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What is a fencing competition and how it runs How to approach your first competition How to put into practice the 8 principal points of fencing in competition How to measure your performance during a competition How to learn from competition experience |
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Therefore I would suggest you make an effort to enjoy the experience as much as you can. The referees and other fencers for the most part will be encouraging and helpful. Fencing competitions are almost a family gathering. Some fencers you will only see once a year others you will see again at every event. It is a strange phenomena but if you go through the initial routine you have developed at your club. Having signed in - changed and checked your equipment you will feel far more relaxed and ready to go. you arrive at the assembly area. There will be a certain amount of confusion. In confusion there is profit! “What’s happening?” Is a good opening, if you are lucky you can attach yourself to an experienced group, from whom you can get a good idea of the format of this competition. Then just enjoy the day. If you do have a rough time at your first tournament. You can comfort yourself in the fact that not all competitions and or competitors are the same. Generally speaking the smaller the competition the easier it is on beginners. How to put into practice the 8 principal points of fencing in competition Footwork is the only sure way of obtaining the balanced mobility required of a fencer. Look at the fencers who are being successful, those who use mobility both in attack and defence. Those who move with grace, pick up these points for use when you next attend your club. Judgement of distance is as you will observe is a variable, that will not only change from fencer to fencer but also from action to action and stroke to stroke. Try to pick out among the experienced fencers how they vary these distances to their advantage. Timing as Bob Kelly said is an in-built and individual concept, if you watch a fencer it is sometimes easy to see, in others it is difficult to follow. Remember if the timing is easy to follow and, you as a beginner can pick it out, then you can be certain the opponent will also be following it. Watch and you will soon see that the fencer who has this in-built timing will stand out. Stamina is something that will develop in time. It is different form of stamina than that required by a distance runner. It involves recovery time and learning when to relax after a short burst or a series of short bursts of intense stress and activity. Control of your emotions to a certain degree is allied to stamina if you can be in control of your actions and reduce the stress by experience and good technique, you will be able to fence at your level leaving a little extra stress factor called gaining experience. Classical blade work is still the most successful of all fencing movements. Again watch the fencers you have picked out as winners or just good fencers they will all be developing a series of the simple classical blade actions. Observation if you follow all the simple suggestions above you can develop a good assessment of fencing techniques and tactics. Knowing the rules of fencing is for most beginners is a difficult task watch the bouts in your pool get to understand what the |
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referee is saying, how he controls the bout. Remember it is in your club that you experiment - not out in the cut and thrust of competition. How to measure your performance during a competition This only truly becomes possible with experience and clear thinking. If your instructor is attending the competition and can be available to watch and encourage it is a great advantage. However this is now getting rather rare. So lets look at some simple ways you can assess your performance. Firstly and most importantly do you feel you want to fence to-day? The warm up session did it go well? The warm up session is important in two ways - one it should get you loosened up, two - then it gets the co-ordination working. Your first bout? Irrespective of the standard of your opponent did you fence well. This is the most difficult aspect of a competition fencers early training. It must not be self criticism it must be an accurate assessment looking towards the positive wherever possible. There are still out there a rare breed of fencer, those who at the end of a bout will comment to an obvious beginner “That was a nice fight.” That is all they needs to say to encourage you. You may be on the bottom rung of the ladder but you can say to yourself ‘I’m a fencer!’ Later on in the day you will be learning to get an overall evaluation of you performance. However little you have understood, be positive it is surprising how quickly the negatives turn to positives with the right attitude. Remember you will be in a constant learning curve from the day you start fencing to the day you finally hang up your favourite weapon over the medal cabinet. How to use reflection time. There is a short period of time between each hit when you return to the on-guard position or to the on-guard line and prepare of the next sequence. This is a good time to - assess-reflect-store information. Remember every little helps. How to learn from competition experience There is a difference between assessing your performance and learn from experience. What you assess is by its very definition dealing with known factors. Experience in its simplest form is understanding how to use or alternatively not use certain aspects of your assessment. What works - what doesn’t work - what could work - what should work. All of these factors are a combination of your training, application, interpretation of the subject. The first difficulty is dissecting the various elements of an action, be it simple or compound. If you can break down each element of a fencing move you will need to consider the following, technique, application, timing and accuracy. If one of these elements is failing you could find it almost impossible to move on to more complicated moves or variations of timing. We have not yet dealt with, pacing yourself, step up the pressure, stay out of range, reading your opponent, close down the action, vary your tactics and or skill level. Remember all opponents are different, and can have varying degrees of technical skills, technique and experience, not to mention luck. |
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Team competitions Firstly we will look at the team match. Years ago your first competition would have been a team competition against another club or group of club teams. They were - still are an excellent introduction to competition fencing. The simple format of having a team challenging another club. These were called club matches usually fought with teams made up of 3 foil-ists 3 epee-ists 3 sabruers and a ladies team of 3. It was a rare thing for a club to turn up with a full contingent of 12 fencers. This would then involve doubling up or certain fencers fencing two weapons. One fencer doing all three weapons was not uncommon, indeed I was on more than one occasion a member of a 3 man team each fencing all three weapons. I have also been asked on many occasions to fence all three weapons. Club matches are therefore an ideal introduction to competing. You have your fellow club members with you, you are also only required to fence 3 bouts at which ever weapon you have been chosen to fence. The added advantage of team events is that you will or rather should get help and advice from other team members. Individual competitions Now they are a very different matter. Irrespective of the numbers of your club entry, you are on your own! Your club members will soon disappear into some corner of the hall or in some cases into a different hall. Your first lesson is to locate and remain within hearing distance of the assembly point where you will be called with five, six or seven other fencers to go away and find piste No 45. With the advent of Blue-Tac your quest has been made somewhat easier and if you follow the ascending numbers stuck to the wall you will find your new assembly area. Having fenced your bouts you then leave the piste and try and find the rest of your club. Years ago if you failed to get through the first round usually only 3 or 4 up to the next round, you were out and your days fencing is finished. However if you got through you continued to fence in the six man pool system until you either reached the final pool of six or at some competition the last 64 - 32 - 16. dependent on the size of the entry you enter the direct eliminations. These can sometimes cause confusion for there are two forms: Most competitions these days have one or two seeding rounds pools of 6 fencers then into the direct eliminations. Direct eliminations with repecharge are rare events now in this country probably because you end up with a pool of six fencers who then fence a final pool. How to approach your first competition With a willingness to learn, to expand your fencing experience. The format for the various types of competition above will have given you a rough idea of how they are run. Your first time out, as we call it can be very hard for the first timer. |
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Competitions Come in two forms Individual & Team |
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Fencing with the Salle JEUDI Group of Fencing Clubs Fencing every day For Fencers in Four Counties |
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I hope I have given you a little insight into the complexities of learning both the physical and mental aspects of becoming a competitive fencer. Even those who just fence socially will need to understand the very nature of fencing skills. Some of the sections above you will learn naturally, others you will have to set your mind to evaluating and practicing. Each of the sections above could have been of full chapter length. Perhaps one day they will be, but at the moment they are simple short list of the useful notes. |
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Riposte. Offensive action following the successful parry of an attack. It may be direct, indirect, compound, immediate or delayed. |
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Cut-over. (coupë) An indirect simple attack executed by passing the blade over or under the opponent's point. |
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Change of engagement. The re-engagement of the opponent's blade on the opposite side by passing under or over it. It is a preparation. |
