How to correct a bad on Guard

[big daddy]

I have a student who seems to insist on keeping his weight on his rear leg and not fully bending his knees. Needless to say nothing footwork wise is working for him . Does anybody know of any drills or ways I can correct his stance? Please send me some aid.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

The soviet way. Hit him with a weapon when he messes up.

[kalivor]

Do you have a mirror for him to do footwork in front of?

The problem with a bad en garde is that it's a habit -- it's the position that the body wants to go to. Hence, until a new habit can be formed, after any action, be it stepping, lunging, or what have you, the body returns to what it THINKS is en garde, the brain "knowing better" be damned.

In my experience, the best way of dealing with this is to have a mirror to do footwork in front of. Correct the student in front of the mirror, pointing out the things to watch for in their own en garde, and how to correct them. Then, have the student practice footwork in front of the mirror -- they are to watch themselves, and make sure they keep a proper en garde position the entire time. Eventually, the bad old habits will give way to the good new habits.

[remise]

Get in front of a full length mirror. Point your blade to the floor and close your eyes. Get en Guarde. Open your eyes and look in the mirror to see if the position is correct. If not, correct the position. Do this until the correct en Guarde position comes naturally and does not need to be corrected.

[penguin_2000]

Originally Posted by big daddy

I have a student who seems to insist on keeping his weight on his rear leg and not fully bending his knees. Needless to say nothing footwork wise is working for him . Does anybody know of any drills or ways I can correct his stance? Please send me some aid.

Consistancy is the key. If you correct him sometimes but not others, he'll be confused (even if only subconsciously). You must correct him each and every time you see it.

[CvilleFencer]

All of the above are good ideas and I have used them before (even DFP's!). What may also help is to have the fencer always take a very deep on guard. I mean very very deep. If they go low enough they will have to distribute their weight and it will force better fencing posture and build up great leg strength. Of course it is not ver comfortable and the fencer has to be fairly dedicated to do it.

I don't know if it is applicable in your case, but I have had casual or young fencers whose "I just can't get it" problem turned out to be something more along the lines of "it is not comfortable and I don't want to make the effort so I will make excuses instead" problem. If it is the later, riding them to much will most likely lead to them leaving the club or the sport. Sometimes the best thing to do is to continue to offer advice on the correct way and hope that they really get the bug and become competitive. Then when the come to you and say "how do I not get creamed in a tourney" or something to that effect, you have your first series of lesson right there! That sounds somewhat flippant, but if a student is not ready to learn then they can't be taught.

[shlepzig]

My advice has always been to fencers whom I have seen having just this problem has been to practice slow and watch closely.

Use a mirror if you can, and practice basic drills and go slow. Slow enough you can keep an eye on everything and make sure it stays in the right place. Repeat a lot, eventually the habits are corrected with repitition.

Once the habits start to fade, the actions can start to speed up. The idea is that the student keep checking to make sure bad habits aren't sneaking in.

Try to tie as many things together as the student can take at a time. Feet, knees, hips, spine, hand, head, etcetera. Everything has to work together and incremental changes can become maddening.

Fix the feet, and the hips move, fix the hips and the hand moves, fix the hands and the feet are out of position. The whole body posture works together for the action from the toes to the tip of the weapon.

That's my .02

Shlep.

[foily]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

The soviet way. Hit him with a weapon when he messes up.

Haha that's what old Mike did to me last night, it's a good way you know.

[big daddy]

Thanks guys . I tyhink Civilfencer hit the naikl on the head it both my problem and a possible solutition. I thought about widing and deeping the guard but it may be simply that this student is not willing to put in the time to correct his on guard. He has just seems to have this mental block. Yet thats what im supposed to do find a way around the block.