Very short piste as a training aid - pros and cons?

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


Craig and Gav: Could you please move this to Coache´s corner, if appropriate. I would really appreciate a sticky in Fencing Discussion where criteria for thread placement were listed.


I recently made two relative newbies fence on a 4 m long piste, their guard lines coinciding with the end lines. Enough runoff space behind.

This forces action, which can be a good thing if you have two naturally apprehensive female epeeists to work with (in my experience, male newbies are much less prone to this characteristic, Not sure why. ) I have thought about using it on a more regular basis, both because it conserves floor space, but also for the reason that it forces issues.

What are your opinions? Any pros that you see, other than what I just listed? Any cons that I should be aware of? Do you do it with your students? Is this more suited to any specific weapon/gender/age/experience combination(s)?


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[annacattiva]

I've definitely done drills where touches had to be scored between the on guard lines, but I think that especially for new fencers, drills like that have to be combined with drills that require them to score touches on long attacks, or that require them some other way to use the length of the strip.

Of course, sabre often has the opposite problem; once you've convinced a pair of new-ish fencers to move forward, the only thing they'll do is simultaneous actions over and over and over... So they need to be reminded that the rest of the strip exists and that they should take advantage of it.

Anna

[Durando]

Hi!
I recently made two relative newbies fence on a 4 m long piste, their guard lines coinciding with the end lines. Enough runoff space behind.

This forces action, which can be a good thing if you have two naturally apprehensive female epeeists to work with (in my experience, male newbies are much less prone to this characteristic, Not sure why. ) I have thought about using it on a more regular basis, both because it conserves floor space, but also for the reason that it forces issues.

What are your opinions? Any pros that you see, other than what I just listed? Any cons that I should be aware of? Do you do it with your students? Is this more suited to any specific weapon/gender/age/experience combination(s)?

Peter Gustafsson

This is an excellent exercise which has taught me quite alot. It is part of our regular rotation (insofar as anything is "regular") of tactical situations. When you set it up, however, you need to remind your fencers of the goals, the likely touches that will be made in that situation. Quiz them before to get them thinking about what's going to happen. Control for any really bad ideas. Quiz them again afterwards, controlling for any completely imagined versions of what just went on.

I think this is a good exercise for allowing épéeists to learn a parry riposte, especially if they haven't come up learning foil.