Course Content - Coach Training 2003 - Individual Lesson

Routine or Warm-up Lesson,
should not be routine and ideally will “sharpen” the pupil/fencer

How can we achieve this:-

  • deceive the pupil’s parries
  • parry the pupil’s hits
  • deceive and/or parry and then complete a short phrase
  • add redoubles
  • attack on the pupil’s recovery
  • redouble and/or attack and then complete a short phrase
  • delay own hit (will prompt the pupil to hold their parry or to redouble according to the phrase)
  • Also take a stroke and use it with different footwork/distance & in different parts of the phrase.

    • Lesson and Control

    (a) over control (b) lax control
    “step forward, now… “with mobility..
    step back and… etc.” let’s do it moving..”
    no timing or co-ordination is conveyed
    because the fencer is either
    (a) mechanical, inhibited and slow(b) has no knowledge of correct co-ordination.
    Answer:
    (a) in the warm-up and in general use the feet and blade to give direction and movement and not the voice
    (b) in the lesson be specific,
    e.g.
    “parry as the front foot completes the step back”,
    “make the engagement as the front foot advances”
    “retire with the rear foot as you make the riposte”

    When we give a lesson on a stroke/action use all the ‘T’s

  • Technique - for every stroke the coach should have a minimum two Teaching points and/or points to check
  • Tactic - for every stroke give one or more tactical applications
  • Timing - for every stroke have a very specific timing or a variety
  • Territory - for every stroke change the distance
  • Tic-Tac - put every stroke into a short phrase
  • Terminology - use it and make it clear

    Types of Lesson:

    1] Routine :
    As above - student must be familiar with the strokes,
    Beware also that a novice fencer may interpret some continuity hitting strokes outside their true tactical concept.

    2] New material :

  • introduce the stroke within a phrase/situation
  • isolate skills; use touch and sound - not just sight
  • put into phrase
  • put into routine lesson

    3] Skills repetition:
    Using an action repeated in different parts of the phrase or with different footwork/distance

    4] Open reaction/choice reaction:
    Similar to a routine lesson but with a limited and fixed set of routines

    5] Choice of action:
    The fencer decides the opening or closing action of an exercise.
    The fencer decides whether to use first intention or ‘open-eyes’

    6] Mimic/mirror/loop:
    The fencer is required to copy the coach’s choice of stroke when riposting or counter-riposting and/or work continuously with changes of rhythm

    7] Tactical Circle: The lesson progresses through simple-parry+riposte-compound-counter-simple

    8] Choice reaction:
    The fencers observes and responds to stimuli A+B, then A+C and finally A+B+C - the % is varied!

    9] Open-eyes attack or riposte:
    An advanced form of choice reaction: the student must be familiar with the possible stimuli.

    10] Tactical (new):
    Similar to [2] but the fencer knows the strokes and only the particular use is new.

    11] The exam lesson!
    Is an artificial device to probe knowledge and ability demonstrated through the giving of a lesson. True competence can be exhibited by applying aspects of the above lessons to the task set.

    Some keys:
    The 3 'T's TechniqueTimingTactics

    Avoid all negative instructions
    -“don’t drag the rear foot” becomes “fix the rear foot” or “drag the rear foot only when 110% committed to a first intention attack”
    -“don’t drop the hand” becomes “finish with the hand at my shoulder height”

    Remember that touch is an earlier stimulus than sight.
    (reflex reaction is 40msec, controlled reaction is 140msec)

    Be specific
    -“step-beat-lunge” becomes “step-beat just ahead of the rear foot landing-lunge”

    Exploit error
    - If the fencer uses a ‘wrong’ stroke, develop that as a contrast to the required stroke.

    Use mnemonics
    - How Powerful Can Ripostes Be with Repeated Prise de fer
    - (Hits, Parries, Compound, Beats, Renewals, Prise de fer)

    Hand/blade co-ordination
    - Two blade actions per step or if one blade action where is it done?

    How can you make the fencer perform the action faster?

    With a phrase let the pupil practise the final action, the penultimate + final action and then the whole phrase (work backwards)

    Sympathetic blade presentation

    What is timing?
    When can you hit?
    [pedants please read attack as thrust]

  • Attack the commencement of a preparation:
    (difficult in modern fencing unless it is well anticipated)
  • Attack the opponent’s feint - at the commencement or the recovery
  • Attack the opponent’s attack - on the recovery
    [control of distance and footwork]
  • Attack the opponent’s hesitation - immediately - simple or compound?

    When can you best induce a line for counter time?
    When can the ‘defender’ take control?

  • Induce the attack with feint parry
  • Induce the attack with feint stop hit
  • Induce the riposte with feint attack
  • Induce the renewal with distance.