Drills to improve speed

[RITFencing]

Alright, before I get told about all the other threads on explosiveness and speed, I've been snooping around on them and have been trying to put together a good program for training fencers of varying skill levels to be able to act faster and more explosively on the strip, and I'd like some feedback. Please bear in mind that this is not a comprehensive program and I am not trying to deal with things like tempo or distance, just trying to improve reaction time, acceleration and top speed.

I think that fast, crisp fencing (especially footwork) comes from two basic things, mental speed, physical speed, and efficiency, and I'm trying to put together a package of drills for each. Here's my justification:

Mental speed (and efficiency and clarity, for that matter) is needed to quickly decide what you ware going to do, be it a simple retreat or a double advance jump lunge with five fients. You need to be able to have the proper action ready for execution.

Physical speed is pretty obvious: better top speeds and accelerations yeild faster fencing.

Physical efficiency for me means very precise, clean actions. No wasted motion, no time spend off balance. Basically, it ensures the shortest path for all those wonderful, fast muscles to follow. You could have the fastest legs in the world, but if your footwork is still junk, then you won't be reaching your full potential. This is an area I'd like a bit more help on, specifically in developing drills that are a bit more cohesive instead of seemingly random reaction time drills.

Anyway, to work on mental speed I like tactical drills where you have to make decisions, with or without full fencing gear.

1) Having a coach or partner hold up two gloves and advancing, lunging or advance lunging to catch the one he/she drops.

2) Having different footwork actions assigned to numbers during a drill (IE 1 = advance, 2 = retreat, etc) so that when the number is called the fencer has to execute that action as quickly as possible.

3) Doing basic leader follower (one fencer leads footwork and the other follows) with certain hand cues the leader can make for different actions (hold out the hand all the way is lunge to tag it, drop the hand is advance lunge to tage the shoulder, etc) making sure that the follower tries to do all the mental processing and start the action as quickly as possible.

As far as physical effiency, I like drills that are ncie and slow and really focus on proper form and balance, ideally with a coach or other fencer watching you as you perform them. To me, these work a little bit better in building on each other, but I'd love to hear everyone's reactions.

1) Do one footwork action, be it an advance, a lunge, whatever. Do it slowly and try to have perfect form.

2) Do a set number of advances and make sure they cover the same distance. Make sure that you went the proper distance, say thirty advances took you 20 feet forward. This is to make sure that you are going the proper distance with each one. Then do the same number of retreats and try to end on the line you started.

3) Advance all the way down the strip, gym, whatever, focussing on keeping your hips very level and preventing your head form bobbing up and down. Try and maintain a nice, smooth motion down the strip, without accelerating and decelerating for each advance. Do the same with retreats.

4) Do a leader follower drill or have a coach call out different footwork actions. Take your time and do each one properly, making sure to stay on balance, stay smooth and move the correct distance each time.

Finally, there are drills to improve overal physical speed and acceleration, particularly for attacks. Stop watches would be good for some of these to measure improvement and provide goals for the fencer.


1) Sprints, suicides and any other running exercises that focus on bursts of speed and direction changes.

2) Do a set number of lunges with recoveries as fast as you can go while maintaining good form. Try and recover the second your foot hits the ground and then try to lunge again the moment you have recovered.

3) From an en garde stance, pick up the left foot, then the right foot, slowly at first, picking up speed until they are beating the floor as quickly as you can. Try and pick up each foot as soon as it touches the ground and try not to bring it up very high. When you are going as fast as posisble, go a little bit faster, and then lunge, advance lunge or retreat lunge.

3) Similar to number 2, start bouncing back and forth like an epeeist and then lunge, advance lunge or whatever on a given signal.

4) Start either bouncing or tapping your feet like in number 2, and when a footwork action is called out do it and then return to your bouncing/tapping.

5) Advance to the end of the strip as fast as you can (while keeping good form) and then retreat back the same way.

6) General plyometric exercises (squat jumps, gymnats lunges, side jumps, etc. I'm not an expert on plyometrics but I've started doing a bit of research.)

Ok, that's about it for my idea, please give me as much feedback as you want. I realize that some of these things are pretty basic, but they aren't geared towards WC level fencers.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by RITFencing

2) Having different footwork actions assigned to numbers during a drill (IE 1 = advance, 2 = retreat, etc) so that when the number is called the fencer has to execute that action as quickly as possible.

