Quicker footwork

[ebonylevin]

Can anyone give me any hints on how to make my footwork quicker? I've tried to bend my knees more but I can only keep it up for about 2 minutes. Also whenever I step it feels really big and heavy which also doesn't help my speed. Any suggestions about being lighter on my feet? Should I be fencing on the balls of my feet or something? Apologies if this thread has already been done to death.

[drippingwet]

Why don't you think your footwork is quick enough? How much were you bending your knees when you could only hold it for a couple of minutes?

Taking big (not heavy) steps would seem to make you go faster, after all you're covering more ground in a shorter time. However, taking big steps doesn't help your ability to fend off attacks - the bigger your step, the longer you've only got one foot on the ground, and so you can't escape the opponent if they decide to attack, you can only parry.

[ebonylevin]

My footwork is not fast enough especially in drills, I always seem to fall behind everyone even people who have been fencing for shorter time than me and it's not a matter of fitness.
My legs were very bent and I go faster but it's just too tiring to do it for extended periods of time. Basically I feel my footwork needs so much work, I seem to get over-enthusiastic when I attack and take too big steps and end up too close to my opponent, and they're really heavy and clompy. So I need to calm down and sort of "slow-down to speed up" and take smaller steps? sounds weird I know.
Does anyone have any drills that helps improve speed or co-ordiation?

[Schiavona]

When I take a step I time it so my lead toe and my back foot land at the same time. After awhile I find that I can put my front toe down faster and my back foot still keeps in time, making each step faster.

[sabreur]

Skip rope.
Do plyometrics.
Practice your footwork.

MR

[Peach]

When I"m doing footwork with other people, they're always faster than me. I don't focus on going fast. I work on staying down, controlling my momentum, varying my tempo, and moving smoothly. The best thing for doing this is footwork practice. If you do even ten minutes of footwork practice every day, you will improve.

[DanielSun]

The advice mentioned above is all good, especially the plyometrics.


For the past year or so I have been training with the Chinese National team. All of the fencers do footwork with weights on their ankles, wrists, and a vest. They are kind of like sand-bags, in all weighing about 10-15 kilos. I've never seen the vest in the states, but something like a heavy coat with weights in the pocket would yield similar results (in theory). This really improved my overall game.

Hope the government does kill me for releasing this info, lol j/k....kinda.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

you say that you go faster when your legs are bent more, but that you get too tired to do that for long.....

but that your problems with footwork have nothing to do with your fitness levels?


-- you may be able to do as many push ups as they can, or run as long and fast as they can, but fencing takes very very very different muscles....

do footwork as much as possible, and concentrate on doing it RIGHT. bend your knees as much as possible, take small steps.

when your standing in line somewhere, or watching tv, stand in en garde, or in a lunge. it'll help you build the muscles you need built up...

eventually you'll get faster, and be able to do it longer....

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Do footwork. Lots of it. Instead of running in the morning or whatever you do, do footwork for an hour. Advance to the end of the strip accelerating as fast as possible, while still watching your form. Try to get to your maximum speed. RIGHT before you advance off the strip, start retreating, and try to build up as much speed as possible, and then start advancing right before you get to the end of the strip. The idea is to build up momentum, enough to increase your speed very quickly, but still be in control, enough control that you can stop at any moment. Its this ability, this turning of the corner, this change of direction, that you must continually hone. Your footwork speed will increase over time. It will increase faster if you do more footwork. Also, practice doesnt make perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect, so stay mindful of your form. Also, doing squats, calf raises, lunges, plyometrics, running and all sorts of other conditioning will increase your speed and endurance greatly. Take it easy.

[SJB]

Skip rope.
Do plyometrics.
Practice your footwork.

Exactly.

Also, do core strength exercises as this will also improve your speed/dexterity.

Try skipping rope in en guard and then gradually moving to advancing and retreating. It's tough at first but gets better with time.

In addition you can do things like wind sprints to improve footwork as well.

Your coach, assuming they know their stuff, should be glad to make you a footwork program.

