Fencing and the Master, by Laszlo Szabo
Product Details
Szabo's book lays out the tools and techniques of coaching, but more than that, it opens up the heart and spirit of a maestro. Copiously illustrated. Supplemented with a discussion of fencing terminology and with a new memoir of Szabo by his student Eugene Hamori, Olympic medalist, US sabre champion, and distinguished coach.
Product Ratings
- Overall Rating
- 100%
If you buy 1 fencing book, this is the one to buy. The absolute best fencing book available. This is true for competitive fencers, but even more so for anyone with an interest in coaching. This book has it all as far as drills, types of lessons, how to structure group learning, and pretty much anything else you might need to know.
Review Ratings
- Overall Rating
-
This is the best out of 26 fencing books that I own. By far, this is a "must" read for any fencing coach or competitive fencer. Tricks, drills, perspective ... all of it is there. The prose construction could be improved, but it wouldn't push the concepts any further. A video-book truly would only be the only way to improve this book.
Review Ratings
- Overall Rating
-
Information for advanced fencers and coaches. Sometime in the next 30 years, there will be a comprehensive, insightful fencing book of such quality that it will change fencing forever. Perhaps the author is, even today, learning their ABCs in school. Maybe they've already completed the first draft.
Until such a time, there is Laszlo Szabo's book. Simply put, this is the most highly respected and highly referenced coaching manual that the fencing world has ever seen. Esteemed coaches all over the world love it; it's known as the Bible of fencing. Every coach that reads it has stolen ideas from it.
The writing style is technical and no-nonsense, and gets right into the nitty gritty of fencing pedagogy. This is not the new style of how-to writing, where every paragraph has its own subheader, and there are call-outs with helpful tips (to wit, the "{Stuff} for Dummies" series). This is old-school writing, paragraph after paragraph of text that wasn't structured with a word processing program's "outline" feature. You get a chapter heading, and sometimes (if you're lucky), a subheading.
Because of its dusty, dry prose, the book languished on my bookshelf for ~15 years while I fenced recreationally and competitively. When I started teaching, I thumbed through it... and paused. I started reading. I needed to ask someone, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing!?" So I lent the book to a co-instructor for review... and since I never got it back (they loved it too much), I had to buy another copy. That dusty, dry prose is simply Szabo's way of controlling his enthusiasm. Every page is actually pulsating with energy and ideas.
Fencing and the Master could be improved in the following ways. Updated to encompass electric fencing (Szabo wasn't pre-electric, but electric is outside the purview of this book (I think it's time to change this sort of thing)). Restructured to work better as a reference manual. New, hip tranlsation.
Someday in the future, there will be a new fencing book that does all this, and have nice illustrations. Until then there's Fencing and the Master. This book is like... Dracula... in many ways. Looks old, smells bad, lasts forever. Add a little blood, and it starts jumping all over the place doing interesting things.
Until such a time, there is Laszlo Szabo's book. Simply put, this is the most highly respected and highly referenced coaching manual that the fencing world has ever seen. Esteemed coaches all over the world love it; it's known as the Bible of fencing. Every coach that reads it has stolen ideas from it.
The writing style is technical and no-nonsense, and gets right into the nitty gritty of fencing pedagogy. This is not the new style of how-to writing, where every paragraph has its own subheader, and there are call-outs with helpful tips (to wit, the "{Stuff} for Dummies" series). This is old-school writing, paragraph after paragraph of text that wasn't structured with a word processing program's "outline" feature. You get a chapter heading, and sometimes (if you're lucky), a subheading.
Because of its dusty, dry prose, the book languished on my bookshelf for ~15 years while I fenced recreationally and competitively. When I started teaching, I thumbed through it... and paused. I started reading. I needed to ask someone, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing!?" So I lent the book to a co-instructor for review... and since I never got it back (they loved it too much), I had to buy another copy. That dusty, dry prose is simply Szabo's way of controlling his enthusiasm. Every page is actually pulsating with energy and ideas.
Fencing and the Master could be improved in the following ways. Updated to encompass electric fencing (Szabo wasn't pre-electric, but electric is outside the purview of this book (I think it's time to change this sort of thing)). Restructured to work better as a reference manual. New, hip tranlsation.
Someday in the future, there will be a new fencing book that does all this, and have nice illustrations. Until then there's Fencing and the Master. This book is like... Dracula... in many ways. Looks old, smells bad, lasts forever. Add a little blood, and it starts jumping all over the place doing interesting things.
Review Ratings
- Overall Rating
-