footwork...again

[glowstix]

ok, my footwork SUCKS!! my lunges consistently land short and i have a hard time recovering out of them. sometimes i even lean to try to compensate for landing short. its well known in my club that i have great speed defensively in retreating but how can i turn that into an offensive advantage?? having speed does nothing if i can't use it properly. i also practice footwork including endless lunges at home daily. am i doing something wrong?? how should i be practicing footwork at home anyway???

[fencerontheline]

(Note that this advice is geared primarily for foil fencing- I have very little experience with epee or saber)
Personally, I do conditioning footwork in the club 3 times a week at about 40 minutes each time, and I practice control footwork when I fence, and when I take lessons. The speed of the footwork is often not as important as the timing of the footwork. Try changing tempo- beggining slow- and finishing at your fastest, either entirely within a lunge, or changing speed on the back foot of an advance lunge, moving the front foot slowly and then completing the back foot's step quicky, and lungiing quickly.
Also, try to incorperate a stretching routine into your fencing, as the size of your lunge is largely dependant upon your flexability (I started stretching every time I fence, and I cover much more distance than I used to- nevermind the impact it's had upon my ability to control the size of my footwork.)
Finally, examine the footwork of some of the best fencers out there, both past and present. It's strength is in its fluidity and explosiveness, not as much in its size. Covering a big distance does relatively little, if your opponent can predict the size of your finish, they can almost definately stop your attack (With some exceptions...... stupid high-angle strong-arm flicks, pommeling me because I'm under six feet..... Stupid tall, strong-armed FAW kids... Oh well- gotta keep bigger distance, or close the distance). In my experience, it's better to have footwork with a wide range of size and speed, because it will allow you to 'control' the bout with your footwork.

[The0ne]

when you practice your lunge, think that you're reaching out as far as you can with your front foot after you've kicked off with your back foot. Then hold the lunge for 10 seconds, then do it again. What you want to do is get used to lunging really far, farther than feels good. . .

fencerontheline,
which FAW kids are those? My friend goes to that club, and I've fenced 'em all, against them it's all about good closing distance. . .

[CarlKnoch]

The problem probably isn't that you aren't lunging properly, but that you have a bad notion of distance. So continue to practice lunging all you want.

To solve the problem, fence people and pay attention to the distance at which your lunges can hit target when said target does something like... retreat! Also look at your opponent and see what they do with an attack. Do they retreat, advance, stand, or some combo of those? Find the distance to target in all those cases so you know where you have to start from.

[hpfencing]

I agree it's a distance or timing issue... Your lunge is not landing short becuase of your inablity to lunge or lunge correctly.

I'd say your lunge is a perfect set-up for an attack short, parry repost.

If you are having a hard time getting out of your lunge it is probably because you are lunging too low, trying to gain more distance. In a lot of more mordern actions, which are getting faster and faster) a true lunge is not needed. Another thought is to add an accelerating advance before the lunge to close distance.

There are a lot of tatics out there to get the other fencer to step foward into your lunge that is another option. Best/easiest idea for that one is a check-step.

[RETLAG]

I agree with CarlKnoch. Fencing isn't about lunging (although it's a good thing to be good at). Fencing is about timing and distance. Look at all the old farts out there, winning bouts using timing and distance. If you made them do a full extension lunge, it would probably take them a week to get out of it.

Solo practice is good, but it sounds like you need more bouting practice. you'll win bouts when you learn to outsmart people, regardless of how well you lunge.

[kalivor]

As previously mentioned: Distance and timing.

A couple of things you might want to work on:

1. Changing directions. Go from moving backwards at a good speed to a step-lunge (or other aggressive footwork). If you're as good at retreating as you say, your opponents will probably be pushing themselves in an attempt to catch you when they're attacking. This makes for big, sloppy steps with most fencers. You can gain an advantage there, if you can "turn the corner" well.

2. Staying low in your lunge recovery. Two big things make it hard to get out of a lunge: Leaning and leaving your back leg straight as you come out of it. If you can avoid the lean and keep your centre of gravity low, you should be able to escape from a lunge fairly quickly.

[fencerontheline]

/
fencerontheline,
which FAW kids are those? My friend goes to that club, and I've fenced 'em all, against them it's all about good closing distance. . .

I was kinda talking about Kurt..... Cuz he's big, and he doesn't miss anywhere near as often as the rest of em.

[jeff]

I'll amplify on previous suggestions: try to develop a good advance-lunge or balestra-lunge combination so you can get more distance than the lunge by itself. The combination footwork should be snappy and done together, not advance (pause) lunge.

Also as previously mentioned - watch your distance; you may be starting from just too large a distance. Have you thought about setting up the short attack for 2nd intention? If you can provoke the riposte when you want you can use that as a great setup.

[shlepzig]

I see a lot of good suggestions here. The only one I would disagree with is practicing your lunge and staying out in it. I reccomend practicing the lunge and recovery as single actions. With Lunge, Recover, L-Recover forward, L-DoubleL-R etc.. Not including your recovery options trains you to stop after the lunge which is tantamount to death while bouting or competing. Practicing those in combination will make your motions more fluid in a bout.

I also reccomend practice with a weapon in hand (or a 1lb weight is good too) so I can combine the series with other actions. AdvanceL with Beat Attack, with a Line Change, with Feint disengage (I do these with the dreaded golfball drills as well).

I also reccomend "shadow fencing" preferably with a mirror. Going over recent bout actions, or an imaginary fencer, dealing with attacks and situations that you have encountered in the past or replaying something you watched in one of the world cup vidoes. This helps bring continuity to your footwork practice.

It may seem silly, but this sort of imaginary play makes footwork practice a little more fun, a little more contiguous. Didn't every kid on the playground pretend he was Michael Jordon or Dr. J while shooting hoops by himself. So what if I get to be Golubitsky or Jeanet for a couple of minutes, with the crowd cheeing.....Oh yeah - Shlepzig wins the GOLD.

Shlep.

[Jeffrey Morgan]

One other thing not touched on, is "Are you telegraphing?"

Have someone monitor you and see if your head or body or weapon is giving away your intention.

[The0ne]

I was kinda talking about Kurt..... Cuz he's big, and he doesn't miss anywhere near as often as the rest of em.

I would try and give advice on what to do against Kurt, but I'm still trying to figure that out!!!

[fencerontheline]

I would try and give advice on what to do against Kurt, but I'm still trying to figure that out!!!

Yeah I know..... I can't handle his attacks too well.... Attacking to the flank works kinda ok.... sometimes... if I set it up right....

[glowstix]

thanks guys!! i think the problem was that my distance judgement was a bit off. i fenced tonight with that in mind and i made the slight adjustment of taking an advance or even a double advance then lunge (ok, i had to redouble once or twice). i made them have to parry and i was even able to avoid the riposte by recovering backwards. i'm still working on it...i did get nailed by an attack into prep though...

[K Degnon]

One exercise that might help you is the glove tag game. It's described in the footwork portion of the training section of this site. The only drawback is that it requires a second person who is willing to drill with you, but I found it to be really helpful in learning to get in and out of distance and setting up opponents for attacks.

[MikeHarm]

I think one of the things that really helped me a lot was learning about not doing everything lifting the front toe first like I was first trained. Its 100 times easier and more flowing and natural to do everything if you lift the heel a little bit first and then do the movement just like when you walk and such.