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Schools may well become the major player in
introducing fencing to the masses, but the clubs will remain the
breeding grounds for the serious competitors. This Learn-to-Fence
program of awards has been specifically designed for fencing club
Coaches.
Class instruction should be used for teaching
fencing en-mass but for quality instruction nothing equals the
individual lesson. The club Coach must be proficient in both forms of
instruction.
For the fencing club Coach this is the most
up-to-date, learn-to-fence introduction available. As the student's
progress through 3 levels of fencing skill proficiency (bronze, silver
and gold), the Coach learns to teach the program through both class
instruction (bronze level), and through a series of individual lessons
(bronze, silver and gold levels). At the end of the entire
learn-to-fence course of instruction, the student has acquired a
competent level of competition fencing performance and the Coach has
given over 30 individual lessons to that one student. This pedagogy
works, it has successfully been taught to thousands of fencers both in
Canada and Australia, many of whom have progressed on to attained
Provincial-State, National and International levels of competition
fencing proficiency.
When teaching a physical activity, you
attempt to create ways of making the student aware of the kinesthetics
(feelings and sensations), along with the psychology (control of the
thought process) that accompany the performance of the activity. The
sport-specific psychology becomes a natural development of maintaining
these sensations and thought, against the numerous and varying
inhibitors to successful performance.
Student's learn totally, through an awareness
of each and every sport-specific action. This must be a total
awareness, and not just a partial awareness, of say, the mechanics
and/or the technique of the skill. The coach's goal is to teach the
physical biomechanics and the sport-specific thought that
accompanies the successful performance of each skill. Pedagogically,
this awareness should be continually, positively reinforced. The key to
making this program effective comes from the fun ways that the skills
can be reinforced in games, drills, bouting and competition formats.
Where possible, the initial introduction
should be taught through class instruction. This instruction is based
on the Whole-Part-Whole learning, coupled with
neuro-linguistic-programming. Students learn the principles of play by
developing an awareness of the kinesthetic feel and the mental-thought
that accompanies the performance of the fundamental sport-specific
fencing skills. The Whole-Part-Whole concept means
that you firstly look at the Whole (playing the game - the
fundamental principle of Distance Fencing) and then you examine a
Part of the game (the individual skills experienced through
neuro-linguistic-programming) and finally, return to the Whole
and apply the newly learnt part into the game (bouting and competition
formats). Each class follows this Whole-Part-Whole structure.
Successful competitive fencing cannot be
taught entirely through class instruction. It is essential to create
competitive sport-specific situations and examine the associated
feelings and thought that accompanies this higher level of performance.
This can only be achieved through one-on-one interaction of the
individual lesson.
In clubs it is often the case that students
are still not confident enough after an 8-10 week learn-to-fence course
to leave the security of the class environment. They need an
intermediate class, to bridge the gap, of receiving instruction entirely
through a series of individual lessons. In this situation
when an intermediate class is used to teach the silver syllabus, one of
the objectives is to introduce the students to the individual lesson.
This is achieved by progressively introducing the various stages of an
individual lesson over a series of mini (5 min) lessons. The gold level
of fencing proficiency can only be achieved through a series of
(minimum) fifteen (15) individual lessons.
The sport-specific pedagogical stepping stones:
The basics must be first established before
competitive training can be incorporated, these are the fundamental
skills (distance and priority awareness) needed to start performing the
activity. These pre-requisite skills are first established, and then
used in practicing the fundamental principles of play (simple attacks,
parry & riposte and feint deception attacks) by experiencing fencing
through a modified version of the game (distance fencing). Students
start to learn to monitor their awareness of the sport-specific skills
that comprise the fundamental principles of play.
The pedagogy of whole-part-whole
allows the student to better relate the new instruction part, to the
complete game. The initial whole is a simplified version of
fencing (Distance fencing) which involves the pre-requisite skills of
footwork (en-garde and lunge positions, advance and retreat) and
distance. This becomes a warm-up exercise for the serious fencers'
training. The parts are the instructional components of the
game: Simple attacks, Parries and ripostes, Compound attacks i.e. Feint
deception attacks, Preparations of attack, Lines and Derobements,
Counter-time, etc. The final whole are all the varieties of
formats used in fencing competition (pools with bouts of 5 touches and
direct-elimination with bouts of 15 touches).
