I am happy to be relaunching Princeton Interscholastic Fencing as a fencing club again. I am sorry to see the program at the YMCA that has been a pillar of our fencing community for 25 years fade away. The program has outgrown the YMCA Facility and the new administration has not felt maintaining the fencing community was a priority.
Many thanks to Princeton Charter Schools and Princeton Public Schools for renting us excellent space to continue the program and expand to meet the needs of our new fencers and a whole new generation of competitors.
Princeton Charter School (100 Bunn Drive) Just past Mc Caffery’s where Harrison turns to Bunn.
Riverside Elementary School (65 Riverside Drive) at the North End of Nassau at the last light before you head to Kingston.
Renting space from the school systems can sometimes throw a wrench into the works and we will need to pivot to the other locations. This Tuesday March 7th and March 14th classes will be at Riverside Elementary rather than Princeton Charter School.
Thank you all again for sticking with me as your coach, and with Princeton Interscholastic Fencing.
I’m really happy to announce that Princeton Interscholastic Fencing Session 2 is ready to go. This is the next 10 class session for introduction continued study in fencing.
This session is going to be organized slightly differently than previous. There are more fencers retaining in the program this time around that we are organizing into Introductory and Technical classes. Rather than simple age group classes. If we have sufficient fencers in the grade school and middle school groups I will have to investigate splitting them into separate groups.
Introductory groups will be the initial introduction to the sport and will follow the same lesson plan as in the past and in the PTO clubs. Introduction to fencing movement, basic blade work, the rules and the elements of good sportsmanship (salute and handshake before and after each game). The class will learn foil as the introductory discipline of fencing and the class ends with an electronic pool tournament.
The second level or Technical group will be looking into each weapon for two weeks. One week of foil to solidify priciples learned in the first session, then two weeks introducing epee and two weeks introducing saber where we will discuss the techniques and tactics that make these different weapons unique games in fencing.
Where: Riverside Elementary School Gymnasium
When: Introductory 6 to 7 PM
When: Technical 7 PM to 8 PM
Classes are held Tuesday and Thursdays excluding Thanksgiving starting Nov 14
Nov 14, 19, 21, 26 Dec 3, 5, 10, 12, 17 and 19
Total cost is 125.00 payable to Princeton Interscholastic Fencing
All equipment is provided
I am hoping to see many of you there to continue your path in this exciting sport.
This week’s class will continue to build on skills to develop options to execute the simple direct attack.
Warmups will revisit the boxing hops drill to get the body moving and facilitate balance and coordination:
Boxing hops: 6 count traveling warmup
Snap both arms forward and back to chest and hop forward with both feet on the ground
Snap right arm forward and back and hop forward with right knee high
Snap right arm to the side and back with hop forward with right knee lifted high and to the right (outside)
Repeat of # both arms and feet together
Snap left arm forward and back and hop forward with left knee high
Snap left arm to the side and back with hop forward with left knee lifted high and to the left (outside)
Exercise is completed down the strip and then backwards back to the back line of the strip.
A-B-C-D Footwork Game:
Reintroducing the progressive sequence:
The Progressive exercise is a canned footwork exercise that takes the fencer forwards and back with constant changes in direction. Each sequence is 4 pieces of footwork with a lunge and recovery in the middle. Each full set is one lap:
3 adv, Lunge and Recover (L/R), 1 ret
2 adv, L/R, 2 ret
1 adv, L/R, 3 ret (should be back at starting point)
3 ret, L/R, 1 adv
2 ret, L/R, 2 adv
1 ret, L/R, 3 adv (should be back at starting point)
This week we will be incorporating the check step forward and back into the sequence. If the footwork is considered 1,2,3,4 then we shall execute Normal short short Normal, so the sequence will look like this:
Adv, check, check, L/R, ret
Adv, check, L/R, check (back), ret
Adv, L/R, check, check, ret
And so on….
Pursuit Game:
Described the check step to move forward and back. The check step is a short, fast half-step where the trailing leg drives the body similar to a short hop or stutter step. This is used to make minute changes in distance and to change timing without giving up forward motion. The check step can also be used to pre-load the leg muscles for a powerful lunge (check-step lunge).
Drills:
The class practiced integrating the check-step into the attack with a lunge. First as a rote drill then as a semi-competitive drill where the attacking fencer can manipulate the timing with a direct attack in 1-2-3 scenarios (1: check step lunge, 2: adv check step lunge, 3: adv x 2 check step lunge) with the defender maintaining distance and attempting to read the acceleration to parry-riposte (P/R) in distance.
Assignment: Watch a team match of your favorite weapon
Warmups
Warmups will be a fixture at the beginning of each class. As we master one I will bring new ones out of my bag of tricks for the students to learn. Warmups will continually challenge your coordination and agility.
Alterna-jacks: We will review and perform Alterna-Jacks again
Boxing Hops: This is a traveling exercise to help hip and leg mobility
Ballet Kicks: This is a dynamic stretch of the legs and hips to help lengthen the muscles prior to our workout. It also requires balance and coordination.
The Lunge and the Advance Lunge
Inigo: “Naturally, you must expect me to attack with Capoferro!”
MIB: “Naturally. But I find that Thibault cancels out Capoferro.”
Inigo: “Unless your enemy has studied his Agrippa!” [does great big somersault] “Which I have!”
