TALL WE beginner

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


My club has recently gotten a lot of female (of all ages) beginners - they outnumber our beginner guys 3-1 now. One of them is 14 years old, 185 cm (6´2´´) tall, and quite possibly there is more growth in her. Our beginners have been started off in foil, and yesterday she got her first try at epee, at her 5th (or so) training since she started. She started off a little bit "Bambi on ice", but soon fenced as well as one can expect from a beginner, or maybe a little bit better than that.

Given her build, epee is the obvious choice, especially since she has not so far expressed any particular wish for a RoW weapon. In beginner comps, she will be eating other WE beginners with that reach. Here comes my question: What should the coach stress in the beginning so that she does not develop sloppy habits which work against other beginners, but will cause problems later on - while at the same time keeping it fun? There are quite few WE fencers in Sweden that tall, even if one includes the seniors.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Don't rely on the counter attack, and dont let the footwork get sloppy. I was a fairly tall beginner, and I quickly started using the counter attack exclusively. It worked for a while, but when I got up to a higher level, I was eaten alive. I think good footwork and training habits are important also. If you can get someone in the habit of doing half an hour of footwork a day, they will quickly rise above.

[jessicasimpson]

DFP is correct, just make sure you focus on smooth footwork with relaxed shoulders and get her to control the epee with her fingers.

[Schiavona]

Point control. A lot of point control. Then it shouldn't matter if she attacks or counterattacks.

[keith]

All that's above. Perhaps also work on getting speed and distance in the actions as well - lots of step lunges to the wrist. Oh and a fleche, with that height it should be lethal if well executed. Get some good height based aggression going.

The only other thought is that you might want to think about excercises to counter 'gangly teenager syndrome'. Think about suggesting balance board excercise, juggling or the catch game (where someone stands behing you and bounces a tennis ball of the wall and you have to catch it). All of these are great for body awareness and co-ordination and are much more fun than suggesting that they head to the gym and cross train .

[Frater_Frag]

My suggestion is to let her stick to traditional foil for now, that way she won´t be over-confident about her long reach. Once she managed to handle close encounters and parries and stuff, try to make her practise with the tallest epee fencers at your club. In short, keep her on a short rein!

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

What I said earlier was good advice, but its vastly inferior to the advice I'm about to give.

Get your female athlete on a good strength training program for the lower body and core, to prevent an ACL injury. The Q angle of most female athletes predisposes them to acl injuries that require lengthy recoveries, with a particular emphasis on strengthening the hip adductors. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

You can read more about it here

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0150.htm

Coordinate with a physical therapist and liscensed personal trainer for maximal benefit.

Too many promising athletic careers are spoilt by injuries.

[achilleus]

I hate this question...

There is no easy answer, other than the coach should focus on teaching her how to fence, and beyond that, it depends...

First and foremost, the coach should focus on teaching her, or any beginner, how to fence. In other words, defeating beginners shouldn't be on any one's mind, but teaching her to fence well should be the goal.

Second, the most important thing to realize is that every beginner is different, and how to handle beginners is as important as what to teach them. Some are competitive people and know this immediately, some are competitive people, but don't really know it or how to express it. Others aren't competitive, but can be, and some just enjoy the physical/mental exercise win or lose.

With children, it's as important to realize what their goals are (or can be) as it is to realize their physical potential in our wonderful sport.

I knew this one tall thin kid, natural epee fencer...
Earned his A in less than two years before his 16th birthday, and promptly quit. He was pushed hard by his coach, his parents, and other fencers at the club...

Despite his physical gifts, competition wasn't what he wanted, with or without direction. He enjoyed hanging with his friends, and spending all his time training wasn't for him. So he quit. For good.

Then again, I've seen kids, without the physical gifts, but focused on competitive success, work hard and develop into physical powerhouses who can dominate their weapon...