begins. As with the low walking exercise the back foot is your balance and support. A lack of movement in the hip joints often makes this difficult. If the front hip joint isn’t free, the body goes forward as the front leg moves forward. Also, if the back hip doesn’t continue to adjust as the lunge progresses, you won’t be able to stay balanced on that back leg. Both of these points can be illustrated with the following exercise.

Exercise: Face forward in a mirror with the knees slightly bent, like in the low walking position. Try a couple of low walking steps to get comfortable. Now begin to take much longer steps concentrating on staying balanced on the back leg as long as possible with each step. Be careful to swing out the front leg while leaving the weight back on the back leg. Notice that to reach way forward, you have to continue to bend the back hip to keep your weight back. Now turn into an on guard position and try to get the same sensation. A large step out while keeping the weight back on the back foot. If you struggle with this, go back and forth from the forward position to the on guard position until both actions feel the same.

What’s Going On In My Back?

In fencing (and other sports) it is easy to think about what’s going on in front at the point of contact. This emphasis on forward in some ways explains leaning forward, and shortening and narrowing in the front. It also contributes to leaning forward in the lunge. It is extremely helpful to simply focus your attention on your back, back arm and back leg. Sometimes when I fence I concentrate almost entirely on my back and back leg. When I do this I feel balanced and able to recover from the lunge better.

Exercise: Try fencing in the mirror or actually on the strip thinking about staying as wide and as upright as you can the whole time. Give yourself the suggestion, keep your back back as you advance or lunge.

Movement Directions

One other instruction that seems helpful is to focus on the direction of movement. For example, if a person tends to pull down thinking about keeping the torso up as you bend the legs to get on guard can improve the problem.

Another place this can help is with the arms. If you look at a person with too much tension in the arms and shoulders you often notice that it looks like their arms are pulling in. Thinking about letting the arms releasing out away from the body is a concrete focus that can counteract the urge to pull in.

Understanding the Arms

The upper arm (humerus) is connected to the collar bone in front and the scapula in the back. This structure is not connected to the ribs–even though many people move their arms like they are. One useful thought is can you make more space between the arm structure and the ribs. Fencers tend to pull their arms (especially the front arm) down from the latisimus muscles. Somehow pulling the shoulder down makes you feel like you’re more “into it”. This pulling down gets in the way of the freedom of movement in the arm.

When the arm extends the collar bone (which is part of the arm) should raise slightly and the scapula rotates. Fencers with what we refer to as tight shoulders generally do not allow enough movement in either bone.

Exercise: Experiment by raising your arm up over your head and see whether there is any movement in your collar bone. If there isn’t much, see if you can allow more. Also, working with a friend put your hand on your partner’s scapula and notice the rotation as the arm moves up over the head. This same rotation should occur with the forward extension as well.

Also proper arm movement requires proper support from the rest of the body. This is hard to explain but it’s easy to show you. One way to say it is that if you are upright, supporting your weight through your spine, and letting the weight go through your pelvis and legs to the floor, your arms are then properly supported and can be used better. Going back to the idea of primary control it can be helpful when working with the extension to focus on extending the arm without disrupting the spine or lifting up off the legs.

A whole different approach when working with an extension is to focus on the muscles used to extend the arm. At first the shoulder releases and the effort comes from the triceps and the latissimus dorsi muscles. At the end of the extension the shoulder muscles do engage, but the shoulder should not be pushed forward.

Exercise: To get a better feeling for the muscles involved in the extension work with a partner. One person makes a fist and the other uses their hand against the fist to provide some resistance. The person with the fist makes a slow uppercut punching motion while the other person resists the movement. The person making the punch should clearly experience the engagement of the triceps and latissimus dorsi muscles. After that experience try making a fencing extension feeling the effort from the same muscles.

Conclusion

Using these concepts have been very helpful teaching fencing. Today, instead of focusing on technique in isolation, I concentrate more on developing better body usage. I do this because I now realize that I can’t fix the technique until I work with the underlying usage issues. Also, once usage is improved, teaching technique is easy, and comes with many fewer repetitions. Even more important to me, is that the student leaves having better kinesthetic awareness and some tools to tackle their next movement experience.

Being nervous is normal. This is a new situation for you as a beginner, it is ok to be nervous.