The pre-requisite fencing skills includes:
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The stance (en-garde)
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Footwork (advance/retreat)
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Attack (lunge)
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and an understanding of distance and
priority, as well as a practical knowledge of the performance
procedure (en-garde, ready, fence, halt, handshake and elementary
officiating which also reinforces the understanding of priority),
distance fencing, basic defence (parry and riposte) and the concept
of fake (feint) deceive (the response) and attack (compound
attacks).
The Coach should start by teaching form,
i.e. the technique of the actions. That is, how to lunge, parry
quarte, feint, etc.
The actions should be taught along with:
a.
An understanding of the conventions
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a parry, to be successful, should
momentarily deflect the attack,
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a feint, to be successful, should create
a response (most often defensive i.e.. parry/s), etc.
b.
An awareness of the feelings and sensations
that accompany correct performance.
When teaching these actions attempt to make
the student feel how they are performed. Some examples might
be:
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the feel of the point pulling the fingers
and arm forward at the start of the lunge.
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the feel of continuous, smooth flowing
progression of point, hand, arm and foot in the performance of the
lunge.
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the feel of the balance of the body
remaining the same from the en-garde position to the conclusion of
the lunge.
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the awareness of focusing on a specific
spot on the target, and the accuracy of touching that exact spot
when lunging.
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the feel of stability and balance at the
conclusion of the lunge. Feeling the back foot flat and firm on the
ground.
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the feel of the touch (not a
punch, poke, wallop, smash or jab) at the conclusion of the lunge.
c. An
awareness of focus & direction-of-thought, that accompany successful
performance such as:
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during attacks the focus-of-attention
should be on a particular spot on the target, and when the response
occurs (an attempt to parry, no response at all, or an offensive
response (stop-hit/counter-attack) the direction-of-thought must be
maintained on the target and not allowed to transfer (it will often
transfer to the opponent's blade).
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during parry/ripostes, the focus is again
on a particular spot on the opponent's target. Maintaining
distance and at the last possible moment, the attack is parried.
The timing of when to parry is associated with the opponent's body
and not their blade.
The awareness must be on the target and your
touch/riposte. If either, the focus or the thought is distracted to the
opponent's blade then you have lost control.
Fencing must be one of the most demanding
sports for control,
not only of reflexes and movement, but also of focus of attention and
thought. The athlete needs to understand that competition becomes the
ultimate test of self-control.
Once these actions have been taught and a
fairly decent understanding of the conventions of the game have been
laid, the lesson format should change to:
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Expressing the moves - a feint is not
simply an extension of the arm but an
expressed provocation,
and
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Reinforcing these competitive skills
against all the possibilities that can be expected from the
opponent. i.e. When a student does a feint of an attack, he/she
should be quite comfortable with all the possible responses that
might occur, such as an attempt to parry (all types of parries), a
stop-hit/counter-attack, or nothing at all. This is reinforcing
focus and thought control.
When teaching attacks emphasize
timing
(when to attack) and
distance
awareness. A simple attack is an attack
which attempts to score before the opponent can parry while a compound
attack incorporates a feint which provokes and deceives a parry/s in an
attempt to score. The student must be aware of the target area as it
moves. If the student is told to concentrate completely on the target,
to that exact spot that they intend to touch, then this forces
central-vision to focus on that spot and their direction-of-thought
(external narrow) to concentrate on the task at hand, which is to touch
that particular spot to score a point. With this form of concentration
(central-focused, external-narrow) this then allows peripheral-vision to
be utilized with the deception of the blade, which of course, is the
better type of vision suited for fast movement.
Once a student has mastered the techniques,
completely understands the conventions, is able to express their intent
and can competitively cope with the various sport-specific reactions and
responses of an opponent, the role of the individual lesson must change
to specific examples of tactics, where the student and coach work
co-operatively, setting up situations (opponents) and looking at
possible solutions. At this stage, the fencer is honing in on specific
tactics (setting up and preparing tactics) tuning-in to the correct
movement patterns (timing and distance) and reinforcing positive,
focused thought.
