Fencing Wiki

[Bonehead]

Okay, So I've been collecting essays and writing about fencing, and one of the things that I'm trying to put together is a binder that has a sort of an encyclopedia of fencing.

That's when I realized that a wiki would be the best format for this. So I'm about to start one up, when I realize that fencing.net has one already. However it's completely barren, and not really complete (various skins don't work, css seems off somehow etc.).

Should I start editing articles on this one? or should I start a new one?

[noodle]

thats your call.

i put up http://wiki.14meters.com kind of for this purpose, but it never got used. or, there are several wiki hosting sites out there that would fit your purpose if you don't want to use the fencing.net one or mine.

[Bonehead]

What I mean to ask is will the fencing.net one be supported if I start putting information into it.

I would prefer to do it through a site that already has a strong user base (and I already have an account at), but I'd hate to put a bunch of information into it and have it taken down, or never get properly fixed.

Also, I'd like to be able to put technical advice into it, but I realize there are a lot of different opinions on it.

For example, I would advocate an en guard in 6, but some people wouldn't (not many I would imagine, but some). But I have nothing other than opinion of myself (and I suppose others) to advocate this.

I think it would be good to have a place to see all of the prevailing styles and techniques written down.

Also, the less controversial one would be a place to collect drills and conditional bout ideas.

[epeeslasher]

Also, the less controversial one would be a place to collect drills and conditional bout ideas.

Don't think you can write about something as technical as fencing and not have someone come down on you about slight details. Your best bet is to be brave, write down what you think is good info and put it up. No matter what you say I can almost guarantee someone will come down on you because it doesn't match what they know.

[Craig]

Revising the wiki support and development is one of our back-burner to become a front-burner projects.

Feel free to PM me and we can figure out how to support your efforts best.

Craig

[Bonehead]

Hey Craig, as long as it's growing not dying. Sweet. I'll start dumping all my stuff in there then.

[Bonehead]

I've begun entering some drills into the wiki.

I think that organizing drills by weapon is not a good idea since most drills are applicable cross weapons. I think it would be better to have just a list of drills as articles and have a note in each drill to say which weapon that it's applicable too; then create separate articles for each weapon that point to the drill articles applicable to the weapon.

This format would probably be beneficial of fencing actions as well.

In the meantime I've created a general drills section and have added a few drills. They need more writing to fleche them out, but you can get the idea. Anyone else wanna play?

http://www.fencing.net/wiki/Training

[dramamine]

I will try and contribute some drills to this thread that you can edit/copy as you see fit. I'll try to add a few here and there - I have a ton in the old memory banks lol. I run drills once a week on the night that our coaches aren't around to give lessons.

Here are a couple of drills I like. The first one is handled like a bout (goes to a score). I think most drills should be competitive beyond a beginner level because otherwise it's difficult to make them realistic.

1. Fencers A and B are just outside step distance (distance will vary with skill level - if Fencer A is much stronger then the distance will be bigger and vice versa).

Neither fencer can move initially. Fencer A is allowed to search for Fencer B's blade in counter 6. Fencer B is allowed to disengage, that's it. If fencer A is able to find B's blade, then fencer A is permitted to attack with a single lunge (no steps). Fencer B can retreat and avoid the attack with distance.

When people are a little more comfortable: If fencer A mistakenly begins moving forward before finding the blade (this happens often with some fencers who assume they'll find the blade and want to start the lunge early) and fencer B is able to avoid the search for the blade, fencer B is allowed to impale fencer A.

Another addition if you're getting the hang of things: Fencer B can attack/riposte with a lunge if he has successfully avoided fencer A's attack with distance.

2. One fencer (say A) is leading. Fencers are at step lunge distance. A has a clear pattern of footwork (usually just one step forward, one step back). A can change the speed or length of time between steps but not the pattern. Fencer B simply has to try and time a direct attack so that it begins as fencer A steps forward and hits before his front foot touches the ground.

One of our national team members (you can probably guess who ) loves this setup for conditional bouts:

Get a deck of cards. Remove 9 and below in all suits. Each fencer draws five cards, doesn't show his/her opponent. Fencer must score five hits based on what is on the cards. Before the game starts, assign actions to each card*. Once you do a particular action that is in your "hand" you have to show your opponent that card and remove it from your hand. Hits only count if they are "in your hand".

*: attack, counter attack, remise, wildcard I think are what we usually use. sometimes there is a differentiation between attacks - simple, compound etc or distinctions between riposte and counter riposte. getting too restrictive with definitions - i.e calling counter-time and riposte different things - tends to make things pointlessly difficult, especially for beginners.

This is a pretty cool one because you can get down to 1 card each where both fencers have to work very hard to set up their particular actions (1 has riposte 1 has counter attack, or both have ripostes or something). You don't know what your opponent has but you might be able to guess, unless they are just really good at hiding their intentions.

Another couple of drills:

A and B stand at en-garde lines with a judge. Once judge says allez each fencer MUST begin moving forward and try to hit with an attack. Goal is to either convince the judge you were attacking first or block out a line and make your opponent not land. Fence a bout to 5.

Same setup, one of the fencers has the option of doing counter-time, one doesn't.

Same setup, both have the option of doing counter-time or counter-ripostes.

More conditions:

1. Bout to 5, only direct lunges to 4 and 4-riposte are allowed.
2. Bout to 5, fencers begin with their bell guards and front feet touching each other.
3. Bout to 5/15, any time one fencer hits the other twice in a row with the same action, they tell the other fencer (you can take this out once they get more experienced) what the action was. If they do it a 3rd time in a row the bout is over.
4. Timed bouts at one end of the strip.
5. Bouts fenced entirely between the en garde lines (people will probably realize tall fencers are really really good at this - good learning experience for beginners )

[Bonehead]

Ok, so I found someone made a fecing wiki out of wikia. I've started editing some foil drills into it.

It would be awesome if other people did some editing.

It's a wiki so everyone's opinion counts, but here's me thinking. I'd like to see a separate article for each technique (parry 4 etc.), as well as a separate article for different Drills (which I've already started), and differnent conditional bouts, possibly history, weight training drills for fencing etc.

Also the thing is empty right now, so I think it would be better if people weren't afraid of just filling up the articles and not worrying about "being wrong" or writing style. I say step one is to get as much in there as possible and then start worrying about grammar, details etc.

Who's in?

The drills I've added
http://fencing.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Foil_Drills