How to learn to compete in fencing competition

   Maître d'Armes Gary Worsfield F.A.C.

The following article has been published as a resource to the www. fencing community to help assist fencing development and the pursuit of performance excellence.  It is  from the Introduction of  En Garde! The serious fencers' training diary.  

How to learn to compete in fencing competition

The growth, development and success of the human species can be attributed to its acquisition of intelligence, the ability to think and learn.   The most central component about life itself is our ability to learn from information received through our various sensory receptors.  The body makes physically coordinated responses to mental stimulus.  This is a naturally inherent process that encompasses everything that we experience in life.  It is a process that works every time, however each stage in this process is determined by the intricacy of the skill itself.  Remember how long it took to learn to tie up your shoelaces?  Or to learn to play a musical instrument, and how many hours did you spend playing and learning with computers?  How long will it take to learn the sport of fencing?     Obviously some things take longer to learn than others.  The process however is foolproof, it works every time!      The main attributes are to learn it well the first time round, and be enthusiastically persistent.  A continuous and driving attitude that regularly directs your attention to practicing the performance skills of fencing.  Ideally the best practice is slow physical performance coupled with mental awareness of the actions.    Soon you learn to see, hear and feel in your mind.    Your body strives to reproduce these skills as closely as it can.  The more you experience this stimulation the quicker and more effective you become.

We are so fortunate to have as many sensory receptors; for sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.    We receive information through these various senses.  The sights, sounds and sensations are transmitted to the brain, which analyses this information and converts it to neuromuscular impulses.  These impulses travel from your brain to your muscles in a steady pulsing flow all the while etching a blueprint of perfect performance into your nervous system.   Perfect practice makes perfect performance.  This is why it is very important to perceive in your mind's eye perfectly correct performance.  We are what we believe we are in our mind's eye!   Vision alone is like a multiplex theatre where each screen shows a slightly different version of the same flick.   That’s because vision is a modular process.   Different brain areas tackle particular aspects of the job.   Some regions, for example, specialize in detecting moving objects such as your opponent’s blade movement, while others specialize in shapes and colours as in the opponent’s shape, size and color of their lamé covered target area.   Similarly, the task of tracking spatial locations such as the controlled movement of your weapon may also be divvied up in the brain.   An object’s location in three-dimensional space seems to be represented many times over in the cerebral cortex, with specific regions in the upper rear of our brain that concerns itself with sensory information, monitoring the location of objects relative to our head; they signal their neuronal colleagues when we need to provoke a feint at our opponent. The timing of the physical action and the speed of the action itself both stem from a mental state of positively energized relaxation.  Ironically, the ideal performance state for fencing is characterized by high level positive energy accompanied by a sense of inner calmness. 

You can actually feel neuromuscular training at work.     Physiologically with every movement of the body there is an electrical motor pattern or sequence of impulses created in our nervous system that allows the muscles to be activated in an exact progression.  If we were to physically perform and monitor these neuro-motor patterns  (electrical impulses received through modules attached to the body) we would be left with a graph of the electrical impulses specific to the performance of that particular action.   If we were to then relax and mentally rehearse that same skill, the graph would appear identical in the pattern of impulses, only lower in intensity.   Mental rehearsal parallels the actual physical performance of the skill.

First of all become sensitized to this awareness.  How aware are you of the neuromuscular sensations that occur in your body while performing life’s everyday  signal is sent it first goes from the retina to the thalamus, where it is translated into the language of the brain.   Most of the message then goes to the visual cortex (the neocortex is the seat of thought, it contains the centres that put together and comprehend what the senses perceive) there it is analyzed for meaning and appropriate response.   If that response is emotional a signal goes to the amygdala to activate the emotional centres.  But a smaller portion of the original signal goes straight from the thalamus to the amygdala in a quicker transmission, allowing a faster (though less precise) response.  Thus the amygdala can trigger an emotional response before the cortical centres have fully understood what is happening.  You must learn to train and control the emotional centres of your brain. 

We refer to the extent of efficiency of this system as neuromuscular competency.  Learning fencing is about learning neuromuscular control of a variety of sport-specific sequences, interrelated into a game played by rules relating to timing and priority of one action over another.  Neuromuscular training is better achieved by accurately and repetitively copying the skills both physically and mentally (the thought that accompanies the successful performance of the skill).  When you mentally rehearse the skills you see them, hear them and feel them in your mind. Your body strives to reproduce these skills as closely as it can.  The more you experience this mental stimulation the more effective you become.  Accelerated learning takes place when both physical performance is coupled with mental awareness.  Heightening the awareness of these senses accelerates the learning process.   By kinesthetically feeling the movement control of each of the game skills, along with the co-coordinated control of the blade in relation to the footwork, you force your body to become self-aware, using your individual biofeedback mechanism.  This ability to kinesthetically feel each position and movement co-ordination (physiologically and technically), co-operatively engages specific mental thought (psychologically and tactically) into the physical mechanics of the game. 