-Princess Bride (The duel on the Cliffs of Insanity)
One of the most popular duels to appear on screen is in Princess Bride between Inigo Montoya and The Man in Black at the Cliffs of Insanity. It is the lunge that is referred to as Capo Ferro. The explosive attack was published in combat manuals of Ridolfo Capo Ferro published around 1610.
The lunge is the fundamental attack in fencing. It is probably the most important contribution of fencing to martial arts and sport in general. It was adopted for attack in the martial arts by Bruce Lee when he developed Jeet Kun Do (Bruce Lee fenced while attending High School). It has also been adopted by other sports such as badminton to cover ground quickly and efficiently.
Footwork will continue to be our focus this week. We covered the basic static lunge last week with the basic advance and retreat. This week we are going to expand the possibilities of the lunge looking at a few ways it can be executed and combined.
Lunge and Advance Lunge
Ballistic lunges
Movement Games
We get to break out the toy swords today. We will learn how to put on a fencing mask. and do some basic distance games. We will revisit some of our games last week.
Distance Game: The game starts with an attacking fencer and a defending fencer. The attacking fencer is allowed to execute an advance lunge in an attempt to hit the defending fencer on the top of the mask. The defending fencer is allowed to retreat as much as desired to avoid being hit. As soon as the front foot of the attacker hits the ground the attack is over and the roles are reversed, the defender is now the attacker and the attacker becomes the defender and must evade the new attack.
Cross the moat: Two fencers will face off across a gap marked in tape. The fencers can not step in the moat but must reach across it with a lunge to attempt to touch the other fencer with the toy sword. They may not cross with their back foot.
Steal the Bacon: A fencing glove is placed in the middle of the space and two fencers will pair off at opposite sides of the area. On the command to fence they will race to the middle using advances and lunge to steal the glove. Once a fencer has touched the glove the other fencer can attempt to tag him out. But not before the glove has been touched.
Homework:
Since you’ve watched a few videos now, I expect you might be developing a preference for one weapon or another. Your assignment before Wednesday is to watch a team match of your favorite discipline. You don’t have to watch these particular matches, but these are fine choices for each discipline.
Team matches are played in 9 rounds where the three fencers of each team fence all three fencers of the other team (unless they use their substitution). Each round ends at the maximum score reaching the next multiple of 5 (5, 10, 15, … to 45) or if the three minute fencing period expires or non-combativity is called (a minute of fencing has elapsed without a touch scored). You get to see a number of different fencers and styles meeting and how each fencer adapts to each other.
I will answer any questions about what you all watched when we meet again on Wednesday.
We are going to learn some more warmups to start the class. These warmups are meant to get the blood moving and warm up the muscles for the work ahead. I have a series of warmups that I use with the High School Fencers that may find difficult to master at first. These are all constructed to learn body coordination and balance and with a little practice they will be mastered.
Alterna-jacks: Similar to jumping jacks but the feet and hands change motion and timing to learn to move our bodies deliberately and de-couple the arms and feet.
Boxing Hops: This is a traveling exercise where we hop forwards and backwards and alternate motion with our feet. This promotes balance and coordination.
Ballet Kicks: This is a dynamic stretch of the legs and hips to help lengthen the muscles prior to our workout. It also requires balance and coordination.
Movement in Fencing
After exhaustively covering our guard positions in class 1 we will review first and then we will start learning the fundamental movements of fencing.
Advance and Retreat
Lunge and Recover
Because fencing is performed on a strip or piste that is 1.5 to 2 meters wide and 14 meters long, movement is essentially linear. We move in a straight line towards or away from our opponent. The fencing action stops if a fencer leaves the strip, collides with or passes the other fencer. There are no dramatic spins, twists, turns, spiral staircases or chandelier swinging that we see in the movies (pity).
The fundamental movement is the advance and retreat we use to shift forwards or backwards in small quick steps that maintain balance and allow for quick changes of direction.
The lunge is the basic attack in fencing. It’s an explosive reach forward pushing the weight from the back foot and reaching with the front foot. The lunge is much more complicated than it looks requiring all parts of the body to move independently.
Movement Games
We get to break out the toy swords today. We will learn how to put on a fencing mask. and do some basic distance games.
Mask Carry: Two fencers hold a mask between their palms and one will lead the other will follow to keep the mask balanced between them.
Cross the moat: Two fencers will face off across a gap marked in tape. The fencers can not step in the moat but must reach across it with a lunge to attempt to touch the other fencer with the toy sword. They may not cross with their back foot.
Steal the Bacon: A fencing glove is placed in the middle of the space and two fencers will pair off at opposite sides of the area. On the command to fence they will race to the middle using advances and lunge to steal the glove. Once a fencer has touched the glove the other fencer can attempt to tag him out. But not before the glove has been touched.
Homework:
The homework for the next few days is to watch at least one bout of each of the three weapons. This can be from any competition domestic or international, and excellent choice can be the finals from the Cadet Championships held a week ago in Verona:
The Cadet group are the best fencers under 16 in the world. There are loads of other videos available at the FIE site or through the USFA channel on YouTube, feel free to look around and find the perfect match.
I will answer any questions about what you all watched when we meet again on Monday.
Princeton Interscholastic Fencing 