Hand to BIG!

[wpotere]

I have a question for all of my fellow Epeeists out there. I am a rather tall guy with large hands and I was basically slaughtered last night in a bout because part of my hand was below the bell guard. After the guy scored several points by simply touching my hand, I went and bent the tang upward a bit to see if I could hide it a little more. However, now I am now showing a little part of my hand on the top. Are there any other of you folks that have this same issue? If so, what did you do or have you tried to resolve the problem? I am new to Epee, so please excuse the ignorance.

[wpotere]

I posted a message to Craig to move this to the armory section. I accidentally posted this in the wrong forum due to BC (Before Coffee). If you can see the old title, you will notice that I even used the wrong "too"; not a great way to start the day! So, please excuse my ignorance until the caffeine begins to absorb into my brain allowing me to function as a “normal” human.

[Epeecurean]

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.

[wpotere]

Hmmm... I might give that a try.

I think that I am going to have to try a combination of things...

1. Tighter fitting glove.... (less slack showing)
2. Bend tang to minimize hand showing.
3. REMEMBER that it is showing and don't allow the easy hits!

[EpeeConvert]

pull distance. show your hand, and get just out of distance. or (I know this is gonna sound crazy to some of the sabre fencers and maybe even the foil fencers) dont just counter attack try parrying (no one believes me when i tell them that epeeist can parry too in my club). show the top of your hand, circle six, and riposte like theres no tomorrow

[Zilverzmurfen]

One thing you may consider is to convert to french-grip and pommel.

One of my clubmates uses the french grip. I can quite easily score touches on her hand as she pommels and therefore leaves hand exposed.

Then again, it might work for you since you're already very tall and you'll gain that extra distance.

[SOA9286]

Move your bell guard out to the outside line a bit more, straighten your arm up a bit, and point your tip towards his hand. Use that piece showing as bait to pick em off...

[noodle]

a simple point: i don't care if i'm showing my hand or not. the important thing is that if i am, i know i'm showing my hand. if you know you're showing your hand to your opponent and they start to go underneath for a pick, you can't assume the bell will take the shot. you have to parry it yourself.

[MikeHarm]

If your hands are that big, you might just want to switch over to foil where it doesn't matter and everyone is in the same boat.

[grotto]

I am going to assume you are using some sort of pistol grip. One thing I do is elongate my grip on the handle. I make sure I have a proper sized handle that is big enough so my hand does not bunch up. This is one of the reasons I use belgians, they give me the best elongated hand position in the pistol grip arena. I also use french (non-posting) which allows a very flat hand position.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

You can't shrink your hands, so use what god gave you. People will go for your hand, atleast the part that is showing, so lure them in, and be prepared for them to attack, parry riposte, or just counter into him. Yes, your hands will be a big target, so use your big hands to your advantage.

[oiuyt]

Amputate the pinky, it's mostly superfluous anyway. If you still have problems remove your ring finger. If you STILL have problems you need to find another sport, preferably one where two missing fingers isn't much of a disadvantage.

-B :)

[acaba]

Since we cannot see your hand on these forums, I have another guess. Are you holding the pistol grip correctly? I have seen a lot of people who have their fingers in the wrong place on the grip. Is your pinky finger properly around the grip, or is it just hanging in space? If its in space, you need to move your fingers up one 'notch' on the grip. e.g. for a Belgian grip, 2 fingers above the trigger (meaning closer to the guard), and 2 below. For a visconti, 2 fingers on the innermost part of the grip, and one finger in each detent in the lower part of the grip.

[CvilleFencer]

I am also a very large guy (6'5") and have very big hands. I do a few things to keep from having my hand be an easy target, some of which have also been mentioned before:

Rotate your bellguard out of the "normal" position so that it covers more of the bottom of your hand.

Try a variety of different pistol grips. I have a lot more finger sticking out when I use a Belgian or Visconti than I do when using a Russian or a Zivkovic (for big handed people the Zivkovic B series is really nice). You also my want to try the larger Schermansport grips from Negirnni. They are basically Belgians but fit my hand better for some reason.

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!

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!

Practice an angulated thrust to the to part of the opponents hand/arm as your opponent tries to go underneath your bell. You will raise your hand out of the way, score a touch, and keep your opponent honest by letting him know that it is not a safe touch to shoot for the hand.

Hope all of that was some help!

[noodle]

p.s.: you can definitely turn this "disadvantage" into an advantage. people hold their viscontis "german style" or whatever to specifically give an obvious opening to the underside of the hand while they're ready and waiting for this shot with a parry/counterattack/etc.. if you can't fix this problem, turn it into an advantage by practicing how to deal with it.

[SOA9286]

Amputate the pinky, it's mostly superfluous anyway. If you still have problems remove your ring finger. If you STILL have problems you need to find another sport, preferably one where two missing fingers isn't much of a disadvantage.

-B

Well all you theoritically need are the thumb, index, and a strong middle finger, no?

[oso97]

Well all you theoritically need are the thumb, index, and a strong middle finger, no?

Kinda hard to make a proper sabre cut without the pinkie....

[SOA9286]

Kinda hard to make a proper sabre cut without the pinkie....

Well, take the story of Django Reinhardt...guitar player..brother was phenomenal, then he got 2 fingers chopped off, and he then become even BETTER with just 2 fretting fingers. He was the first true guitar virtuoso..

Ok, fencing isn't guitar, but im sure someone could adapt .

And I was speaking from an epeeist's point of view

[dukeofdoom]

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.

[DangerMouse]

My coach in college used to say that if he were to ever be really competitive, he would cut off his pinky. He didn't have hands. He had paws.