Started the day with plenty of "not so young anymore" pains, mostly in my hips, knees, and feet.
Warmed up with 1.2 mile run. Then plenty of sprints. Then a plyo circuit. One of the plyo drills was pretty awesome.
Mirroring drill:
Set two cones 3~4 meters apart. Partners face each other in a low, athletic stance across the line made by the cones. One partner is the leader and may side shuffle towards either cone. If they reach a cone, they touch it. The leader does not move in a predictable pattern. The follower attempts to mirror the movements of the leader.
We did 20 seconds of work, 1 min of rest, 4 times. Could do it for 30 seconds and more sets to up the intensity. A very nice drill.
Then we did some core work. Then suicides both running and footwork. Then handball.
After lunch, we warmed up with soccer. Then footwork. Focus was again on technically correct footwork and staying in a deep stance. Small steps mostly, but with some speed. Tempo change from slow advance to fast advance lunge.
Did a bit of matching distance with the leader, then with a partner. I'm not usually a fan of matching distance in footwork. But different coaches, different methods. The group matching distance was lead pretty well, lots of nice tempo change and a good variety of actions called for by hand signals (lunge, advance lunge, jump back lunge).
Blade work was mostly technical work through a tactical sequence. From close advance lunge distance, defender does a soft retreat with invitation. Attacker does a direct attack with advance lunge into the invitation. Defender does a crisp parry, riposte with another small, sharp retreat. 10 times each way X 2 partners. Then the attacker does feint, cut. 10 times each way X 2 partners. Then the defender ignores the feint and parries the real cut. 10 times each way X 2 partners. Then the defender does invitation, false parry, real parry riposte. 10 times each way X 2 partners.
Bouting:
15-5, 14-15, 8-15, 15-6, 13-15, 15-5
Good stuff:
Felt better about my bouts today. I was tired, but was more patient and chose smarter actions overall. Some nice ripostes, both on defense and as counter time actions. Some really nice attacks and AiP. Was able to get some good acceleration on my attacks and score before my opponent could successfully execute counter time.
Not so good stuff:
Didn't close out any of my close bouts well. Spotty focus in most of my bouts. Was really gassed after the morning work. Standing up a lot on a defense and not keeping an active enough blade. Not keeping my eyes open on my attacks, so I ran into my opponent's guard/cut often.
On a general note, I'm not sure about the amount of physical work for the camp. I can see it being useful for mental toughness, teaching fitness techniques, and to demonstrate how out of shape campers are (as a way of promoting hard work early in the season). On the other hand, most everyone was very physically drained which made technical drills very, very difficult. Also, towards the end of the day, fitness level more than fencing skill decided or nearly decided several bouts. Not saying that doesn't happen nor that physical (fencing) fitness isn't an important aspect of the sport, I'm just not sure that a camp is the most useful place to emphasize that.
It seems to me that you will not really effect a change in fitness in a week. I subscribe to the philosophy that at a camp, what the fencers can take away and apply for themselves and their clubs throughout the rest of the year is what is really valuable. Mainly drills, techniques, tactics, training approaches, etc. Taking away "I'm really out of shape," doesn't seem all that useful. Again, that's to me. Opinions?
07-28-2009 07:19 PM