Coaching: Auto-audio cues with students

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

I've got a student right now, who in lessons (right now just working on extending before lunging) has taken to giving himself cues to extend and then lunge.

Example:
C: Cue for attack.
S: Makes small clicking noise with mouth to cue himself to extend, then another clicking noise with mouth to cue himself to lunge.

Interesting. The little self cues are barely audible, so I'm not concerned with the opponent picking up on them in a bout.

Good or bad?

[seven6ty]

I'd say make sure to get him to do plenty of practice on this on his own first. I'd think he should know to extend his arm before lunging before he gets to the point of taking lessons regularly. This is the kind of thing he can and should get down on his own. If it helps on his own time while he is committing it to memory, fine, but I would discourage him from reminding himself this way during a lesson.

[jBirch]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

I've got a student right now, who in lessons (right now just working on extending before lunging) has taken to giving himself cues to extend and then lunge.

Example:
C: Cue for attack.
S: Makes small clicking noise with mouth to cue himself to extend, then another clicking noise with mouth to cue himself to lunge.

Interesting. The little self cues are barely audible, so I'm not concerned with the opponent picking up on them in a bout.

Good or bad?

Both.

Your student is using a mnemonic to associate the two part action that you're asking him to perform. The click/click is how he associates the rhythm and timing of performing the lunge. Click -> arm. Click -> lunge.

In the beginning, slowing down thus is a good thing. And it is really good that he's thinking about the hand, then the foot.

As time goes on, however, you'll want him to smooth out the two discrete motions and consider a lunge to be ONE ACTION. As you make this transition, the click/click will become a handicap as he'll be limited by how fast his mouth can make the click/click and will result in a jerkiness to the action. Arm, stop, feet. Click, click. An extension should be smooth then, when it's at it's peak, the foot should be pulled forward, everything accellerating smoothly. vroooooooOOOOM! And not CLICK! CLICK!

What you might want to do is to get him to use a different mnemonic. A word that has two discrete parts but which can be said quickly and slowly. My favourite is "Grandma" with "Gramma" being the goal to associate the action to.

We use this with audio oriented students (students who learn primarily by sound) to get the rhythm of a lunge down pat. An advance lunge becomes "Great-Gramma", the phenomes naturally stretching out the advance and then blending the hand/feet together. You can also sloooooowwwwww the words down and simulate a slooooooooowwwww extension without losing the smoothness. Graaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaa.

Hope this helps.

James.

[Sabresque]

My two coaches that I have had give audio clues to their students in the rythm of the actions they want performed, though I've never heard students do it themselves. It's funny, though, that these audio clues tend to stick in all of our heads vrey well. Eeee-pa pa pa. haha.

[dramamine]

Most coaches use some audio cues, and I think it's ok for the fencers to use them as long as they're conscious of the fact they're doing it. Lots of coaches I've had say slooooow-FAST when I do a step lunge or something like that. I even had a coach who encouraged me to say it to myself during drills.

[Wise-Epeeist]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

small clicking noise ...
Good or bad?

Inconsequential.

Originally Posted by jBirch

As time goes on, however, you'll want him to smooth out the two discrete motions and consider a lunge to be ONE ACTION.

As time goes on, the behavior will likely become extinct on its own, as the fencer's efficacy increases. There's no need to proactively change it yourself.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Anybody find it odd that wise epeeist has a LOT of rep and only 30 posts?

[jeff]

Yeah, it looks like he found the Sugar Rock Candy Rep Mountain in only a few posts, Howdyadothat?