Experience with Absolute Proflex Vest?

[tbryan]

Not sure whether this thread belongs here or in the armory.

As an assistant coach, I only give a few private lessons per week. I used to give lessons in just my normal fencing gear, but I've recently been borrowing some coaching gear from another coach. I was looking at buying my own, and I was wondering whether anyone out there uses the Absolute Proflex Vest.

It seems like a nice alternative to one of the expensive leather vests, but I've never seen it or tried it. Does anyone have experience with this item?

Thanks.

[Cookeit]

My Coach has this, seems pretty nice.

Definitely better than the huge, metal-garbage-can-shaped ones.

[oso97]

My assistant coach uses one when she's teaching. Sabre I might add, if that helps. She likes it, and its lightweight enough for her to move around in, and gives plenty of protection from hard hitting beginners.

[tbryan]

Originally Posted by oso97

My assistant coach uses one when she's teaching. Sabre I might add, if that helps. She likes it, and its lightweight enough for her to move around in, and gives plenty of protection from hard hitting beginners.

Yes, thanks. I imagine that it would work fine for sabre. I'm looking at for epee and foil. I don't touch that whacky weapon if I can help it.

Since the vest appears to have strips that fan open when worn (see the photo), I was particularly wondering how it worked with point attacks. I'm actually worried less about the occaisonal hard hit between the pads than I am about how it feels to the student hitting the vest. On a point attack, it seems like the weapon might slide off of the pad and into the groove. It just looks like it might be awkward to hit as a student, and I want students to be as comfortable as possible during lessons.

[Adler]

Originally Posted by tbryan

On a point attack, it seems like the weapon might slide off of the pad and into the groove. It just looks like it might be awkward to hit as a student, and I want students to be as comfortable as possible during lessons.

I would suggest that if the point slides off it's down to either bad fencing technique or bad coaching technique not the coaching plastron.

[tbryan]

Originally Posted by Adler

I would suggest that if the point slides off it's down to either bad fencing technique or bad coaching technique not the coaching plastron.

I think you misunderstood. Did you look at the picture?

I'm not talking about sliding off of the coach's chest.

The Proflex vest has narrow, padded vertical strips. The front surface does not appear to be smooth. It looks like there are gaps between the padded strips. I haven't actually played with this item in person, so I was wondering whether anyone else here had tried it.

Maybe the proflex vest is fine in practice, but I'm just trying to imagine what it would be like to attack a surface that is not smooth (like a normal coach's plastron) but is instead "bumpy" (like the Proflex vest appears to be). I imagine that if the student hits right in the middle of a padded strip, they'll be fine. But it also looks like it's possible to catch the edge of a padded strip. In that case, their tip might initially catch on the edge of the padded strip but then slip or jump down into the groove between pads.

Anyway, it sounds like very few people here use this item, so I might just have to buy it and give it a try.

[Adler]

I had a similar plastron and never had any trouble with pupils fixing the point except in case of bad technique.
Similarly I have seen coaches with smooth well padded jackets who struggled to get their pupils point to fix.

If your unsure about the proflex and want an alternative I can recommend the Allstar and PBT equivalents.

[forethought]

Originally Posted by tbryan

Since the vest appears to have strips that fan open when worn (see the photo), I was particularly wondering how it worked with point attacks. I'm actually worried less about the occaisonal hard hit between the pads than I am about how it feels to the student hitting the vest. On a point attack, it seems like the weapon might slide off of the pad and into the groove. It just looks like it might be awkward to hit as a student, and I want students to be as comfortable as possible during lessons.

I recently got one of these vests, and the grooves are not big enough for a point to actually go into: they may catch a groove if the student's attack starts to graze, but the point is not going to get wedged in between the strips.

Wearing this vest with a plastron would be plenty protection for giving a lesson (for foil, at least); I recommend it, IMHO it's worth the ~$60.

[DangerMouse]

I use one as my primary coaching vest (primarily epee). It works fine although it doesn't provide as much padding as the big leather vests. After 2 years, it still looks good and I haven't had any issues with the plastic breaking, which I thought might be a problem. Overall, great bang for the buck.

[DesertFencer]

The Proflex was recommended to me at CC last year.

I've used it for foil and epee, and I like it. There are a few times that a point will slide off when it probably would have hit a regular jacket, but as posted previously this will encourage the student to hit properly.

The surface over the plastic armor is sueded and somewhat soft. All it needs when you take it out of the box is to tie a piece of cord to the zipper so you can get in and out of it with out a squier.