3) Doing basic leader follower (one fencer leads footwork and the other follows) with certain hand cues the leader can make for different actions (hold out the hand all the way is lunge to tag it, drop the hand is advance lunge to tage the shoulder, etc) making sure that the follower tries to do all the mental processing and start the action as quickly as possible.

These would be significantly stronger if the signals used were ones taken from bouting situations. It makes no sense to train someone to react to hearing the number 1. Your opponent will probably not say, "One!" when the opportunity to hit him with a lunge arises. Similarly, hand cues are very limited because they are not the cues that the fencers should be learning to see in a bout. Think about when, in a bout, these various movements might be used and from there you can create useful cues.

Originally Posted by RITFencing

2) Do a set number of advances and make sure they cover the same distance. Make sure that you went the proper distance, say thirty advances took you 20 feet forward. This is to make sure that you are going the proper distance with each one. Then do the same number of retreats and try to end on the line you started.

3) Advance all the way down the strip, gym, whatever, focussing on keeping your hips very level and preventing your head form bobbing up and down. Try and maintain a nice, smooth motion down the strip, without accelerating and decelerating for each advance. Do the same with retreats.

This is a mistake. A fencer should learn, right from the beginning, to vary the size and speed of his steps. Steps that are all identical are very predictable and, therefore, a fine gift to your opponent. Better to do steps with varying sizes, speeds, patterns of movement.

Originally Posted by RITFencing

4) Do a leader follower drill or have a coach call out different footwork actions. Take your time and do each one properly, making sure to stay on balance, stay smooth and move the correct distance each time.

Much like the first exercises, exercises that involve reaction need the stimuli to be based on fencing situations. If you learn to react very well (quickly, early, smoothly, etc.) to someone saying, "lunge!" or whatever, your ability to to react to an opponent opening a line will not be improved.

[Feltan]

RIT,

I won't disagree with you, but I would like to offer a differing opinion.

My first coach was a Hungarian three-weapon master. Very old school in his outlook, but he often had gems of ideas - even if they were presented in an odd manner.

With regard to speed and reaction time, I recall having that exact discussion with him over 20 years ago. I presented some ideas to him not too different than those you suggest above.

His response was a dismissive "pfffft." His philosophy to increase speed and reaction time was far more simple: "If you want to be a better fencer, then fence more. If you want to be good at catching a ball, play ball."

I was a bit offended at first, but learned to appreciate his point-of-view on this. As I was to learn, most American fencers (save maybe the Olympic squad) don't spend enough time actually fencing as it is, and while cross-training and non-fencing drills may have benefit -- more benefit can be acheived from actually fencing on strip.

That training philosophy tends to go against the grain of our American view on these things. I think we have a tendency to think that there is an optimal scientific training program of various exercises and cross-training that will produce top-level results. Maybe there is. However, the top-level fencers I have known spend virtually all of their training time getting lessons or actually bouting, or practicing footwork.

More specifically to your point, the quickest fencers are the ones that spend a lot of time fencing.

Maybe it is that simple. I hope so.

Regards,
Feltan

[RITFencing]

Jason: Thanks for the advice; I especially like your idea about using cues you see in a bout as opposed to numbers. As far as the strips of fast advances and retreats, however, remember that this is not the only footwork that gets done. I understand the importance of varying tempo and distance in footwork; right now I'm looking for drills to help improve top speed and explosiveness to supplement others. Do you think that multi-tempo footwork would be better for those as well?

Feltan: I've heard that bit of advice many times, but after looking on these forums and talking with fencers and coaches in the area (Rochester, NY) I'm begining to think that cross training may be very useful. I'm pretty sure Nat Goodhartz is a fan of plyometric exercise, though I only have that second hand. The next time I get a chance to speak with her I'll ask her about it.

[dramamine]

addressing frequency is an issue too. plyometrics are very stressful on the central nervous system and doing them too often can result in a fatigued system and decreased performance. i think maybe 2x a week is enough.

another drill that is cool for getting smooth feet that you might try is this:

everyone starts on a line
there is a target "finish line" a certain distance away
you give them a time (5 seconds, say)
they need to move continuously, without changing speed, and get as close to the "finish line" as possible without overshooting or undershooting. they may only stop when you say stop.

i appreciate the effort you are making but the best trainers know when making programs that everyone is different, some people respond very well to plyometric exercises and weight training while others don't like it, some people are capable of fencing six days a week while others struggle with four. better would be a database of exercises with general guidelines on frequency that can be adjusted to how many days a week you can get to your club, the gym, etc.

anyways good luck with it

[RITFencing]

Originally Posted by dramamine

addressing frequency is an issue too. plyometrics are very stressful on the central nervous system and doing them too often can result in a fatigued system and decreased performance. i think maybe 2x a week is enough.

