teaching a lefty to "fence left handed"

[MyraTrue]

which is possible a confusing way to start this thread. So this is the situation: I'm the womens epee captain for my club, and we have a team competition this Saturday. The problem is, I can't go, and consequently, amsending in my other 2 epeeists, and a new epeeist. I'm concerned about my new epeeist because I conscripted her from the beginner's foil class (last week, I think), and more so, because she is left handed.

I want to be able to send her off to fence with something useful to her. We have three days this week, and I don't want to overwhelm her. While I have another left handed woman on the team, I've had problems working with her as well. Thus far, I asked a friend for some advice and he mentioned that I needed to teach her to ride the left side of the strip, to keep her blade on the outside, to go straight into the upper arm/shoulder, and to counter. And call it good. In short, I need to teach her to be a lefty- I realized no one ever tells the lefties these things.

Other than that, I'm thinking to teach her to defend against a parry 2/8, which used to be a big problem for my other lefty, and remind her that generally, if she uses parries, should use parries that take the blade off into her 6 before reposting, because there is less body to clear.

Does anyone have some good basic suggestions or additions/subtractions? I hate to send her to her first competition without something. That, and her first bout is against a large varsity university. Oy!

[noodle]

i have no problems fencing lefties in epee. i almost prefer it. i feel they have the best advantage in foil.

if you have to teach her something, teach her to keep her guard straight and on target and throw shots in when there's an opening. patience coupled with this can produce results if she can perform. also, make sure she understands some basic actions and can do simple disengages and hand picks and stuff.

[keith]

a good on guard, point work and the remise. I wouldn't worry to much about getting her to fence as a lefty.

If you have three sessions that is enough without confusing her.

Do attacks as progression;

pupil - hits hand/lower arm
coach - takes sixte.
p - does nothing, keeps arm straight.
c - opens line to allow remise.
p - rapid return to guard
c - deep attack to arm
p - sixte riposte

add in the redouble on the coaches sixte action if she is a quick learner (make sure she is responding to your pressure though). Main thing is to get her to keep that arm straight and attack/remise/redouble/parry-riposte - get her out of any foil habits

Defense.

Focus on the stop hit into the attack and moving the feet.
Not snatching to parry attacks that aren't there, feint deep.
Don't stress her about how she 'isn't on guard right', you want her to get on the strip and fence (not fret).


In three sessions you should be able to get good point control and a basic sense for the weapon. That can get you more than the odd hit in epee.

don't get into ceding parries or complicated defensive actions - they are a beginner - give her enough to get a few points and keep the team in the match.

[DJ Apostrophe]

Hi lefty epeeist who basically taught himself for the first year speaking here...

when I was first starting I found what worked for me was to basically be almost completly counter attacking... I don't know what level your teams opponents will be this weekend, but the best thing for her might be just teaching her how to

A: keep epee distance (which is significantly different than foil distance)

B: provoke a straight attack/extension form her opponents: half steps, feints, check steps

C: work on point control and timing for counter attacks.

That should be enough for her to survive her first day of competition. Teaching her how to do some basic attacking might be good, as long as she understands that it should only be used if she is down by a touch or two with a minute or less left in the bout.

-w

[Schiavona]

Adding a counter sixte that lifts the opposing blade up and over the shoulder should be quite enough for the poor woman

[FriendlyMonkey]

From my experience, too many lefties use their initial
advantage to fence "better" at the start of their fencing
careers, and never really improve, because "it works"
at the start.

-FM

[MyraTrue]

Friendly Monkey, I've seen that too. I'm fighting with a few people over that right now- it works for them, but only because its unpredictably sloppy. Which is too bad.