Practice Mentality

[Lemberg]

OK, I'm sure this is not a new question for this board by any means, and I am sure that the answer to my question lies somewhere between the two practice mindsets, but still I am curious as to whether you guys try to just work on things during practice without caring too much about the score (as my coach insists) or try to imagine you are ina tournament and fight for every point (as a sporst psychologist I saw advised) so as to not be intimidated when it is actually the big day and you need to be firing on all cylinders..? How does one find the balance between the two? Is it all about timing (i.e. offseason vs the week before a tourney) or is one clearly better than the other one?
Thanks in advance for your insightful responses
Dmitry

[Grasshopper]

Basically, it comes down to the question: If I could beat everyone in my club, would I be at the level I want to be at? If the answer is "No" then you almost HAVE TO try new techniques, tactics, etc. to reach a higher level of ability.

If the answer is "YES" (like if you fence at Paris Racing Club or Germany's Tauber) then the mere fact that you are always beating everyone in your club probably means that you can also beat almost everyone in the world. Ergo, you don't really need to practice new stuff.

Just my thoughts...

[fencerontheline]

Usually, I practice for technique, tactics, and to build my game til a week and a half before the tournament I'm training for. This practice helps to develop and hone new skills.

During that final week and a half, I practice at nearly-full intensity and then take 2-3 days off.

Those days off combined with practice at a high arousal level combine to make me compete more focused and with a greater intensity during the competition.

[Grasshopper]

practice at a high arousal level .

That was a bit more than we needed to know.

[rudd]

I do both. Against opponents I know I can beat I'll work on certain technigues and not care about the points Against people who are better than me I fence as if I'm in a competition but I will still do this with a certain set of tactics or skills in mind. Before each bout and after each halt and reinforce one simple skill i.e. pommell on wrist, point on target etc. This helps me concentrate on the task at hand.

[Zhi]

Just practice and practice and practice.....then you'll see the result of it. You can beat all the opponents by hardwork... I've already proved it by myself

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

against opponents I'm likely to beat, I practice on a specific move, or they start off with alot of points so then I have to really chug to win.

[glowstix]

i usually pretend to be practicing/working on new stuff...then i'd forget what i'd be working on; unless i've had a lesson that day then i work on the skills the lesson was building.

sometimes, i'm overcome by ego and just want to win every touch but i'm getting away from this these days. sometimes as it turns out, when i work on stuff i'll still win the bouts but not always. what happens now is that, yes for the most part i'm working on stuff but there are a couple of touches in practice where the focus is to score and not perfect a technique; this establishes a balance between the two practice philosophies.

in the end, i definitely agree that most of the time should be spent working on stuff. in a perfect world, my practice day would begin with footwork, then a solid lesson, then free fencing where the focus is entirely to work on what the lesson involved, then a bout or two where the focus is to win.

[AntonioDelMonte]

When i practice at the clubs that i go to i work on different techniques using different preperations especially footwork preperations and try to stay away from my usual top techniques so i know i have other things to rely on if my "A" game is off. then about 2 weeks before the tourny i start to bring my bread and butter actions into what i have been working on to blend the new techniques into my repitore.

[broncofencer]

At practice I prefer to "play" with my opponents trying out different ideas and techniques. I don't worry about keeping score when I get tired I say five more touches and try to get all five or at least 3 of them. this way I can work on stuff and still keep the edge competitivly which really isn't needed. I also think this last part keeps my opponent from getting cocky.

[Bryn Ralph]

Aldo Nadi makes distinctions between pre-combat exercises, combat training and competition. Review his work entitled "On Fencing" for his take on practice.

Slainte!

[Black Jeebus]

We actually have two modes every night. We fence for a few minutes without keeping score (10 or so) and then we usually fence to five. This way there is a specially designated time to try and remind people that it is fencing practice and not just a small tournament. But just to keep it competitive for the people who don't often fence tournies we have the little scored bit at the end.

