I could use some help with my lunge. Could you guys take a look at the short video recording and pin point anything about it? Eg. Mistakes, speed etc. everything.
you are using the wrong hand :P. the only thing i see "wrong" your knee is a little over your toe, not too much but other than that a HELL of a lot better than my lunges lol.
Nice lunge, depending on the coach, the slide with the rear foot would be the only thing I would critique. I have been tought not to do it. Rather, double lunge, advance lunge to gain needed distance.
Your hand is too high. Staight extension from en-guarde to the target.
Back straight. Don't lean.
Throw your offhand down by your leg, not out past your ears. Couple that with your toe dive and you probably feel off balance when you do this in comp.
Your hand is too high. Staight extension from en-guarde to the target.
Back straight. Don't lean.
Throw your offhand down by your leg, not out past your ears. Couple that with your toe dive and you probably feel off balance when you do this in comp.
Take it easy.
I agree with everything accept ARM FIRST. These days I think its better if arm and foot go at the same time.
I agree with jBirch. Weapon arm starts late. The rear-arm motion is wrong: start with that in the classical position curled behind your head, and let if unwind downwards till it's parallel with the rear (straightened) leg. Yes, I know that a lot of people don't do the classical rear arm position, but it does work, and the motion shown in the clip probably does harm balance.
"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
I agree with everything accept ARM FIRST. These days I think its better if arm and foot go at the same time.
As long as the leg doesn't visibly preceed the foot. In this clip there are two motions of the front foot (jBirch's "stutter step") - better to teach somebody the "hand pulls you forward" , get simple, smooth mechanics, and then tighten up the timing.
"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
First of all, you're too stiff. You need to relax your shoulders more. Other than that, your biggest problem is that you're not really landing with your heel. The first thing that should happen when you are starting a lunge is that your front toe should lift. From there you kick your foot straight out in front of you so when you land your lunge your front leg is almost completely straight. I would not worry about your back foot moving though. In fact, if your lunge is strong it will naturally move forward, just watch for rolling over (although, you don't seem to have a problem with that).
good luck,
elijah
1. you picked up your heel at the start. It looks as though you're executing a small, almost imperceptible step first before you launch your front foot which is OK. [cf. your small step with that with Benoit's.] Should start with opening the toes first, then kick out the foot; keep the foot as close to the floor as possible.
Try the "coin under the ball of your front foot" exercise and you'll see what I mean.
If the coin stays there, that means you've picked up your foot.
The best result is when the coin flies fwd to where your opp't is s'posed to be.
The differnece between your lunge and BJ's is obvious:
~ His front foot leads his knee all the way. His opp't can see the bottom of his sole.
~ Your knee leads your foot until the 2nd half of you rlunge when you're ready to place your fornt foot again, which in long term will cause excessive strain then injury to your front knee.
2. You landed your front foot on the toes which causes the next error. Land your lunge on your heel with the leg straight or almost straight - this way, the whole leg takes the force of the lunge - then sink down on it.
3. At the end of your lunge, your knee's gone too far over your foot. Your lower leg should be perpendicular to the ground. cf. your lunge with that of JB's.
When your knee's gone over the 90-degree point then you can't counteract the momentum of your lunge and stop your torso without getting hit.
4. Considering where your back arm started, flinging the back arm like you do generates too much torque on your sword arm. Fling it to the top of your back leg and no more. This way, there's no turning force to torque your point from where it's going. Look at yourself in a mirror placed in front of you and you can see what i mean.
Of course, I may be wrong in other's view. That said, i hope these observations/suggestions help.
Your hand is too high. Staight extension from en-guarde to the target.
Back straight. Don't lean.
Throw your offhand down by your leg, not out past your ears. Couple that with your toe dive and you probably feel off balance when you do this in comp.
Take it easy.
I concur with this.
"Let him live upon what belongs to him without wronging others, and accommodate his expense to his revenue."
Great idea, posting video for a critique! I think this will become more common as video-to-computer tech becomes cheaper and easier.
The stutter-step at the beginning disguises a lot of what is going on. Post another without the step! Or with a big advance lunge... it's okay if your front knee ends up at the left side of the screen.
I'll say this -- your lunge wants to be stronger. You probably go further and faster in the gym... I intuit this because your back foot wants to drag, even though you're clearly in control of it. Dragging is fine (sole-down) if the lunge has epic reach and power.
If there was something to improve -- your front foot landing. The front leg doesn't reach out as far as it could, you land with a bent front knee. This means that your knee and thigh muscles are taking the brunt of stopping your forward motion. Get your front foot out further (heel skimming the floor), so your lunge is wider. (You do a good job of straightening the front leg during the lunge, just make it go further.) This allows your thigh muscles to act as suspension, and bring your body to a stop by their mere stretchy-ness -- without any stress on knee or thigh. This change will allow you to commit to longer lunges that start very fast.
If you just watch your tip in the video, you'll see that your tip-speed is not the best, even though you're very good at displacing the torso quickly. Work on your front leg to fix this -- and also start with tip first. It will all net out to a much faster tip, and better penetration to the opponent's target.
The lunge looks like it starts fast and ends slow rather than accelerating from the start - but could be because of the video, but it seems like the front leg is pulling rather than the back leg driving.
The lunge looks like it starts fast and ends slow rather than accelerating from the start - but could be because of the video, but it seems like the front leg is pulling rather than the back leg driving.
Well, I didn't notice the first time, but, the back foot does take a little hop. If it is a balestra it needs a little work too.
"Let him live upon what belongs to him without wronging others, and accommodate his expense to his revenue."
The one thing I did notice was that your tip and hand are held high. If you make more of a straight line from your shoulder to the tip of your weapon you could extend a little farther.
Sorry about the strange look. Its actually a small step forward followed by a lunge. The small step forward is initiated to "break tempo" into a fast speed from rest. I'll see if I can get another decent recording = )
I'll toss in another concurrence that the biggest thing that can be improved is making sure that you keep "reaching out" with the front leg all the way through the lunge, so that your heel is always out in front of the knee. The biomechanical advantages of landing initially on the outstretched heel have been pretty well gone over. Keeping that front leg well extended (say, about a 120-degree angle at the knee) will also help you develop a fuller reach your lunge. As you lunge, your body drops lower. If you don't keep the front leg well extended, as you drop the front foot will contact the ground before you've stopped accelerating. This robs your lunge of some of it's reach and power.
Walter catches a key item in that the extension of the front leg needs to come mainly from the knee. You don't want to make a big lift from the hips-- just kick out from the knee and let the heel skim the floor.
Finish the extenstion just at shoulder height. You may be thinking that you need to raise the shoulder to help absorb the force of impact after the blade has bent to it's limit in the event of a hard hit when your opponent steps into your lunge. There's no need to consciously do that, however. So long as you keep your arm and shoulder well relaxed, they'll naturally rise as needed once the blade has bent.
A non-rolling slide of the back foot in a strongly committed lunge is normal and desirable. You just need to be able to do a non-sliding lunge as well, to be able to vary the acceleration and reach of your lunge, and to recognize what the appropriate situations for each are.
As for the hand-to-foot timing, that's again going to be dependent on the particular action you're executing. If you're looking to show your opponent a feint and draw a reaction, then very clearly leading with the hand is the thing to do. In the case of a direct opportunity or surprise attack, you can start the hand and the foot together. The extension of the arm is intrinsically a faster motion than the footwork of the lunge, so as long as you don't artificially slow the extension to "wait" for your feet the point will get out where it needs to be in good time.
-Dave
Last edited by neevel; 03-09-2004 at 01:07 AM.
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Originally Posted by jBirch 