You learn the skill completely and in totality  (physiologically, technically, psychologically and tactically), in the right proportions and in the right sequence by learning to apply the skill, sport-specifically on the fencing piste.

We all have a built-in mechanism that allows us to naturally learn very complicated physically coordinated movements.  We were never taught some of life’s essential skills such as to walk and talk but we naturally learnt these skills well.  To access this internal mechanism you have to spend enough time thinking and practicing whatever it is you wish to learn.  Correct and accurate practice produces correct and accurate performers.  You get better at whatever you practice.  If you practice a technically incorrect action, you will get better at performing it technically incorrect. If you practice a portion of the action, you get better at performing that portion of the skill.

It is possible to accelerate the learning process; accelerated learning advocates that with the right environment, techniques and time, students can absorb enormous amounts of information.  The mind can handle a tremendous amount of information as long as all the parts fit together into some kind of coherent whole.   The whole, in our case is how the game is played, i.e. the fundamental concepts and principles of play.   The parts are the physical and mental components, the moves, sequences and strategies that allow us to play the game.    The most important characteristic of each part is its relationship to the whole.   Learning fencing develops familiarity with the many types of part-whole relationships that exist among the fencing actions.

Each fencing skill is a combination of:

• The EXPRESSION of INTENT of the action, i.e. its purpose, what you are trying to achieve  (to feint and provoke a response, to touch a particular spot, to parry at the last moment, etc.)
• The TECHNIQUE, being the most efficient way to physically perform the action's intent. (i.e. the biomechanics of the action)
• The accompanying THOUGHT and focused attention such as distance awareness and accuracy of the touch that accompanies each action.
• The TIMING of when to perform the action and the timing of the action itself.    

 Each fencing skill is a part of a tactic that fits within a sequence or strategy that is performed within the overall principles of play.   To learn fencing you must accurately practice the specifics of the game, and practice in totality each and every action, not only a portion of the skill.  Each skill is itself a whole, performed according to a mental concept.  For example, the sequence of parry riposte should be performed in totality from conception to the eventual touch.   The intent of the action, it’s physical technique, the accompanying thought and focus of attention, the expression of the move, it’s tactical application, and the timing of when to perform it all combine to create the sequence.  

 You must understand what you are trying to achieve, the purpose of the action.  This purpose must be performed in relation to the conventions of the game then repetitively rehearsed, along with the accompanying thoughts that comprise the skill.     For example the purpose of a feint is to provoke a reaction.  When the purpose is expressed well, feints become a very efficient sport-specific fencing skill.  The body learns to become aware of the biofeedback specific to each move and sequence; not only how each action physically feels, but also the thought, and specific focus of attention that accompanies the performance.    The action is learnt in totality, the complete skill.     By physically and mentally rehearsing the kinesthetic awareness of each and every move and sequence the physical demands are specifically learnt in relation to the purpose, expression, timing and tactical application of each fencing skill. 

Competitive fencing skills, attained by elite class fencers, such as a feel for timing, a feel for distance, in fact, a feel for the game itself, are fostered by learning through the use of physical and mental kinesthetic awareness.  We should learn the skills of the game in totality; the feelings, sensations, thought, focused attention as well as physical technique of each and every sport-specific skill.   In fencing, the first feelings to train should be the co-ordination of each of these sequences of moves, which are the sport-specifics of priority fencing.

1.          Movement is first initiated at the point, which is being controlled through tactile finger manipulation.  This is then, followed by

2.         The extension of the arm, which is controlled by the elbow joint. Still maintaining tactile control with finger feeling, if the touch has not occurred before full extension of the arm, then movement of the body (footwork) is coordinated, to follow with, an advance, lunge or both.

