Teach yourself Epee?

[swordsen]

Well, considering that neither person is lunging the first and most obvious thing is that you are way too close to one another. Distance is your friend.

[Gav]

Re your lunge pic. Your lunge on this pic appears to be okay. It does, however, have some [minor] problems.

For Epee, you are over-lunging. I suspect you have gotten away with this as you partner has been caught flat-flooted, rocking onto his back foot and pulling his arm back out of line. Over committal like this is dangerous it restricts your options and this by definition hands the initiative to your opponent.

There are different 'levels' of lunge. The obvious gradings would be short, medium or long. I feel these grading are a bit too simple. Your basic lunge should be shorter than your foil lunge. It should be crisp, controlled and balanced. Your back leg should be straight (without the rear foot rolling over), your front
knee should be bent a little over 90 degrees. The full lunge has it's place but I won't cover that here.

The trunk should be erect, centered naturally between your front and rear legs.

Head up, maintaining eye contact.

The arm should be straigtened 'just' before you lunge. The arm position can be style dependant. Some like it fully extended prior at attack, some like it extended all the time. It is dangerous [in Epee] to attack with a straightening arm or allowing your front foot to lead the arm. Both these errors open you up to all kinds of stop hits from an experienced Epeeist.

The reason you don't go for the 'balls to ground' lunge all the time is that you need to hold something in reserve in case of the unexpected. If you lunge and your opponent takes a short step back and remains exposed then you can lean forward for a remise [as an easy example]. Similarly, if your opponent has skipped back totally out of distance (but still open) then you should be able to recover and reprise quickly. Over committal defeats both of these options.

One of my coaches also mandates 'snapping your fingers' at the end of the lunge. Click your fingers. Now use that action after you have lunged. The idea is to snap the point round in an arc to help it fix. *this is not a flick attack* The other point he made [and I find it useful one] is to imagine that you are touching your opponent with your thumb. This is a giude to the way a 'touch' will feel.

[135711]

i think your back foot is supposed to be on the ground

[135711]

actually the one with his back to the camera could be closer to the opponent, it's not foil, it's epee and you can afford to hit/and be hit because you'll both get a point. i would have stepped right into the thing with my arm out and gone for the double touch.

[135711]

one other thing i noticed about your last photo, the person with his back to camera's back leg, is really awkward, i used to do that you have to train out of it, strenghen your hip that's where it comes from, the side of your hip, has to be really strong for those little steps. try and see what will happen if you get that hip girdle really tight.

[D'Artagnan1673]

Yep, I noticed that he does that too. Isn't that causing his torso to lean in towards me?

[135711]

yes

[Thaddeus]

yeah i just started doing some epee a few days ago i am having this sort of problem i am carrying over my agresive atitude from foil to epee i want to go in and go all out but it seems to work the only thing is its hard to draw the fencer into attacking you any ideas on how i can curb my agresion and draw them in.....

[D'Artagnan1673]

time and constant contact with an epee to your mask.

[damianip]

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Helvetica, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">Originally posted by Thaddeus:
<strong>yeah i just started doing some epee a few days ago i am having this sort of problem i am carrying over my agresive atitude from foil to epee i want to go in and go all out but it seems to work the only thing is its hard to draw the fencer into attacking you any ideas on how i can curb my agresion and draw them in..... </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Helvetica, Arial">The key to curbing your aggression is... curbing your aggression. Make a conscious effort to not attack impetuously.

Draw attacks by feints and then counter. If they don't respond to the feint, then just continue and hit 'em.

Be careful, there is no director to save you. Old school épée would teach that you should get control of your opponent's blade before attacking. While that might be viewed as limiting in today's world, it's a good starting place for an épée novice.

Blade takes, controlled beats or opposition should be incorporated into your attacks initially.

Good luck,

Paolo