footwork speed

[kmak_577]

Last night i went fencing (i fence sabre) and when i went into attck this 1 person on more than 1 time, the opponent went as fast as they could backwoard and then did a parrie (not sure which type) and then landed the point . well i tryed to keep up with them going foward as they went backwards but i just didnt have the speed to do so . iam 14 and used to (up until a year ago ) do down hill mountain biking (not competitivly just for fun on a local heath) . so any advice on improving my fencing footwork ? By the way i cannot uptake biking again as i have moved and cant as there isn't a sutible place to do it (trust me i have tryed to find somewhere) anyway any footwork speed advice would be good ,
thanks

Kmak_577

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Next time, do a search for the numerous footwork threads.

[tonybogdan]

sprints

it's a pain in the ***, and i never do it untill i'm told do, but that's really the best way to do it.

[whtouche]

First step is not go faster.
For you, it sounds like you should start by going SLOWER.

Think about it. If your opponant is bombing backwards as fast as he can, how does that hurt you? Just keep chasing, steady and smooth, and he'll eventually run out of room or run off the strip.
You only really need to worry about speed, and even then it's not speed so much as acceleration, when you get into fencing distance. Then you accelerate your attack and finish.
Going way fast all the time will get you parried (as you seem to be aware) or hit in preparation. It's not about how fast your top speed is, it's more about the delta from your low to top speed.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Ugh (buckles down to write article that has been written before, assuredly).

Footwork is several things. A lack of one of these things will drag your entire game down.

1. Muscle coordination
The more motor units you can fire off when doing footwork, the better. Its possible to increase/train this by doing leg exercises close to your 1 RM. Another way is to do olympic lifts. See a qualified personal trainer before starting any sort of a strength training program.

2. Movement efficiency
Your movements have to be efficient. That means no unneccasary airtime, wobbling, time on the ground, imbalance, lag between movements, ect. You can train efficiency by doing many many careful, perfect steps. This is one of those situations where perfect practice makes perfect. This kind of footwork training is more like foot studying, because of the low physical intensity, and the high mental intensity required to train your body to perform like a finely tuned instrument. Do this kind of footwork when you're fresh, so that you can do the movements with maximum concentration (generally, as a rule, practice your fine movements, such as point control work or precision footwork when you are fresh, so that you do not substitute your fine movements for gross movements. Leave the endurance training to other kinds of exercises). Any movement that you do strengthens the muscle/nerve connection, making it just a little bit easier and faster the next time.

3. Muscle strength
They say its not the size of the boat, but the motion in the ocean. Regardless, its tough to go around the world in a canoe! If you have insufficient muscle strength to move yourself, you will not be able to move well. Train the calves, adductors, abductors, hams, quads, glutes, abs and lower back with resistance training. See a qualified personal trainer before starting any sort of a strength training program.

4. Muscle twitch speed
Muscle twitch speed governs how fast your muscles can contract. Fast muscle twitch speed is essential for speedy lunges, advances, retreats, fleches, ect. Train this with many different plyometric movements, as well as sprints. See a qualified personal trainer before starting any sort of a speed training program.

5. Speed of perception
This is the ability see your opponent attack and think "I need to retreat". The faster you can percieve things, the faster your mind can tell your body to act. Train this with lessons, drills and bouting.

Basically, in footwork (or with any movement, for that matter) your body follows a process every time. In this order, the brain recognizes a need to move, it sends a signal to the muscles, the muscles contract/lengthen as neccasary. Increasing any one of these will make your footwork faster.

[veeco]

Good post.

To emphasize on the "efficiency" part, I'd like to add that you might want to make sure you keep a small interval between your feet at all times. The optimal size of the interval is about as wide as your shoulders.

A lot of the times, a fencer who seems to be lacking explosive power moving forward is because they do not use their back leg enough, and don't use it to propel themselves forward, instead relying on the front leg which in this configuration has a limited range, and therefore is practically useless on forward movements (except to recover from them). The other problem is when fencers have too large of an interval between their feet, thus limiting the amount "spring" the back leg accumulates, and therefore not having enough explosive forward power.

