Fencing Practice

Greetings,

Practice, it is something that we all need to become better fencers and also in order to maintain the level of skill that we have attained. This blog will be addressing the idea of practice and what people do at practice in order to discuss how our attitude toward practice and what we do affects our fencing.

The first thing that we must ask is what are our practice/training sessions designed for. This is where we must start in order to see the mindset which is behind the thoughts of going to practice in the first place. If we are to truly utilise a training session properly it is important to understand that we are not merely there for honing our current skills but also learning and experimentation. These two should always be the primary achievement goals for a fencing practice.

The learning process for the true student of the blade will never stop as there is always something out there to learn. If we stop learning this will lead to stagnation in our knowledge base, and also stagnation in the process of becoming a better fencer. When a fencer starts the volume of information seems to be inexhaustible and seems like that the fencer knows nothing and there is a great deal to learn. As the fencer progresses this volume of information seems to shrink gradually until it seems like there is less and less to learn, but is this really true? While at this stage the essential skills have been learnt and a collection of advanced techniques have also been learnt, where does the fencer go from here? The answer to this is experimentation, the other part of practice.

While it is vital that we hone the skills that we already possess in order that we can become technically proficient in them and are able to call upon them, the process of learning does not stop here. It is at this point in time that we need to go out and seek new skills to learn in order to enhance our repertoire. Of course once these new skills have been learnt, we need a time in order to see how they work, the perfect time for this is at practice. Experimentation is the key to expanding your knowledge and repertoire. It is important that we are willing to experiment with new skills in order to progress in the learning process. The best place for this, of course, is at practice. Where a new skill is put up against an opponent and works, something is learnt, that the skill was performed correctly and effectively in that situation against that opponent. Where the attempt fails something is also learnt, that maybe it was not the correct time, or distance, or the opponent had a counter for it. In both cases something is learnt. The only way this sort of information is gained is if the fencer is willing to experiment with the new skills, without this experimentation, the fencer will stagnate, so we must experiment and be willing to fail in the experiment.

Next it is important to examine the question of how we learn fencing. In essence there are two paths that a person may take in order to learn more fencing once the basics have been learnt. The first is through experimentation through bouting, and the second is through learning a set of skills one after the other. The first one has the great appeal of being out on the field with an opponent having a great time matching skills against them. The second does not have this as it involves a level of instruction, drills and set pieces that must be followed, which seems to be substantially less satisfying, especially to the newer fencer. The question here is which one really has the advantage in the long run.

Learning through bouting with different opponent has the advantage of putting the skills in the situation where they will end up in the long run anyway. This tends to mean that the skills will be in a situation of working to solve a particular problem. This method allows for a great deal of experimentation as long as the fencer can keep to the goal of experimentation and learning. Sadly, in most situations this is not the case and the result of the bout actually becomes more important than the learning process. It also means that the skills that are learnt in this sort of environment are not based on principles but on what worked at the time, this can lead to sloppy technique, and often does. Learning through bouting is actually a slower and harder process while it seems faster as the body has to learn things on the fly. This is because the skill is learnt at speed where the fencer really does not know exactly why they have done what they have done, and in a lot of instances does not know exactly what they have done. This leaves out avenues for discovering why the technique actually worked and how it worked against the opponent. This coupled with the fact that the only reason that it worked may have been due to the sloppy technique of the opponent, does not lead to a solid base for learning.

Learning through learning a specific technique can seem tedious and boring to some as it seems that there is no practical application immediately to the skill being learnt. The skill is discussed, described and then demonstrated. Only then are the students involved at which point in time they have to follow the instruction and perform the action slowly at first and then speed up to do it properly, all the time being corrected by the instructor. This process sounds slow and painful, but in actual fact the student will actually learn faster due to the amount of detail presented. The reasons why the skill works will be explained along with how to use it properly and when it should be used. All this information will be present before the student even takes the field. This learning process allows for refinement of the technique based on the information given. This method followed by practicing and experimentation based on the technique is a more effective learning process as all the knowledge is present before the action is performed at speed. Learning set skills and then bouting focusing on those skills is more likely to lead to experimentation as the focus is on the skills rather than the result of the bout.

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The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.