I was not aware of this, thanks.

Originally Posted by dramamine

another drill that is cool for getting smooth feet that you might try is this:

everyone starts on a line
there is a target "finish line" a certain distance away
you give them a time (5 seconds, say)
they need to move continuously, without changing speed, and get as close to the "finish line" as possible without overshooting or undershooting. they may only stop when you say stop.

Cool idea, I can see hwo that could also be a useful tool in teaching different tempos to people.

Originally Posted by dramamine

i appreciate the effort you are making but the best trainers know when making programs that everyone is different, some people respond very well to plyometric exercises and weight training while others don't like it, some people are capable of fencing six days a week while others struggle with four. better would be a database of exercises with general guidelines on frequency that can be adjusted to how many days a week you can get to your club, the gym, etc.

anyways good luck with it

Also a very salient point; thanks a lot for the input. So you know, this is something I'm thinking about having people do at the RIT club once a week. I think I'm going to dig around the threads on here for some more guidelines on plyometrics and maybe a few useful books.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by RITFencing

As far as the strips of fast advances and retreats, however, remember that this is not the only footwork that gets done. I understand the importance of varying tempo and distance in footwork; right now I'm looking for drills to help improve top speed and explosiveness to supplement others. Do you think that multi-tempo footwork would be better for those as well?

The effectiveness of "speed" in fencing is a result of your ability to surprise your opponent. If you move at top speed the whole time, you will not surprise your opponent--he will, however, easily surprise you. It's important to be able to execute a movement smoothly, with loose muscles, and you must not only practice the execution, but the application as well.

If you practice moving at top speed consistently, you will not improve the speed of your advances, retreats, etc., but you will train yourself to move poorly on the strip.
Practice moving with a changing rhythm, incorporating moments of great speed with slower ones, trying to move in a way that does not reveal your intentions, allows you to maintain balance, and prepares you to be able to change what you are doing at any time.

There are assorted exercises you can do to improve the explosiveness of your movements, including various plyometric activities.
Incorporate various jumping exercises into your footwork training. For example, jump over some obstacle (a bench, a partner's weapon, etc.) from an en garde position--being sure to land en garde. Do this with combinations of forward and backward jumps and, even, sometimes executing an explosive lunge immediately after you land en garde from your final jump forward. This allows you to develop the explosiveness in the muscles you use for fencing in a way that is more directly applicable: the muscles are training to be explosive when doing fencing movements.

[RITFencing]

Originally Posted by Jason

The effectiveness of "speed" in fencing is a result of your ability to surprise your opponent. If you move at top speed the whole time, you will not surprise your opponent--he will, however, easily surprise you. It's important to be able to execute a movement smoothly, with loose muscles, and you must not only practice the execution, but the application as well.

If you practice moving at top speed consistently, you will not improve the speed of your advances, retreats, etc., but you will train yourself to move poorly on the strip.

Practice moving with a changing rhythm, incorporating moments of great speed with slower ones, trying to move in a way that does not reveal your intentions, allows you to maintain balance, and prepares you to be able to change what you are doing at any time.

Absolutely true, which is one reason I stress practicing footwork at multiple speeds. If you think that doing any constant speed footwork would be detrimental, then I understand your point.

Originally Posted by Jason

There are assorted exercises you can do to improve the explosiveness of your movements, including various plyometric activities.
Incorporate various jumping exercises into your footwork training. For example, jump over some obstacle (a bench, a partner's weapon, etc.) from an en garde position--being sure to land en garde. Do this with combinations of forward and backward jumps and, even, sometimes executing an explosive lunge immediately after you land en garde from your final jump forward. This allows you to develop the explosiveness in the muscles you use for fencing in a way that is more directly applicable: the muscles are training to be explosive when doing fencing movements.

Cool idea; I've done some experimenting with sudden lunges after advances/jumps, like as soon as your foot hits the ground, but I like the sudden exertion you need after clearing the obstacle.