05-11-2006, 09:47 PM
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#21 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Venice Beach, CA
Posts: 1,308
| I think you're confusing things here. I was never talking about "attacking with your arm so high". Of course when you attack you should keep your hand about level with your shoulder and not much, if any, higher. I was talking about raising your hand on the completion of a lunge, not at the outset of an attack. | 
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05-12-2006, 01:15 AM
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#22 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Anchorage Alaska
Posts: 1,580
| I have no problem with that. Your post I quoted and higlighted led me to believe you advocated lunging with the hand above the shoulder-a classic French lunge. I was just wondering if anybody had a better justification for that than I had heard in the past. Knave comes very close! 
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John Matus
Anchorage Fencing Club
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05-12-2006, 08:58 AM
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#23 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Nantes, France
Posts: 703
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Schiavona I have no problem with that. Your post I quoted and higlighted led me to believe you advocated lunging with the hand above the shoulder-a classic French lunge. I was just wondering if anybody had a better justification for that than I had heard in the past. Knave comes very close! | I don't think anybody's mentioned it yet, but it is much harder to gain leverage on a blade held in angulation, mechanically speaking. Should foil really be moving in the direction of épée (I'm not a foil fencer), expect to see more prises du fer with the hand held high (angulation en sixte). The other comments about maintaining the point on an even plane by keeping the hand high are also true. For a while I learned from a Russian maître d'armes who insisted on direct, flat extensions in all situations. My point is oh-so-much better since beginning to work with a French MdA. Although, this sort of extension is less doctrinaire than you suggest in the French school of épée. Remises after an initial attack are very often delivered without angulation.
Oh, to respond to Monsieur le Compte's original question ("My arm is about to fall off! Any suggestions on relaxing it?"): Consider stopping the activity that is about to cause your arm to fall off. 
Last edited by Durando; 05-12-2006 at 10:05 AM.
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05-12-2006, 12:03 PM
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#24 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bay Area
Posts: 4,658
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Durando Oh, to respond to Monsieur le Compte's original question ("My arm is about to fall off! Any suggestions on relaxing it?"): Consider stopping the activity that is about to cause your arm to fall off. | "Doctor, it hurts when I do this!"
"Then don't do that!"
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05-12-2006, 12:19 PM
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#25 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: North Carolina
Posts: 1,322
| Duct tape should do the trick | 
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05-12-2006, 02:58 PM
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#26 | | Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Blythewood, SC
Posts: 74
| Are you one of those fencers that takes the handle in a deathgrip (esp. if you are using a pistol grip)? I used to do this and it will really wear your whole arm out, not to mention the loss of control from manipulating the weapon with you wrist instead of your fingertips.
Also, maybe your grip is too long, your fingertips should just touch the pad when you are holding it normally, try cutting it down a bit.
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05-12-2006, 06:45 PM
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#27 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: durham
Posts: 140
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Schiavona I have no problem with that. Your post I quoted and higlighted led me to believe you advocated lunging with the hand above the shoulder-a classic French lunge. I was just wondering if anybody had a better justification for that than I had heard in the past. Knave comes very close! | To elaborate on my reasoning, prior to the timing change in foil my extension tended to be straight from my shoulder through my fingers to my target. When the timing changed, I found the was less sure when it comes to foil hit for several reason:
1. If there is a chest plate involved (and more and more often there is), a straight to target extension seems in my experience more likely to bounce a little and skid off of the chest--WITHOUT registering a touch.
2. As with flicks, straight shots seem more reliable if the tip is hitting nearly perpendicular to the lame. Thus, keeping the arm a bit up and out allows you the aim with the fingers and produce a more perpendicular hit.
3. It seems, though I've no real reasoning to back it up--just my experience--that the hits can be a bit more "soft" with the arm held up and a little out (basically at shoulder level in the lunge), with the fingers aiming the tip in. The "softer" hit seems to be more reliable and less likely to debounce than a perfectly straight shot to the lame. Maybe it takes off a bit of the lunge's force because of an extra small flex point at the fingers. I don't know.
Like I said. No real answers here. Just some stuff my coach and I have been working on that seems to yeild higher percentage registered touches.
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05-12-2006, 07:57 PM
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#28 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Nantes, France
Posts: 703
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Originally Posted by RITFencing "Doctor, it hurts when I do this!"
"Then don't do that!" | First heard that one from a fencing coach... | |
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05-13-2006, 09:33 PM
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#29 | | Just Joined
Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Washington DC area
Posts: 28
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Originally Posted by Monsieur le Comte Holding my arm out for so long during a practice session is killing me. I went from 8 years of karate (and boxing) where during drills we'd often hold our arms out rigidly. My instructor keeps telling me to relax my arm but I can't seem to get over this habit.
Has anybody else had this trouble when starting out? Maybe it's a problem with my grip?
If anybody has any ideas or exercises I can do to try and improve my ability to hold my arm out it'd be greatly appreciated. |
Just quit whining and relax your hand. Then put in the work. Nothing more nothing less.
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Last edited by Happy Feat; 05-16-2006 at 08:34 AM.
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05-14-2006, 10:41 PM
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#30 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: New Zealand
Posts: 185
| Have you had a massage for your arm and shoulder? That might work.
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