Watch for these 2 issues and you will enhance your footwork speed and forward explosiveness abilities. Then it only becomes a matter of confidence.

[prototoast]

I don't necessarily disagree with anything DFP has said here, but given my perception of the situation described, I definitely feel like whtouche's advice is much more applicable. Make yourself go slow, because you aren't going to be able to just outrush your opponent, and you shouldn't. It doesn't matter how fast, or precise your legs are if your brain doesn't know when you should go fast and when you should go slow.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Good points, whtouche, proto and veeco. However, he did ask to get faster.

[prototoast]

Good points, whtouche, proto and veeco. However, he did ask to get faster.

Yes, and I agree that your advice is fine, but really, though he is asking about how to go faster, (I assume) he really wants to know how to fence better, and incorrectly believes that going faster is the solution to his problem.

[kmak_577]

thank you all for repleying . Will regards to "non speed" advice i also find this very useful so thank you . however i do fence sabre and one of the best saburers in my club said as soon as the ref shouts go then you should just charge in and attack and if possible parrie then attack , but always just charge in , this advice seens stupid after reading some other "footwork threads" is it stupid or not ? Oh and sorry i didnt look in the old threads before posting a thread

kmak_577

[prototoast]

thank you all for repleying . Will regards to "non speed" advice i also find this very useful so thank you . however i do fence sabre and one of the best saburers in my club said as soon as the ref shouts go then you should just charge in and attack and if possible parrie then attack , but always just charge in , this advice seens stupid after reading some other "footwork threads" is it stupid or not ? Oh and sorry i didnt look in the old threads before posting a thread

kmak_577

If that's the advice he gave you than one of 3 things must be true. Either he's not actually very good, you misunderstood what he meant, or he was giving that to you as "beginner advice".

Generally, when the touch starts, you should take a small, slow step forward. From there you can either do a short attack, long attack, or pull back for a parry. If you go forward too quickly, you lose the option to pull effectively, and you leave yourself vulnerable to being parried or being hit in preparation (depending on whether you're finishing too long or too short).

[kmak_577]

ok thanks this is all great stuff , any advise for my first sabre competition in Febuary i already no iam gonna get slaughtered there ( i knew that from my 1st foil competito lol) but any advice on people that have sorta 4 years more experience on me wen i have only been fencing sabre for 4 months that seems a lot longer lol
thanks

Kmak_577

[KD5MDK]

kmak - If you charge in like a boar, it'll work some of the time, and against some people. However, once they catch on to this, they'll know what you'll do and you'll start losing touches all the time. If your opponent is going to run away, fine. Keep moving forward, but under control. As long as you're advancing and not pulling back your arm, you have priority. Chase him down the strip till he runs out of it, and then either push him off the back or hit him.

[dramamine]

ok thanks this is all great stuff , any advise for my first sabre competition in Febuary i already no iam gonna get slaughtered there ( i knew that from my 1st foil competito lol) but any advice on people that have sorta 4 years more experience on me wen i have only been fencing sabre for 4 months that seems a lot longer lol
thanks

Kmak_577

If you have until February just make sure that every night you go to the club you practice footwork for at least 30 minutes, make sure you sit low and take small, quick steps, that your heels aren't clicking together, and that when you lunge you put your arm first, kick your front heel up (don't lift it) and push all the way through with your back leg. If you work on just these things for a couple months you should make great improvements in your footwork. Try and take lessons if you have a coach and otherwise ask the better fencers to practice some bladework and distance drills with you.

[kmak_577]

what happens to a fencer that runs out of room and goes off the strip ? does the other fencer get a point or do they just go back to starting positions or something else ?

[Cerian]

The other fencer gets a point.
Don't go thinking you can rely on that to get touches though...

[kmak_577]

aww i was hoping that would get me some points , ah well if that situation does arise now i know what to do
thanks

kmak_577

[The Poopsmith]

Drumming - and I don't mean beating on a drum. That sould help get your feet moving a little faster. Or you can be like me and start shoveling poop.