Epee question re French Grip

[remise]

I have what I hope is a quick question. After doing quite well with the French Grip, I appear to have hit a plateau. A slump. A brick wall. A valley. Whatever you want to call it. Are there any excercises/workouts I could do to improve since I'm the only fencer in my area to use this grip? I don't want this to be as far as I get.......I've been having too much fun.

[mrbiggs]

I have what I hope is a quick question. After doing quite well with the French Grip, I appear to have hit a plateau. A slump. A brick wall. A valley. Whatever you want to call it. Are there any excercises/workouts I could do to improve since I'm the only fencer in my area to use this grip? I don't want this to be as far as I get.......I've been having too much fun.

Are you trying to improve strength, speed, reflexes, knowledge...

And why does it make a difference what grip your opponent is fencing with?

[remise]

Oh, sorry - It dosen't make a difference what my opponent uses. It's just that it would be nice to link up with others that use the same thing, that's all. I'm trying to work on speed and accuracy. If I could improve those two things (speed of my disengages and getting my disengages tighter) as well as more accuracy, I would be happy indeed.

[glowstix]

have you tried varying your grip style. i've used the french grip before in epee and one of the good things about it is its versatility; there are more than one way to pommel. when i pommel, i extend my forefinger down the grip as if i'm "pointing" to where i want the tip to go. others don't do it this way, some do. you should take advantage of the versatility with the grip and experiment some more...and of course, hopefully the experts (i.e veeco, sreckiki, etc..) will come to the thread and rescue you..

[angriff]

remise, why not tell us what sort of problem are you facing? Like, are your opponents scoring more touches than usual? I find that there comes a time when people get used to your "new", extended reach, particularly when you fence the same bunch day in day out. So this necessitates a change of tactics. Here're just 2 ideas:

- fence with absence of blade;
- second intention - feint to draw the parry or stop hit and react accordingly

But the extended reach afforded by pommelling the blade should still be used to the max, so try as far as possible to go for advance targets like the hand, foot and mask. One thing I've learnt - painfully! - is that going for deep targets without adequate preparation is still suicide most of the time.

Good luck!

[sreckiki]

and of course, hopefully the experts (i.e veeco, sreckiki, etc..) will come to the thread and rescue you..

Expert? I'm not sure that term fits to me!

And sorry for not taking time to write a better answer but I have a deadline for a meeting coming soon!

[remise]

Angriff -

You may have answered my question. I found my opponents taking my blade. But, I found that by keeping my blade down (like I see in pictures) I couldn't get the point back in time to make the hit, or if I did get it back in time, I'd MISS!!!! Maybe I should just keep my guard regular, but back off and stay a long distance off, but then, I get run off the strip. That's the problem I'm having.

[veeco]

I think Mr. Epee adequately put it in an earlier thread. French grip users (Frogs as he likes to call them) need to have good legs and good timing.

Before working on point control and speed of the disengages, I think you should probably work more on your footwork and how you play with distance during bouts.

I have never seen you fence, but as a "frog" myself, I can say that most of the times when I fence well and get that feeling that nothing can touch me, it happens when I am perfectly balanced and with a good "placement" on my legs. If I put too much weight on a leg or another, I fence bad. If I am fencing too close, I get hit, and I may think that I could have hit if I was faster or more precise, but really what happened was that I was not at the right distance for the actions I was doing.

Honestly, I don't think that you should worry too much about point control or speed of your disengage. First because these are usually already good for all French grip users, second because for all the efforts you can put into these 2 components, the benefits are going to be minimal in terms of hard results during your bouts, and finally because if you're like me, you'll see that the point control and the disengages will come naturally to you when you are doing your actions at the right distance and have enough "push" on your legs to do them.

[remise]

Thanks everyone. And Veeco, you are right. Sometimes, I felt like I had a golden blade in my hand, but I didn't understand why. Now I can see why. Thanks again to everyone.