IMHO you have to have both mentalities at some point in practice in order to prepare well for a tourney. Cause most people do have practice being under stress (except for those gifted people who are either too skilled or too dense to experience stress. I like to think I'm the second ).

[mrbiggs]

I take all the bouts somewhat seriously. If it's someone who isn't as good as me (They'd only get 5 or less points on me in a competitive DE bout, approximately), I always work on new things. If they're about as good as I am, I'm very competitive. If it's someone better, I mix it up.

[Allen Evans]

Focusing on only one thing at practice (sharp bouts, new actions, only one action) is like any diet: too much of one thing is ultimately bad for you. I think that variety in fencing practice is like variety in food: fun AND healthy.

Some of the factors that influence what you do at practice are:

• The over all level of fencing at club.
• Where you are in your competitive season.
• How far away the next tournament is.
• How often you have access to lessons.
• The availability of drilling partners.
• How much fencing is at your club on a given night.

...and so forth.

In the “off season” I advise fencers to work on technical actions in their bouts, especially ones new to them or ones they aren’t comfortable with. For instance, it is a time when I want one of my epee fencers to work on toe touches, if he’s not very good at them. There isn’t any pressure to score, but the action is still being done in a more realistic frame than in lesson.

During the competitive season, I still ask for actions in practice that students aren’t so comfortable with, but I also ask them to practice actions they ARE comfortable with: to continue to reinforce their strong moves. At the end of the night, they should fence two or three (or more, depending) “sharp” bouts that they try to win. I might also ask my fencers to do nothing but hard bouts for a given evening, and try to win all of them.

Of course, if you’re the top fencer in your club, fencing sharp bouts doesn’t make much sense unless you give yourself a handicap of some type. Likewise, if you are the bottom fencer at your club, practicing things in bouts can be difficult if you don’t have a willing partner and they just hit you no matter what. Also, if your club is very small and you only get two or three bouts a night, you might want to make most bouts sharp bouts – it’s your only competitive practice.

Like diets, the only rule is that anytime you’re only doing one thing in practice, it’s probably wrong.

[keith]

......and lets not forget the importance of communication folks. Not much point in having a 'sharp' bout with an opponenent who is focusing on getting a given action smoothed out.

[needle]

......and lets not forget the importance of communication folks. Not much point in having a 'sharp' bout with an opponenent who is focusing on getting a given action smoothed out.

Well, it's a good practical exercise - guess whether your opponent is fencing "full force" or practices certain action (and what that action is, and what game you can play against it...)

[redcoat]

I think that practicing in order to develop techniques is much more important than practicing fighting to the death. How you put the techniques together comes much more naturally than the techniques themselves.

Against an inferior opponent I will sometimes let him score 14 and then fight to the death. Makes it interesting you know...

[soundinspace]

I use to always fence to win but then I would just get frustrated when I lost or things weren't going my way especially since there are a lot of people of equal skill in my club. This frustration would destroy my game about 80% of the time but the other times I could use it constructively. This in all could be good for tournments because you don't have "A" games every tournament and the mental reset is good practice. Since I could not really rest in practice, tournaments were hopeless once I got mad. I would usually proceed to vow "I'll never fence again!" afterwards and stomp off. Of course I would always come back.
My solution to this was just focusing on technique most of the practice until the end. This of course, led to the other fencers in the club beating me badly, but now I can lose more gracefully and stay calm during most bouting situations. I still now bout a few bouts in "tournament" mode at the end.
I guess all I am trying to say is a balance between the two is good....

[Tiwaz]

practicing fighting to the death.

You can't really practice fighting to the death beacuse it's generally one of those things that your either really good at it or reached a stage where practicing anything other moving a glass around ouija board is a waste of time.

[Coup de Grace]

I like to mix it up. At the club, I will work to refine techniques and iron out the physical kinks. But I go through the mental exercise of staying focused during a bout, develop "come from behind" strategies when I'm losing, etc. I figure that I have to practice the mental part of the game because I'm going to be faced with it during a tournament.