Bad Habits

[Phoenix]

Have any of you picked up any bad habits since you started fencing?
Post them

[Phoenix]

I got this really bad habit of "slamming" the tip of my sabre on the floor if I do a bad/stupid move. I got it from another fencer who has this problem about always winning. I tend to "pick up" things. Good or bad.

[Duelist]

Shoulder to stiff when extending.

[Peach]

Leaning over when I lunge. Retreating with my back knee locked. Hitting with the flat. Having my back foot up on the toe too much. Forgetting to raise my front toe when I lunge. Bending my front knee in. Sticking my rear end out. Using my shoulder too much. Standing up with the parry. Swaying backwards instead of stepping backwards when I want someone to miss me. Dropping my hand on the "fence"command. Keeping my guard too high. Not taking the parry when I think I've successfully made the stop-cut to the hand. Getting too complicated. Not doing second-intention actions. Rushing. Lacking intensity.

In other words, what bad habit I have depends on what week it is and which one I've just fixed.

[Talyn]

Standing up when i hit... not good when I don't

[Hurriranger]

well i haven't picked up any habits on the piste but when im bored, i automatically practice my lunges. eg : standing at the bus stop. gets alot of funny looks lol

[danp]

Originally posted by Peach
In other words, what bad habit I have depends on what week it is and which one I've just fixed.

Wow did THIS resonate... It seems like I'm constantly fixing the bad habit of the week. Without lessons and watching myself on tape they creep back insidiously.

There are lots of little things that get stamped out and creep back in over time, but the big offenders are:

-Not maintaining Intensity and being 'present'
-Not changing up my game and using the same moves (no tactical wheel)
-Big steps on my attacks and legs before arm.
- Body forward on the lunge
- Slapping the target instead of a good solid push.

It's a constant tweaking and fiddling..
-D

[CarlKnoch]

Not finishing the lunge fully extended. I seem to only get part way there, and then I stop and try to recover too early.

[MyraTrue]

everything! Seriously, it seems like I've got more bad habits than anything else. I lunge too far... I sometimes accidentally do the splits. I don't extend behind my guard, I am predictable, I can't bind well... so on, so on, so on.

[GGK]

I have several but the biggest is that I need to relax my shoulder/arm/fingers.

[damianip]

The biggest problems recently are leaning forward, tight shoulder (partially caused by the first problem) and impatience in counter time and defensive actions.

Paolo

[labouche]

tipping my back foot over when I lunge and leaning over...gotta break those.
-Elijah

[DanInMI]

Originally posted by CarlKnoch
Not finishing the lunge fully extended. I seem to only get part way there, and then I stop and try to recover too early.

Me too. It seems that it used to feel a lot more natural than it does at 40.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Pulling my extensions back before I attack, not leading with the point.

[deadly lefty]

not parrying

[pkt]

Originally posted by Phoenix
I got this really bad habit of "slamming" the tip of my sabre on the floor if I do a bad/stupid move. I got it from another fencer who has this problem about always winning. I tend to "pick up" things. Good or bad.

One of our junior sabreurs HAD that habit too that is till this one day he hit his blade so hard it snap at the guard...
I kept telling him if he'd done that at a tourney, it'f at least be a card for "unsportsmanlike" behaviour, at worse at black card. Nooooo, he won't listen to me till that day and his father starred daggers at him for breaking the blade thus!!!

PK

[pkt]

Originally posted by Peach

01. Leaning over when I lunge.
02. Retreating with my back knee locked.
03. Hitting with the flat.
04. Having my back foot up on the toe too much.
05. Forgetting to raise my front toe when I lunge.
06. Bending my front knee in.
07. Sticking my rear end out.
08. Using my shoulder too much.
09. Standing up with the parry.
10. Swaying backwards instead of stepping backwards when I want someone to miss me.
11. Dropping my hand on the "fence" command.
12. Keeping my guard too high.
13. Not taking the parry when I think I've successfully made the stop-cut to the hand.
14. Getting too complicated.
15. Not doing second-intention actions.
16. Rushing.
17. Lacking intensity.

In other words, what bad habit I have depends on what week it is and which one I've just fixed.

None of these are major problems.
Peach, I'm not picking on you, but jsut some suggestions so others may try some of these solutions. I'm by no means perfect, alas, I know only too well.

01, 03, 04, 07. Look at how the WC finalists fence that'all they do: body at 45-degree... hitting with "placate" which, as if you don't already, DO NOT exist any longer so, there's nothing wrong with that.
02. How can you move doing that? Have you seen yourself in a video?
05. Try the "penny under the ball of the front foot exercise" it'll cure that if you do it often enough.
06. I s'pose you mean you're over-lunging?
08. learn to relax while executing the actions.
09. do the "attack retreat - parry - ripsote with lunge/flunge" exercise. See the next point.
10-14, 17. That's lack of concentration.
Sit lower and when your opp't moves fwd. you move fwd. etc. Again, look at what the WC sabreurs do immediately after "allez". They lower their stance. Their sword hand's almost at knee level and their on-guard position after "allez" is 90-degrees between thigh-calf and calf-piste. Any low-level cuts will hit the knee first...your opp't can only do high level attacks. If you're seated low, you have the low-centre-of-gravity stability that allows you to do a lot more things SUCCESSFULLY that comes from good control of distance. I believe, from personal experience, that sitting lower gives one a better perspective; and when you can see better, your mind's clearer. Then you don't need to be reminded of the KISS principle.
15 & 16. comes when you know your opp't. Take the 1st few hits to explore.

I hope these help and I hope you don't feel I'm picking on you.

I'll list my bad habits next.

PK

[pkt]

01. Doing the same thing over and over again. But now I've understood what that is I use it against my opp'ts, esp. clubmates who count on that "PKT's habitual riposte to 3rd..." and riposte to chest or otehr places.
02. During flung, cut head. I've been trying to do a feint head - cut cheek [rather than flank or chest] like Pozdniakov did in the 2003 team final.
03. Not extending during an attack quickly enough. I've used this in last wkend's tourney to do 3 counter-times on my nemesis... He still got me on the 4th try
04. Trying too hard. I have been most thankful to some one who could have been my son who pointed that out to me last year.
[Q: You mean you've been fencing all these years and no one told you that? A: Yup, no one did. No my Maitre. But then I've never have a "coach".] I'm beginning to overcome that. Think: cool it, open-eyes, set it up...
05. Oh yeah, hitting WAY TOO hard. That's part of trying too hard and getting too anxious. I guess it's the wrong associating speed with hard hitting. Have to hit that mask and strngthen those fingers...
06. Too many time trying to "cut through the blade". If the opp't or the ref know what they're doing this won't work. So then I switch to feint-cut.
06. Pulling the arm back during feints. Darn it, relax!!!
07. Too picky... esp. when refing. [Yellow card for no knee socks!!!]
08. Thinking that i know too much... which leads to arguing with the ref esp those who are less qualified than I am... MAGNANIMOSITY, have to remember that. [But then I AM right, more often than he is...]
I think that's enough for the moment...

PK

Geez, this sounds and feels like a Communist self-criticism session...

PK

[sabreklutz]

[quote]Originally posted by Phoenix
[b]I got this really bad habit of "slamming" the tip of my sabre on the floor if I do a bad/stupid move. I got it from another fencer who has this problem about always winning.

Guess it's a sabre thing. Glad I'm not the only one.

[Phoenix]

maybe but I also think I need to work on my footwork.