using tech to help auto training

[achilles_heal]

thanks for suggestions about group lessons. i have taken them to heart and made more realistic plans, incorporating much of what was said.

our club is a small one, and i can only be there 3x a week maximum, two is the norm, and when there are a lot of tournaments, sometimes once. but all my fencers are new and need lots of training help and motivation.

so i had this idea to use a couple old dusty laptops and create a) a footwork trainer and b) a dummy trainer.

my idea is to get my cousin to program the things, using visual and audio cues that provide instruction. for example, double advance, lunge, jump lunge, double retreat, etc, the kind of thing that one does in a footwork class. if i want to get slick, i could link it to a web or mini dv cam that records during active phases (2-3 minutes on, one minute rest) so that i could review it either remotely or later when i am there. the dummy trainer would be similar, mounted above the dummy and showing the appropriate target and sequence, sort of like a fencing SIMON game.

i don't think this actually exists, but if anyone has ever seen anything like this before, i wold LOVE to see some code. as my cousin is pretty busy programming quants for bear stearns and could take months to write code she could really do in about one day.

the kids have the discipline (and the schedule flexibility) to come a lot more often than they are currently able, but need direction. and supervision. if i can create a reasonably fun game-type program that gets them doing footwork and hitting targets, they will benefit greatly.

i suspect that there are lots of technical and creative people on this site. if any would like to be involved in this project, i would welcome it, and if this things works i will make it shareware.

[RITFencing]

What you might want to think of doing is simply creating a set of exercises for the kids to go through. 2 strips of parry 5, cut to mask, 2 strips of stop cuts, whatever. I don't know sabre well enough to say what sort of exercises you could have them do. Just have it up on a wall "things to do while your coach isn't around to help you or you are warming up." Maybe even "things to do before every lesson." Kids around here seem to hate drills, but they generally need the work.

Just a thought.

[achilles_heal]

this list exists already. they do have to do footwork and target work (15 mins each) before lessons, but again, that is only when i am there. one prob with list is they either take too long reading it, or forget it. i also cant watch everything they are doing. and often, they do train mistakes and need to be corrected. that's why i thought a web cam or digicam would be a good idea. they do like to see themselves on tape, it does help them see what they are doing wrong in a way words can not.

several have asked me for routines etc so that they can train on their own. which i give. but since i have extra laptops and cameras, but not extra time, i thought of this. it has the advantage of being semi-random and thus always different.

is this necessary? no. might it make the drudgery of practice slightly more fun and thus more effective for kids who sometimes have the attention span of a hummingbird ? maybe.

[RPI Epeeist]

I've just finished prototyping my design for a training tool for individual fencers to use that's fun, good exercise and it calls for reactions to the random. I'm being vague right now, but give me a week to square everything away and I'll start posting videos and/or photos of it. (and definitely a better description lol) but you can find the thread I created asking for input on what people would want in an electronic training tool.

This thing isn't oriented to footwork but it requires response to visual stimuli to provoke attacks on random targets. (You'll see )