Optimizing training with a weight vest

[clonardo]

Back when he was still in the US, I knew former 2x NCAA foil champion Non Panchan. Non did his footwork with a weight vest. The few months I spent having Non coach me saw my footwork improve dramatically. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase a weight vest until after he left the country.

So far, I've done two training sessions with the vest. That is, I've done two of my normal footwork training sessions with the added 16lbs of the vest. I don't know how to better optimize my workout than that. Is there anything specific that I should be focusing on, or anything that I should avoid doing with the vest for fear of injury?

[Beowulfman6]

I've never known anyone who used a weight vest. I think it would be a good idea to be carefull though- with that extra weight it would be realy easy to injure something if you don't practice good form and start out slowly with it.

Let us know if it works.

[clonardo]

Tight, slow, tiny footwork is a great challenge with the vest. After I do a few strips of footwork with the weight on, and then take it off, I feel so much lighter on my feet.

I'm going to be careful about direction changes and big lunges for now, since I really don't want to injure anything. I haven't yet experienced any joint pain, but I'm going to work up to doing the really intense stuff.

[Cookeit]

I was thinking of getting a weight vest myself.
About how much do they go for?

[rudd]

Originally Posted by clonardo

Tight, slow, tiny footwork is a great challenge with the vest. After I do a few strips of footwork with the weight on, and then take it off, I feel so much lighter on my feet.

I'm going to be careful about direction changes and big lunges for now, since I really don't want to injure anything. I haven't yet experienced any joint pain, but I'm going to work up to doing the really intense stuff.

I was thinking of buying one. I heard of a number of top fencers using them. Did you find that the weight effects your balance in any way? I used ankle weights with footwork for a while but then decided to stop as I was concerned about injuries. A weight best seems a safer option, less loading on the joints, less likely to affect the biomechanics etc.

[Teme]

A sceptic voice here... not that I've ever tried a vest, mind you.

But just thinking about it, footwork is about distance and timing by the means of accelaration in horizontal. Weight vest is about fighting gravity.
It certainly increases the load, but in the wrong direction -- you want to go fast forward and backward, not up.
By changing your center of gravity upwards it will do good for your 'power base', the hip and abdomen, though. That is, if you use weights light enough to allow for fast movements (without fear of injury) forcing your pelvic muscles to work with higher forces of your (heavier) torso swinging about.

[RevJonathan]

I use ankle and wrist weights to train.
I've found the ankle weights do a lot of good (especially at preventing you from rolling that ankle), but you need to be really careful with the wrist ones. First of all, you need to alternate taking them off and leaving them on, so as not to overcompensate in a real bout. Also, with the weights it can be tempting just to get on top of your opponent's blade and let gravity do its thing .

If you're smart with them, they work wonders, if you aren't they can do some SERIOUS damage.

[clonardo]

The vest I bought (a cheap one) was $50 at Sports Authority. The fancy, ergonomic ones can be as much as $250.

The purpose of a vest isn't to directly increase forward or backward motion- rather, it is to strengthen the muscles in the legs. Executing tight advances and retreats is significantly harder with the weight vest. In an advance, I feel the weight on my back calf as I propel myself forward. In a retreat, I feel it in my front quad. As Non used to tell me, in an advance, the back foot is your "gas", and the opposite is true for a retreat. Plus, doing plyometric exercises (my favorite- 12 advange-lunge, retreat, jumpback's as fast as possible) with the vest really builds you up.

I've spoken to a few people about the use of ankle weights for fencing over the years. The consensus is that it's bad for your joints, and that the vest is better because the weight is more evenly distributed over your body. Imagine kicking into a hard, deep lunge with ankle weights on, and tell me that your front knee doesn't hurt while thinking about it.

[clonardo]

And, just like RevJonathan said above in regard to ankle weights, alternating footwork with and without weights is important to avoid overcompensating. This, plus the fact that my center of gravity isn't dramatically altered by my particular weight vest, keep me from messing up my balance.

[Sabresque]

Our weight vest usage is for teaching form an explosive power from the lunge.