But though you are nervous, you must focus on the game. Focus on the present moment. Do not aim to win the game. Aim to hit the opponent in the here and now. Be the first to hit the opponent right after you here Alle or Fence.

If ever you lost the first point, never mind it.  Erase it from your memory. Think as if it is still 0-0. This is to lessen or eliminate the pressure and anxiety.  Just aim for 1 point at this moment in time.

After your first point, think that it is 0-0 again. And just aim for 1 point.

In short, take it one point at a time.

Whoever wins it does not affect your value as a person. Do not think that if you lost the game that you have a lower value as a person. The score does not represent who you are.  It’s just that you met a faster fencer, a more aggressive fencer. Don’t ever think that there is something wrong in your personhood.

You just have to analyze why you lost. Then when you know the answers why you lost, train to improve those aspects in your fencing.

Do not take the bout personally.  It is merely a game.  It is just a gauge of what else you must improve on.

On your first session, be in t-shirt and  jogging pants.  It will be a very physical activity.

Wear your socks and rubbershoes. Rubber shoes are preferrably thin-soled. Thick basketball rubbershoes make the legwork more difficult.

Bring water, towel  and an extra t-shirt. After your first session you will need to wipe your sweat.  Fencing is a very good exercise.  According to caloriecount.about.com, 420 calories per hour are burned with fencing, assuming a body weight of 70 kg. Fencing is a workout without trying it so hard.

There will be muscle  pain in the thigh and legs after the first session. It will be kind of challenging to climb the stairs.  That is only at the start of your fencing career.  That’s because your leg muscles are not yet used to the on-guard position. But once you are into the sport, being on-guard will be just like sitting on a chair. Be sure to do the stretching exercises before the first session.  Not doing the stretching will give you an intenser muscle pain.

The session will be about 30 minutes to 45 minutes with breaks in between. This is for beginners only so that your body will not be suddened by the drills. Once you are regularly training, your endurance will improve and you can train for an hour already.  Training more frequently will speed up your increase in endurance.  Twice-a-week training will lengthen your endurance faster than training once-a-week.

Keep in mind that after more sessions, you will develop the proper form. Don’t be discouraged if at first your on-guard is not yet beautiful or good. As you train more and more, you will be used to the proper form. Training for months and months, will make you do the form even without thinking about it.  After you master the form by repetition, your mind will be ready to focus on strategy.

Always listen to your instructor. Follow the corrections. Don’t be discouraged if he/she repeats the correction.  Repetitive correction will remind you on what you must focus on.

Be patient if your instructor does not let you hold a sword first. He/she will let you once you master the on-guard position.

Remember that you will get the basics if you will keep on training. So do not quit but keep on perservering. You will reap what you will sow.

How do I know if fencing is worth pursuing?

It all depends on you.

• If you learn to love the sport
• If you will continue meeting challenges and you want to overcome those challenges
• If you want to exercise without trying so hard
• If you believe that age does not matter

• If you enjoy the sport
• If you like meeting other kinds of people
• If you are perservering
• If you enjoy receiving the rewards of your training efforts
• If you are still young and you want to excel in the sport
• If you want to represent your country

On Guard – the basic position in fencing and the stance used in preparing to fence

Advance – a step forward while remaining in the On Guard position; must be done with balance

Retreat – a step backward while remaining in the On Guard position; must be done with balance

Extend – straightening of one’s fencing arm toward the an imaginary or real opponent

Touche (pronounced as tush) – a hit made to the opponent; it must be within the valid target; valid target depends on the weapon you use

Parry – a blocking action so that the opponent will not hit you

Lunge – kicking the front foot and landing with the rear leg straight

Salute – the respectful action toward your opponent; fencing is a gentleman’s sport

Bout – the duel itself; a match

http://www.whitman.edu/fencing/New%20Pages/Images%20Used/guard_three_side.jpg

LEGS

• leading foot must be the same as weapon arm
• (i.e. left handers lead with left foot)
• Distance of Feet about shoulder width apart &
• at right angles
• leading foot directed toward opponent
• knees flexed
• low stance

BODY

• back upright & shoulders in plane with hips
• (about 45 degrees)
• balance
• weight evenly distributed between legs
• relaxed shoulders

HEAD

• looking directly at opponent

From: Canadian Fencing Federation Level 1 Instructor’s Manual