Integrating footwork with conditioing

[rudd]

When running footwork session in your clubs do you concentrate on tactical/technical footwork or on conditioning footwork? Do you mix the two in a single session? If so do you have a preference for one before the other?

Do you include other forms of conditioning as well i.e. sprints, calisthenic circuits, bench jumps? Are these done after regular footwork or do you intersperse it will footwork and carry out some footwork drills when the fencers are "exhausted".

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

[darius]

At RFC, we used to do "anaerobic footwork" patterns twice weekly. The idea was to do these as fast as possible - obviously, you can't let the technique go to hell, but quality of execution matters less than power output. If you hit the end of the strip, turn around.

- ( 10 sec. Advances, 20 sec. Rest ) x 5
- ( 10 sec. Retreats, 20 sec. Rest ) x 5
- ( 20 sec. Advance/Retreat between the en-garde lines, 40 sec rest ) x 5
- ( 1 min. Advance-Lunge, Recover Back, Retreat-Lunge, Recover Fwd, 1 min rest ) x 3

The whole sequence was done twice through, with a 2 minute break in between.

Experiment with the pattern, but as you can see, the more intense exercises are shorter; the longer patterns are less taxing because they use the same muscles less frequently.

It's one heck of a physical/mental exercise, trying to keep your technique together through fatigue. Done regularly (and take deloading weeks!!!), it's quite effective, and gives teenage foilists a set part of practice to whine about.

darius

[Mr Epee]

Darius,

Nice exercise set, but I have a comment/clarification.

When you say "rest" are you implying a dead stop rest, or is the "rest" a continued movement at a slower pace (or even a slow shuffle back/forth )?

[darius]

We don't structure it too much; generally folks will want to shake stuff out, move around a bit, bounce out kinks, stretch out anything that feels tight. I like spending the longer rest periods flopped down on the floor, letting my heart rate drop.

Remember, recovery is aerobic.

darius

[rudd]

Thanks for the idea Darius. I remember doing something similar to this at a training camp in Poland. For the rest period people did a slow advance/retreat but leading with their their opposite foot.

[thekoby]

What I've been doing with my club members is a little bit of cardiovascular warm-up by doing jumping jacks or various exercises taught to me by my old coach, then I have them all line against the wall and follow verbal commands at a slow, medium, then fast pace. Then I give them a list of steps to follow (i.e. advance, retreat, double advance, lunge, recover forward), letting them first do it at their own pace, then increasing speed, then finishing each round of instruction sets with a race, allowing the fastest or most technical to sit out during the next set of instructions. I have found that this works wonders for both conditioning and reviewing footwork as well as making it fun (in some aspects) for my students....but I'm sure I come off as a bit of a footwork Hitler when I start barking commands at a ludicrus speed ;-)