Is it the equipment or just an adjustment to style thats needed?

[roxiered]

My young fencer (fencing about 6 months) uses a french grip. At practice yesterday, she injured her thumb by jamming it the into the handguard. I know it is the most common grip used by novices but is it time to switch to a pistol grip or just remedy the problem? And how? Should she adjust her grip by placing her thumb further away from the handguard?

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

How old is the kid?

[keropie]

There is never a need, per se, to switch to or from french or pistol. There are perhaps some advantages to one or the other, particularly for club weapons (not as many size issues with fench), but if you hold one correctly, you can hold the other correctly as well.

Generally speaking, I've seen the most common cause of thumb bashing to be guard on guard collisions, and so the best remedy is to stop that. It requires a little more awareness of where you and your opponent's guard are, and can be difficult in bouts of a more competitive nature, especially with a newish opponent. But the 'correct' grip for any weapon has the thumb close to the guard (note correct and not legal, I understand you are allowed to post). If you switch to pistol and change nothing about her grip (which I can't see and therefore can't judge) or her technique, you won't necessarily change anything about her thumb issues. I know plenty of people who bash up their thumb using a pistol grip.

HTH

[Beowulfman6]

Get a realy thick felt or foam pad; you can even double up the thumb pads if you want.

Otherwise I agree with Keropie.

[KD5MDK]

The pad must be less than 2cm thick, however.

[penguin_2000]

Getting the thumb smashed isn't caused by the handle, necessarily. AND if her distance isn't that great and she gets in a similar situation with a pistol grip, she could end up really hurting her wrist on hard contact, since the pistol grip locks the hand in a position. I've seen some younger fencers come together too quickly, get in a bind, and end up with some hurt wrists.

[roxiered]

According to her - she was told to place her thumb up against the guard. Can she place her thumb back an inch from the handguard or this not allowed or recommended? ( At the time she was fencing someone 6 years older. As you can imagine the fencing became intense as it was kicked up a notch. )

Thanks for tips and info!

[Purple Fencer]

On a French grip she should be fine to pull back a little...it's just like posting, but not so far back.

The "thumb must be within 2cm of the guard" rule is specific to pistol grips and references fixing the fingers in one position on the grip.

[Go? Fencing?]

Getting the thumb smashed isn't caused by the handle, necessarily. AND if her distance isn't that great and she gets in a similar situation with a pistol grip, she could end up really hurting her wrist on hard contact, since the pistol grip locks the hand in a position. I've seen some younger fencers come together too quickly, get in a bind, and end up with some hurt wrists.

Ugh! I know that from painful experience! Oh, the horrors of both my French grip foils dying on me. It was terrible. For me, it wasn't because of my distance, but because it was the first time I had ever fenced with a pistol grip, and I was actually fencing with it instead of practicing. My wrist got hurt so badly that I couldn't fence at all the next day, which was the last day of a week of fencing camp. That was the most pain I'd felt since the excruciating pain of an arm injury that I am still in the process of recovering from, nearly three years later (two years before the pistol grip wrist injury).

[keropie]

According to her - she was told to place her thumb up against the guard.

You certainly don't need to, but a 'correct' grip won't be far behind the guard, especially if she is using a full size (size 5) blade. She should probably be using something smaller, however (2 or 0 blade).

[remise]

My son broke his wrist shortly after switching to a pistol grip. He and his opponent collided and he sustained a severe compression injury. After his bones healed, he learned to adjust his distance better.

[roxiered]

Thanks to all of you for the sound advice. We will try the pads in the handguard. Several of you mentioned her distance which really makes sense to me. All these tips will really help me when I speak with her. She is intelliegent and will be able to process this info based on the facts presented. Our first inclination was to switch to a pistol grip but now I see that is probably not the solution.

Go? Fencing? and Remise(your son) I can relate to the pain of your injury. I hope you have all recovered.