Circle six

[Patterson]

Last week i found out that my circle six parry SUXXXX!!!!!!!!
Any suggestion on how i can practice it alone?

[Chafunkta]

While sitting on the couch watching TV, write out the alphabet (or your name, or the Illiad) with your weapon. Or if you want to be specific, do counter-clockwise circles for your circle 6 (if you're a righty). Keep the movements small. Other than that, keep fencing and drill.

[keropie]

Not really. Kind of irrelevent to perfect a parry against an attack that isn't there. You can go through the motions and try to make sure that the correct part (your fingers) is manipulating the action, make sure it's not too big, etc., but then the size will change based on the attack you're parrying, the timing will clearly vary based on the attack, etc. Find someone to practice with is your best bet, and/or at least have someone to give you feedback on size, manipulators (sooo many people use their shoulder, hand, or elbow), etc.

Good luck!

[Patterson]

Originally Posted by keropie

Not really. Kind of irrelevent to perfect a parry against an attack that isn't there. You can go through the motions and try to make sure that the correct part (your fingers) is manipulating the action, make sure it's not too big, etc., but then the size will change based on the attack you're parrying, the timing will clearly vary based on the attack, etc. Find someone to practice with is your best bet, and/or at least have someone to give you feedback on size, manipulators (sooo many people use their shoulder, hand, or elbow), etc.

Good luck!

*sigh* Yea, that's what my club captain told me.

[OROD]

Have you tried practicing with a lead pipe... ?


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[keropie]

Originally Posted by OROD

<sarcasm>Have you tried practicing with a lead pipe... ?
</sarcasm>

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Added sarcasm tags just in case someone missed it again

[stealingophelia]

Originally Posted by keropie

Added sarcasm tags just in case someone missed it again

actually if you have one of those pvc covers for weapons, if you put it on and train little finger motions like contre 6 it makes your forearm and fingers stronger, so you can weild your might sword a little easier

[keropie]

Originally Posted by stealingophelia

actually if you have one of those pvc covers for weapons, if you put it on and train little finger motions like contre 6 it makes your forearm and fingers stronger, so you can weild your might sword a little easier

Perhaps, but we can't have people using the lead pipe... otherwise their weapon arm might get so big they can't walk in a straight line

[Fencergrl]

Couple things helped me...
1) Practice in front of the mirror. Watch your form, keep the movements small.
2) Holding your weapon, circle the tip around round door knobs... remember use your fingers and not your whole arm.

Practice, practice practice...

[stealingophelia]

Originally Posted by keropie

Perhaps, but we can't have people using the lead pipe... otherwise their weapon arm might get so big they can't walk in a straight line

i was actually joking around the other dayabout how boddybuilders would be bad fencers because their arms and lats are so big they cover target area!

[epeeisky]

To build up strength and quickness to your motion leave the PVC cover on your epee and keep going around and around in the smallest circles you can make around a door knob. Switch up the directions every once in awhile to keep it from getting to repetitive. As noted above this will only help you with the motion. The only way to really get better at parrying is to find a good training partner and run drills as nauseam.

[stealingophelia]

Originally Posted by epeeisky

To build up strength and quickness to your motion leave the PVC cover on your epee and keep going around and around in the smallest circles you can make around a door knob. Switch up the directions every once in awhile to keep it from getting to repetitive. As noted above this will only help you with the motion. The only way to really get better at parrying is to find a good training partner and run drills as nauseam.

mhm tru dat

[Spike327]

This is in the same vein as what has already been said, but here goes:
I used to want to fence with a french grip, but the muscles around my thumb and forefinger got sore too quickly. To build them up, I did simple drills with the 250 g weight (top bit of an epee weight) taped near the tip... for a french it doesn't so do much if you post up, but if you try to do that holding near the pommel it will beast your hand.

[OROD]

Originally Posted by keropie

Perhaps, but we can't have people using the lead pipe... otherwise their weapon arm might get so big they can't walk in a straight line

Heheheh, yes indeed, mine is a cautionary tale...

[Sciurus-Rex]

My sensei made me spend long hours applying wax to old cars. "Wax on" with a clockwise circular motion with my right hand, "wax off" with --

Hold on. Wrong memory.

Nevermind.

[needle]

best - ask your more experienced club mates how they see your parry (too wide, too slow, too early, too late, too weak, etc)
2nd best - practice with "arm on the wall" or full size fencing dummy
3rd - circles around doorknobs or clockwise/counterclockwise circles in the air going from small circles to larger and back - I do that a lot when watching TV

[keith]

So drills with a partner/s;

Stand on guard (properly) have your partner place their foible on the twelve o'clock point of your guard. Take your parry sixte. If you are just using your fingers your opponents blade will not move. Their point will, as if by magic, go from being on one side of your blade to being on the other. Handy for focusing on taking sixte with the fingers not the wrist forearm shoulder etc etc

Have three people stand in a line infront of you with their points towards your target at a distance where you will collect their foible's with a parry. Collect the first blade with a parry sixte, now collect the second blade (without losing control of the first blade), and then the third blade. So you have performed three parry sixtes in slightly different lines and end up with all three blades collected. This helps to bring the hand movements required to take sixte in different lines but in order to control the taken blade the fingers still have to do most of the work.

Please leave the doors alone.

[Fechter1]

You didn't specify in which way your 6te parry sucks...
Does it seem late, ie. opponents hit you before you can apply it (solution: better distance, retreat with the parry to gain time), does it seem insufficient to deflect the opponent's blade off target (solution: practice proper line closures, you can do this with a wallmounted sword arm), do your opponents seem to slip off your parry (solution: back to the sword arm and experiment which positions allow proper application of force while retaining control over the opponent's blade), can you simply not find the blade (Solution: again, back to the sword arm to practice engaging the blade), do your opponents evade the parry (Solution: mix up your parries... If your opponents know which parry to expect, it's easily drawn and deceived), etc.

Lacking the necessary details, I can only give the above summaryand some general advice.

Something I did early on was to take an Aerobie (kind of a frisbee in ring form... bit heavier though) and twirl that at the end of my Epee (BTW, you didn't specify weapon...).
2 ways to do that:
1- Just twirl it normally. Builds up the muscles around your forearm.
2- Spin it around really fast, trying to keep the thing basically spinning in place. That should help with the speed/control.

Caveat: I did a loooot of different stuff at the time, so I'm sure that this was not the only thing that helped me develop my strong 6te at the time, but I think it did help. Plus, it's something you can do on your own. For proper application of the parry technique, howver, you need a live opponent.


Hope that helps.

[Patterson]

hmm..........doorknobs? Thanks for the feedback. Yea, i'm practicing at my club with other members, but we only meet once a week. I'll practice with the PVC pipe and do the mirror exercise. So does the doorknob thing work or not? I've gotten mixed responses. To clarify, I seem to end up with all the negatives. Sometimes i end up perfect. Alot of the time, i either lose thier blade or they get me because my point is off. Smaller circles?
O and i fence eppee.

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by Patterson

So does the doorknob thing work or not?

The only reason you will need a doorknob is when you forget to say "SAFETY".

Man, that's a fun game for a camping trip.