Another epee grip question

[foildad]

Given these controversial times, I am a little reluctant to post this question. Please be assured that this is a serious question. I am not Trolly Troll, O_O, or even drippingwet (whose questions, though perhaps too numerous, I believe sincere).

I'm asking this question on behalf of my son, 13, an avid foilist and reluctant epeeist. Despite his preference for foil, he is actually quite good at epee, but, still, he fences epee as if it were foil. He uses a pistol grip for both foil and epee. An epeeist in our division suggested that he use a french grip for epee, on the theory that differentiating the grips would help him intellectually differentiate the two games. In other words, when holding a pistol grip you fence foil; when holding a french grip you fence epee. Is this sound advice?

Thank you.

[noodle]

he could try it, at least. its not a horrible suggestion, but theres a chance that he'll much prefer pistols, in which case you're probably going to want to stick with them.

in all honesty, though, you can find success fencing epee like foil but just adding in the whole body as target. thats a lot easier than removing ROW alltogether.

[Alain]

Originally Posted by foildad

An epeeist in our division suggested that he use a french grip for epee, on the theory that differentiating the grips would help him intellectually differentiate the two games. In other words, when holding a pistol grip you fence foil; when holding a french grip you fence epee. Is this sound advice?

Hi,

It's not a bad idea, in fact. As noodle says, any good fencer should be able to adapt to using other weapons and get by fairly well. However, some foilists fail to adapt to épée, where you need to be a lot more patient; double-hits mean that attacking all the time isn't the smartest of ideas...

Using a French grip will (or should) encourage your son to keep longer distance. It imposes a different mindset, where one's strategy changes from trying to hit, to trying not to get hit. Changing grips won't necessarily be the magic cure - using a French girp doesn't mean that you'll never be able to attack - but it may well help. So I'd say give it a go!

Best of luck

[veeco]

If your son is a reluctant epeeist, why do you have him fence epee? If he prefers to fence foil, he should stick to foil. It's hard enough to be good in one weapon without being confused by fencing two...

[foildad]

Originally Posted by veeco

If your son is a reluctant epeeist, why do you have him fence epee? If he prefers to fence foil, he should stick to foil. It's hard enough to be good in one weapon without being confused by fencing two...

I see how my word choice gave a wrong impression. He is not reluctant; he just prefers foil to epee. He rarely fences epee, but when we travel to tournaments he would rather fence epee than have a day off. Ultimately those decisions are between student and coach. I just help facilitate the decisions.

[grotto]

Ask his coach... I think there are definite advantages to using a french grip epee, but if the coach is unfamiliar with the skillset that goes along with fencing with a french, (there is more to it than just posting the grip) it could make a weapon he "enjoys less than foil" to "I hate french grips" or even "I hate epee", also if it is just his goof off weapon (kinda like sabre for me) do you really want to devote training time to learning a new style of grip, or concentrate on his primary weapon.

Just a thought

[Mr Epee]

Good stuff above,

I will just add the following.

There are benefits to fencing occasionally with a French Grip in epee, but at age 13 I doubt that your son would be able to capitalize on them.

I had an excellent coach suggest that I practice for a few months with a french grip. As a result, I was able to develop some valuable insight into hitting with the correct timing, and how to rely on my legs more. I did not take lessons with it, and did not fencing tournaments with it. I did drag it along to a few national level training sessions.

I also developed some extremely important insight into how to fence against someone who is using a french grip. This is a special skill, and is especially important when facing people from different areas, who have more tradition with the french grips.

To be honest fencing against a french grip is similar to fencing against a lefty. You just have to play the game a little different... and if you are prepared for it, then you will do well... if you don't know what to do you'll get rolled.

There are quite a few people make results better than their ability using a french grip, just like there are quite a few lefties that make results beyond their ability.

If someone is going to fence consistently with a french grip, they need a coach who knows how to teach that style. There are very different styles and methods to fencing with a french grip... In the US look at Normile vs. Tausig.

I think I lost the point here... OK...

In short, at 13, your son will do just fine using the same handles for foil and epee. Don't worry... at that age keeping things consistant is the most important. He'll do fine.

Quite frankly, there are tons of people running around various divisions giving some incredibly bad advice... listen to your son, and your son's coach...

He'll do fine.