Training in the summer months with no coach and fencing once a week

[CMA]

i usually fnece 5 days a week with lessons form august to may , however in the summer months june to august 18th i have to resort to bouting once a week and no lessons, and working in my garage on footwork etc

what kind of specific exercises for foot work blade work ,and physical conditioning to help me to prepare for a heavy season starting in october do you recomend

[gatorjosh]

The biggest problem i have when taking a long (or short break) is noticing how fast I become tired. Usually if you fence 5 days a week for 9 months you have built enough muscle memory that you will gain back anything you have lost fairly shortly. But keeping your cardio up is probably the best thing you can do if you dont like standing in front of a mirror doing bladework and looking at your technique.

[cherubknight]

muscle mass/tone decreases fairly rapidly for me as well as my cardio. if im not dilligent with both cardio and maintaing muscle through footwork or other things then i find my life is waaay harder when i try getting back into a regular season routine.

specifically, if youre doing footwork regularly and with decent intensity/duration you should be good with the muscle thing. if you want to take the cardio to another level AND bust your legs, find a stadium you can get access to. if its reasonable, ride your bike there, run the stadium a number of times appropriate to your goal (up and down the stairs) and ride your bike back.

[Mr Epee]

Ok,

Lets take two very important words, and put them together.

"Active Rest"

Throw that into Google, and you will get some good internet advice from people with real knowledge on the subject...

try to avoid the sites that are trying to sell you things...

Or, you could try my advice... you know that coach who trains you 5 days a week during the season, and whom you have presumably hired to coach you in some capacity? Why don't you pick up the phone, type an e-mail, or find some other way to ask him/her your question...

"Hey Coach, what should I be doing this summer to get ready for next year??"

I know it might sound crazy, but you might get the information that you need - from reputable source who is familiar with you and your fencing...

[The Mormegil]

I just came off a two+ month repreive where i did almost nothing physically after a solid year of training. The last few weeks have killed me in endurance condition. I'm jut dying out there, however that plus side ot taking the time off, is that my form and mental game have gotten better evern without out the practice. so my suggestion would be to focus on cardio, running, jumping rope, etc. maybe add a little footwork to routine.

[Mr Epee]

Huh??? Gasp???

Are you trying to say that various forms cardiovascular exercise might help one get back into shape?
------------------

Ok... here's a tough one.

I'm at the bottom of a pool, and am running out of air.

Should I stay at the bottom of the pool, or swim to the surface?

[Boo Boo]

During the past few weeks (and next month or so), in addition to fencing (couple of times a week) and two half hour lessons a week, I am:
- doing 40 minutes of cardio (x-trainer/stepper and bike - at target heart rate), stretching and a 30 minute core stability routine 3 times a week.
- doing a 30 minute plymetrics/core circuit session followed by stretching session once/twice a week.
- doing a gymball pilates class once a week
- swimming most week days - am doing just over 1/4 mile each session (just to loosen things up from the other activities)

I do a little resistance work too but not much (triceps/chest press) and some calf raises.

Am just about (next week) to start adding footwork sessions into that too (two or three sessions a week - will see how it goes).

It's just great not to have to worry about competitions for a few weeks!

Boo

[VELISARIOS]

You can make target practice and footwork. I think this help you. And ofcourse so not forget to run or swim.

[shlepzig]

Based on job and family and life and such I am only able to get to fencing twice a week and occasional tournaments. Making me more fortunate than some and less fortunate than others.

If that were my only preparation and training, I would really not progress very far or quickly at all. I have had to work additional training into my daily non-fencing life which has helped me immensely.

1. Cardio footwork sesssions. I do two a week, maintaining a 80% heartrate for 40 minutes. I work on problem areas in my footwork and shadow fencing. I plan to add golfball to my drills. I try to throw a little plyo in there with the medicine ball ("Gold Medal Butt" has some good excercises, and lots of photos of Sharon Monplasir and her aforementioned attributes, it's a real book, look it up).

2. Aldo Nadi said it, and I have gone on at length about it. Cycling! Bicycling in a great excercise for the cardio and gets all the muscles you use in fencing. It burns fat really well too so you have less to lunge with, and recover from. It fits into the daily routine well too, use it to commute to work (as I do). Use it to run errands under 10 miles (I find it has little effect on completion time compared to driving), in the end you gain hours of workout, with no time lost from your life, just less time spent in your car.

3. This is just me talking but I do rowing machine 3 times a week. I do interval training and Lactate Threshold training on it, and I find the endurance workout for my arms keeps me from running out of steam in the upper body during a long day fencing.

I suspect trolling various fitness publications would give you tons of workout advice. I gain much of mine from Bicycling Magazine (www.bicycling.com) lot of good training advice for serious and not so serious athletes. But that is just me.

Watch some fencing videos and copy your favorite actions during shadow fencing practice.

Do whatever you enjoy doing a lot that is other than sitting on the couch, and collecting empty chip bags and crushed beer cans.

Shlep

[broncofencer]

My personal favorite drill when working alone is very simple and short but effective. its tougher than it sounds so give it a try.

5 minutes of footwork (anything & everything you know don't just go back and forth mix it up and don't stop)
during this time do at least 50 lunges (advance lunge etc.) this works out to 1 every 6 seconds.


This exercise is longer and more involved than almost any bout you will fence without a break.

it keeps the rust off and helps maintain and build fencing stamina. plus it cleans up footwork especially in the later stages when you want to get sloppy do to being tired.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

You're in the same boat as I am, CMA. How do you become a better fencer without the opprotunity to train and fence? Just fence better.

[Cerian]

I'm not sure how much good a lot of cardio will do you. It will keep off weight and help your endurance, but it will mostly develop aerobic, type 1 muscle when what you really need for fencing is fast-twitch, anaerobic muscle. My coach has me doing weight lifting (bench, deadlift, squat, military press) to stay in shape and improve my physical ability as a fencer. If you lift correctly and stretch well afterwards, you'll end up faster and more flexible (if that's a problem) than before.

[cherubknight]

"If you lift correctly and stretch well afterwards, you'll end up faster and more flexible (if that's a problem) than before."

yeah stretching is definitely necessary as well

[glowstix]

Originally Posted by broncofencer

My personal favorite drill when working alone is very simple and short but effective. its tougher than it sounds so give it a try.

5 minutes of footwork (anything & everything you know don't just go back and forth mix it up and don't stop)
during this time do at least 50 lunges (advance lunge etc.) this works out to 1 every 6 seconds.


This exercise is longer and more involved than almost any bout you will fence without a break.

it keeps the rust off and helps maintain and build fencing stamina. plus it cleans up footwork especially in the later stages when you want to get sloppy do to being tired.

yeah, i do something similar to that but also include some bladework exercises or some upper body strength exercises in between the sets of footwork exercises...

[broncofencer]

If you have a partner to train with another good exercise is what I call Iorn man fencing. it works easiest for epee but could be used with some adaptations to foil or sabre.

one bout to 15 every time you hit your opponent he/she does 15 push ups if you get hit you do 15. for epee in the case of double touches both of you do 10. if you want to work different muscle groups add them in. then after each fencer reaches 5 and 10 switch exercises. so for example if the score is 5-3 and the fencer with 5 gets hit he know does sit ups. when the fencer with 3 gets to five he to will switch to situps and they will switch to something else at 10.

for foil give am penalty to off target and any touch in doubt both fencers do the exercise. this will keep arguing over touches to a minimum.

this one will make you tired after 15 sets of 15 reps is a lot of push ups 225 to be exact.