Hand to BIG!

[chiz]

I too, have fairly large hands, size 10 ½ glove. The problem for me is not having an opening under my guard but rather the problem is distance. I am allowing my opponent to get too close before I react. Normally my opponent cannot see an opening under my guard – he just knows it is there if he can get the angle from the under side.

I have changed my on guard in order to make my attacks more effective and this keeps my hand covered.

As a left hander, my on guard is an outside 6, an easy low 8, an inside 6 or 8. The guard positions open and close avenues of attack for me mostly when I change, my opponent does not react and he leaves me an opening if it is in tempo. Otherwise I keep adjusting distance to set up an attack or a retreat.

My opening for the under hand shot is a distance problem, the same problem as to the inside to the arm. A simple attack in time to the inside of my arm has nothing to do with my bell guard but rather my inability to keep proper distance.

Best of fencing - Enjoy Epee

Chiz

[mrbiggs]

I don't know if this will help, but it hasn't been mentioned before....

Among pistol grips, even among different manufacturers, the thickness of different parts of the grip changes. A different brand or type of pistol grip might be enough to get your hand back unger the guard.

[sreckiki]

I would advise against going to a French grip and pommeling as it will only make your hand hit problem worse. There are good reasons to try pommeling, but "I get hit in the hand" is definitely not one of them!

It seems that you share Zilversmurfen's point of you about the French handle... But I do not agree with that. Definitly.

French grip and pommeling raise a kind of paradoxe: "you show completly your hand but it's harder to hit on it..." (when your opponent uses a pistol grip). In fact, you can see the hand BUT you are further from the hand. In my opinion, it is harder to hit the hand of an opponent using a French grip as long as he keeps his tip in your direction (and that's the important thing!).

I use a French grip and I score much more touches to my opponents' hand than the opposite... But I have to admit that the French grip is not a magic solution to this "hand" problem because you have a lot of different issues to get into account in switching to a French grip but it WON'T be worse than with a pistol grip (after a little time of adaptation, of course...)

That was my 2 cents!

[ThornOfTheBlood]

From my personal experience, 90% of ALL pistol grip epee users have part of their hand sticking down, most of them are good enough not to let you use that, it just can't be helped most of the time.

[edew]

I don't know if there is much you can do to hide your mongo-sized hands.

One thing you may consider is to convert to french-grip and pommel. Your hand will be further away from your opponent's point and harder to hit. Plus it will add to your advantage of being tall.

A french grip, if gripped via pommelling, doesn't help hide the hand. Indeed, it does the opposite and allows the opponent to hit the hand (like right at the knuckles) without even seeing the target. The hand, when held at the pommel is further away from the guard, so there's a more manageable angle to reach the hand. Further the fingers and the position of the hand is more perpendicular to the thrust angle, thereby catching any hits easier than the bottom of the wrist or forearm. If one uses a Fencing Post cheapie glove with the (rather) hard cuff, most oblique hits to the cuff area slips off. Now, if one were to hold the grip via pommelling, hits to the fist or finger area with surely catch, even when the hand is visually hidden.

So, I don't particularly recommend a french grip if one were to use pommeling. A french grip not pommeled might help hide the hand from the opponent. And then, let the slick cuff do its work.

[Epictetus]

Use a nice thin glove. One decent alternative to fencing gloves are USAF Pilots gloves. They are very thin and form fitting, they look cool, and are made of Nomex even if the rest of your kit catches fire, and you can pat yourself out with your fireproof glove! . You will have to cut out and reinforce a hole for your body cord or add some Velcro and split the cuff but it is very simple to do and they cost less for a pair than a lot of fencing gloves!

Now that's a good idea... Any idea where to procure them?

[Kettu]

....You also my want to try the larger Schermansport grips from Negirnni.

I know of a variety of venders offering the larger 120 mm guards, the largest I believe to be legal. Have you tried this size yet?

[CvilleFencer]

I know of a variety of venders offering the larger 120 mm guards, the largest I believe to be legal. Have you tried this size yet?

In this thread he is talking about epee guards, but you are right, the 120mm guards are great for us meet handed fencers who also do foil. I like the Negrinni ones myself.

[Twinkletoes]

There are many epee fencers with big hands. Some are often hit on the hand. Many are seldom, if ever, hit on the hand.

A common and underappreciated source of vulnerability is poor distance control. This probably warrants some consideration.

Out of the many great replies you received, if I had to pick just one, It would be this one. They can't hit your hand if it's not in their simple attack range. No matter how big it is..

Also, I would check the forearm/blade angle that you are presenting to your opponent.Are you holding your epee in such a way that your underhand is clearly visible? Is your hand angulated inward so that your wrist sticks out?

I like to pretend I am holding a flashlight (my epee) and shining the beam directly at his upper/center chest or his face.The beam starts at my elbow and continues through my forearm out of the tip of my epee to the target area.

From his vewpoint, your forearm
and hand should be very much tucked behind your bell guard.

Just my 2 cents ,

good luck solving this,

Marc

[wpotere]

WOW, tons of great replies!

First, switching to Foil is not an option as I do fence foil as well! I am new to Epee and didn't know if there were some options that I had available.

With that said, many said distance was the problem and that is correct. Also stated were many saying that I should try and use it as a tool to lure my opponents in. This is also a great suggestion.

I beleve that CvilleFencer had some really great advice for me to try and rotate my hand out of the "normal" postition a little to simply protect me a little more. I expecially liked the Nomex glove idea.... I was in Army aviation and actually still have my issue gloves... Although I think that the padding would be a bit lacking.

Anyway, I am now armed with some better knowledge and ideas that I am going to implement as I try to learn this new weapon. Thank you all for your replies.

[wpotere]

Just wanted to post a quick follow-up. Last night I fenced again and took everything that was mentioned here into consideration. I bent the tang a little, rotated my hand out and used what was left for bait. All went very well. I managed to keep the hand hits down to only two and was actually poised better for a wrist shot myself! So many thanks to all of those that replied to help.

[oiuyt]

Last night I fenced again and took everything that was mentioned here into consideration.

You considered amputation?!?!?!???! Seems drastic. I assure you that I was kidding about that option. :)

-B :)

[wpotere]

You considered amputation?!?!?!???! Seems drastic. I assure you that I was kidding about that option.

-B

Uh yeah, all the serious replies!