Foil still a standard?

[Jason]

Hmmm...how about a drill that engages the reactive time of the student to a visual signal to lunge. Something more creative than simply holding your hand up to cue the lunge?

I would generally avoid using holding up your hand as a cue, since it is not a cue you need to train your students to react to. There are certainly exercises that must use artificial cues in order to achieve their set goals, but wherever possible they should be avoided.

Adler made some good suggestions above (which are, in fact, classic ZC examples).

If the students are fairly competent executing explosive lunge, you can even make a contest out of who can correctly lunge first on the coach's step forward. You can also add the option of the coach lunging, against which the fencers must jump back and then execute explosive lunge (creating two different contexts for executing explosive lunge in the exercise).

Here's an example of a good exercise with necessarily artificial cues (which, if I remember correctly, comes from Szabo). It is appropriate for students who can competently execute explosive lunges:

In pairs, one student holds a glove up fairly high against a (preferably padded) wall. When he drops it, his partner (weapon in hand) must lunge, pinning the glove to the wall before it hits the floor. This exercise employs a visual cue but, along with reaction time, it develops arm-leg coordination and tip control (if you extend late in the lunge or your tip placement is bad, the glove will fall).

These exercises are more fun and are better training than the common verbal command variety of footwork exercises.

[Spursfan]

While it is difficult to organize exciting and wildly entertaining footwork and drills to retain beginning fencers, I find it is helpful to simply teach in an amusing manner. I crack jokes all the time while teaching and it certainly seems to have positive results in both keeping fencers around and keeping them happy. Sometimes merely being charismatic can have a huge influence on making fencing fun for new people.

[Adler]

I crack jokes all the time while teaching and it certainly seems to have positive results in both keeping fencers around and keeping them happy. Sometimes merely being charismatic can have a huge influence on making fencing fun for new people.

The coach's attitude to training certainly has a massive effect on the enjoyment of the pupils. If the coach thinks footwork is boring so will the pupils but if they enjoy their work the fencers are more likely to enjoy training.

[Inquartata]

Yes...and if your goal is to get very good at drilling, why then, Bob's your uncle.

Personally I prefer to enjoy fencing!