fencing foo

[anotheranon]

Long time since I've done a longish fencing post - and will be longer still as all I have time for tonight are bullet points:

• Still (STILL!) striving for smaller footwork. Given that the 2 people emphasizing this are both tiny and wiry and I'm long and leggy, this is rather unintuitive - I feel rather like a daddy long-legs trying to emulate.. well, something far more controlled and compact :P
  
• Lunges - my big problem here is lack of confidence. I don't like doing 'em because I never feel like I have right of way and because when lunging I don't feel like I can do anything else (parry, disengage).
  
  
  
  • Re: disengages: need to work on them until they become automatic. More target work.
    
    • Also prime target work.
      
    
    
  • Re: "don't feel like" - fencing in general is a hell of a mental workout for me because a great deal of it relies on intuition, and I'm a control freak who doesn't like relying on my "gut" :P Serious remapping going on!
  
  
• When I attack, I need to do so with confidence. Figuring out when to attack and realizing that I can still do defensive actions if I fail will help, but ultimately the confidence is something I've either got or don't, and no one can help me with that.
  
• Wobbly back foot + attempted change in footwork = fell on my ass tonight. Luckily (?) the surprise set of a fit of the giggles, which loosened me back up but I had to shake it off to get my head back in the game.
  
• Ending on a good note - I make solid, fast parries. More of these please!
  

Comments

[fencerchica.livejournal.com]

Regarding small footwork, I guess this might already be self-apparent but I had a minor conceptual breakthrough a short while ago that what causes differences in the size of my footwork is what my center of gravity is doing. On the days when my cog is low and centered up, my footwork is small and tight; on the days when my cog is high and drifting around, my footwork gets bigger and sloppier.

Personally the way I look at lunging in foil is that if you're doing it as a first intention move, once you decide to go (unless it's a half-lunge) you GO. So, it definitely is tough to do a parry during a lunge, and it's also hard to do a disengage during a lunge unless you've already observed that your opponent is probably going to have to parry in a certain way such that your disengage is a predictive move, instead of a reactive move. If you're doing feint disengages during the lunge it's the same deal, a more or less predictive, instead of reactive, move, so it's a little easier to pull off. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it could be expecting too much to expect to be able to consistently pull off purely reactive disengages and parries while in mid-lunge, so I personally wouldn't worry too much about it, just set it up carefully and when you're ready, shoot. Then if necessary you can worry about your own parries once the lunge has ended.

I agree about the gut feeling and the intuition bit. It's a weird feeling when you perform an action and then realize you never made a conscious decision to do it! On the other hand, I think the gut feel involved in fencing is fundamentally a learned and intellectual thing -- just something that's been absorbed so deeply that the analysis and decision is no longer fully conscious.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I didn't think about the center of gravity issue! Perhaps I am leaning too much one way or another, and that's affecting my ability to tiptoe along. Thanks!

And re: intuition - fencing IS learned thing - none of these movements are natural in day to day life. IMHO the gut comes in when you've drilled so often and thoroughly that the movements become automatic - that's when it's hazardous to overthink (which I do a LOT when I should just let the muscle memory work).

[fencerchica.livejournal.com]

p.s. Your fast parries should also take some of the stress out of lunging since you know if you lunge and are parry-riposted, you're ready to make a fast parry-counter-riposte. :-)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Yep! I just need to believe that!