Lastly, work on taking small steps, even at speed, as big steps mean you're potentially off balance and thus easy to hit in preparation.

[Twinkletoes]

Here is one more,albeit kind of odd, suggestion:

In live in a two storey house. I run upstairs maybe 25 times a day.(kidsrooms,bathroom, office). I've been taking it 3 steps at a time, up the staircase..
This forces my front leg to reach up while I push off of my back leg just to reach that 3rd step. Kinda like lunging. Very hard on the legs(at first)

So in one month I might average maybe 1000 3-step leap-ups.


It sounds inane but it's a great way to build leg strength,and also develop the kick front leg/push rear leg lunging action...in a non fencing,everyday setting. I don't even think about it anymore.. just scrurry up three
steps at a time. Every time.


Cheers,

Marc

[epeezack]

Short, quick steps.
Go for speed rather then distance.

hope that helps

[davtsung]

For speed, I generally concentrate on my lead foot. 'Bending' your knees more would tend to make you more stable, but it also increases the distance between your feet which could slow you down.

[ebonylevin]

Right, tonight I tried some of your suggestions, I had weights on my feet that I found very useful for making my footwork smaller and faster who would have thought. Though when I didnt have my mind at least 85% on my feet they got big and messy I need to keep doing it until it becomes natural. though in truth I have the flu at the moment so I'm not as on to it as I could be. Tomorrow I will try skipping and doing footwork with small steps and try not to be as jerky as I was tonight.
PS thanks for everyones suggestions they were all helpful.

[ThatReallyHurt]

I taped a straight line on the floor in my basement and spend about half an hour three times a week doing increasingly difficult footwork... I started out with just advancing and retreating, now I'm trying to get through the exercises that I found on this site.

Something that I found helps me with messy feet that get tangled up is to set myself up on that line, then advance and retreat the full length of that line a few times with my eyes closed, then open them up and check my stance, fixing if necessary. If that gets boring, I turn on the TV and watch something while I'm doing my footwork, then check my stance. It's helped my speed and leg endurance immensely.

[greenchick]

Right, tonight I tried some of your suggestions, I had weights on my feet that I found very useful for making my footwork smaller and faster who would have thought. Though when I didnt have my mind at least 85% on my feet they got big and messy I need to keep doing it until it becomes natural. though in truth I have the flu at the moment so I'm not as on to it as I could be. Tomorrow I will try skipping and doing footwork with small steps and try not to be as jerky as I was tonight.
PS thanks for everyones suggestions they were all helpful.

Good! Keep it up, and for now, worry about keeping that 85% of your mind on the task of making your footwork small and controlled -- the speed and the leg conditioning will come in time. And if you aren't feeling quite right, this is a good time to work on keeping things small.

A couple more exercises I didn't see anyone suggest (unless I skipped):

* Advance the length of a strip, trying to fit in at least 100 advances. When you get to the end, do the same with retreats.

* For conditioning and foot speed, do "drums" -- that is, do advances in place. The only trick is, make absolutely sure that you're in a good guard and doing proper advances (front toe up, front foot up, heel down, toe down, etc...) and not just running in place. Start with a minute, and build up from there.

[MyraTrue]

I know this has already been mentioned, but I'm promoting the "small steps" only second to the "more practice and time" solutions for you.

This actually came up for one of my new epeeists last night. She complained that she was very slow, and the first thing I noticed is that like pretty much all newer fencers, she takes big steps. I think you can picture it- they're flat footed, and large, so she tends to get caught midstep by a faster fencer, and she can't change directions quickly. By shortening her steps, she can actually move much faster, and change directions/control distance far better than before. Sure, it makes your legs burn like nothing else will, but you can chose when to use a BIG step for distance, or small ones to control distance and play a footwork game.

But seriously, see if you can do footwork only moving your feet maybe 6 or 8 inches forward of where they were. See if you can do it so that its all in the legs (glide, don't wobble), etc. While it seems counter-intuitive that going faster might be achieved by shortening your steps, it might do it for you. And good luck!