The student will eventually learn more in
bouting than in the lesson, so emphasize to the student the need to
practice these skills while bouting. Start by giving as many
individual lessons as possible. One lesson a week will give a slow, but
progressive development. Increase the number of lessons per week and
you'll increase the speed of development. Successful and competent
fencing proficiency can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to accomplish
but once achieved will provide an elite level of satisfaction.
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INSTRUCTION decreases proportionally as BOUTING increases.
Learning from the lesson becomes application in the bout
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As the fencer progresses in standard, less
formal lessons are required but the actual sport-specific bouting should
increase proportionally.
The lesson then becomes the reinforcement of
the feelings accompanying correct technique and the expression of
actions, while maintaining control over focus and direction-of-attention
by the fencer, throughout the entire lesson as the Coach attempts to
stress, distract and inhibit this control with a variety of the possible
responses that can occur during competition situations.
Open-Eye instruction becomes the athlete's
competition and bouting warm-up. By time the competition comes around
the student should not only know the moves, but be training open-eye
reactions and responses, controlling neuro-muscular performance and
fine-tuning psychological, technical, and tactical aspects of the
sport-specific actions.
The levels of proficiency should be taught in
relation to the open-eye individual lesson:
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Bronze |
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Introduces the open-eye concept and the responses to actions. |
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Silver |
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Starts to introduce open-eye actions and responses to bouting
situations. |
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Gold |
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Almost entirely open-eye. |
The Bronze is taught using whole-part-whole
and project, learning principles with neuro-linguistic programming to
examine the physiological, technical, psychological and tactical
sport-specific components of the sport. The teaching goals are to
create a sound foundation for future sport-specific development and to
prepare the student for competition bouting.
Many Government Education Department's
policies on sport education recommend schools and local community
sports-clubs develop pathways to allow students to further develop their
sporting interests. Fencing clubs should consider providing a
trained and accredited Coach to run an after-school fencing class/club
at local primary and/or secondary schools. This school-to-club link is
essential for successful sport growth and development. You can be
assured, this strategy will eventually become the club's main source of
membership and after a number of years, will develop a reasonable level
of competition success.
The Silver level of the Learn-to-Fence course
introduces the athlete to the individual lesson and ensures individual
instruction. At the conclusion of this level the student will have a
firm grasp of the fundamental principles and sport-specific basics of
fencing along with an understanding and application of tactics. Schools
can continue into this level, however the class should be run as an
after-school fencing club that provides group footwork, instruction,
bouting and games as well as mini (5 min) individual foil lessons. The
silver level is the transition from class instruction and group training
to individual lessons and training in pairs. The
FENCING
THEORY booklet can be inexpensively photocopied and distributed
during the silver level. The booklet must be photocopied in totality,
however there is nothing stopping you from including additional pages at
the front and rear of the booklet to publicize your club.
The Gold level concludes the Learn-to-Fence
program. At the conclusion of a further series of 15 individual
lessons the student will be proficient in the sport-specific skills and
will have a firm understanding and application of a variety of
additional ways in which to score touches (preparations of attack, sur
la marche attacks, counter-offensive actions, renewed actions, lines and
derobements and counter-time). At this level the student has the option
to continue with foil or to try the other weapons (epee and sabre). If
the student so desires they can be introduced to all 3 weapons over the
15 individual lessons - i.e. 5 lessons on each weapon. The syllabus can
be covered over the 3 weapons, i.e.. Renewed and opposition actions are
easily taught in epee, and lines, derobements and counter-time are well
suited to sabre.
Certificates of accomplishment are available
at each level:
Bronze certificate (introduction),
Silver certificate (established fundamental fencing-skills) are
available only in Foil, while Gold certificates can be issued in all
weapons:
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BRONZE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
WEAPON FOIL
Introduction to the general fencing concepts
Can be either
CLASS INSTRUCTION but preferably a series of Individual Lessons |
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SILVER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
WEAPON FOIL
Reinforces foil concepts and establishes a sound foundation for
future development
A SERIES OF
INDIVIDUAL LESSONS |
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GOLD ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
WEAPONS: FOIL EPEE SABRE
Additional/advanced foil concepts or introduction to epee and
sabre concepts
A SERIES OF INDIVIDUAL LESSONS |
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