 Most of our everyday physical locomotion comprises coordinated sequences quite different than those required in fencing.  However, there are many complimentary daily movements that can relate to the learning of fencing skills.  These mechanics become the general training base for certain fine-motor coordinated sport-specific skills.  Using food utensils at a meal (fine-finger co-ordination combined with smooth control of finger-wrist-elbow-shoulder joints) to eat and drink with precise co-ordination of utensil to mouth contact.  Brushing teeth can become very efficient when well rehearsed, however it is easy to simply perform the skill quickly and without thought of purpose and as a consequence become less efficient.  Tying up your shoelaces - this requires a few years for small hands to master and then becomes a fast and efficient un-thought-of mechanism.   Try performing these everyday skills with your eyes closed.  Learn to see things though your mind’s eye.

Certain games reinforce and may become part of the learn-to-fence process.  The moves and responses of ball games such as Basketball, Racquetball, Squash and Tennis have similar feinting and bluffing tactics and hand to body co-ordination.  Dance, rhythm and movement and the controlled reflexes of computer / arcade games all compliment fencing.   

From the very start, you should form the learn-to-fence connection with general movement and specific kinesthetic awareness.   Training becomes specific awareness of each of the sport-specific skills, individually monitoring and developing these skills in preparation for competition.

 Start by learning the sport-specific skills well and in totality: the feelings, sensations, thought, focused attention and physical technique of each skill.

So, to learn fencing:

1.     Become aware, noting the physical and mental specifics of the skills.  Practice and rehearse the skills in slow motion. Mentally reinforce this awareness.  Learn to visualize the feelings of co-ordination and the focused, directed thought   that accompanies each skill.  This visualization should be reinforced with mental rehearsal controlling the application of the skill against particular opponents and specific game situations.

2.     Establish an evaluation scale (0 - 10) for the performance of skills.  Trained athletes learn to very accurately monitor themselves.  A trained athlete knows their personal weight and strength gains to within the pound (.43kg), and feels the increases in aerobic capacity and develops mental clarity of visualization.   The athlete will learn to feel and evaluate their performance.

3.     Develop a tactical awareness and specific application of the various skills.   We know that skill is subconscious thought.   If you have to think about what you are doing it’s not yet a skill.  So by forcing your attention to distance you will become more aware of the sport-specific cues and the timing of when to perform your subconscious skills.

4.     And finally be able to control your performance by establishing competition strategy planning in the competition environment.

The effectiveness of this program and in fact your fencing development lies in how you put this information together into a training lifestyle.  Every moment of every day you must be thinking fencing and practicing performing controlled fine-motor coordination skills such as when cleaning teeth, washing, showering, etc. etc. 

The sport-specifics of fencing training

Training for competition is all about being totally prepared.  Prepared physiologically, technically, psychologically and tactically.  There is however, simply not enough time in the day to separately and individually train all these components.   You must learn to assess and priorize your training if you are to design personalized training program.   Your training program is an individually specific attempt to co-ordinate, progress and monitor each and every component development as it uniformly comes together to ensure a peak performance.

The skill involved when prescribing training programs lies in knowing how and when to co-ordinate and mix each of the components, increasing and decreasing particular emphasis towards a complete and harmonious coming together, or peaking, in an attempt to ensure optimum performance.

You develop from general to specific; from gross muscular to fine neuro-muscular, and we know that maximum physiological adaptation occurs after 6- 8 weeks of training.   Assumedly this holds true also for mental skill development, at least this can be used as a guideline.  You are your best judge of when change or emphasis should occur.   Remember, a training program is attempting to ensure optimum performance for a specific time in your fencing development.   Depending on your commitment, this can take anywhere from 3 to 5 years to acquire a good competitive level of performance.   Be honest with yourself and don’t expect unrealistic results.   You get out whatever you’re prepared to put in.  So decided whether or not you are serious about your fencing and make the necessary commitment!   It takes whatever it takes.

Start by assessing your strengths and weaknesses.   You will make greater gains in the areas that you are weaker in.   Say for example you take lots of lessons and you are technically good, biomechanically sound, but when you come to bouting you get blown away.   You find it difficult to know what maneuver to apply to what opponent.  Your tactical awareness and application appears to be non-existent.   This fencer would be well advised to spend more time analyzing and monitoring tactical awareness and application in actual bouting situations.

The basis of training is to overload the system.   This overload principle can be applied to all forms of training.   The body adjusts to the training exercise.   If we overload the training with added weight, increasing duration of the activity, increasing intensity or adding inhibitors to mentally rehearsed sequences, the body will slowly but progressively improve and adjust to these increases in workload. 

Fencing is a game requiring a large amount of controlled co-ordination.  If we were to concurrently do strength training with reaction/co-ordination work, your body would be improving and changing in strength, but for your body to perfectly co-ordinate an action it must adjust to not only what it understands to be the co-ordination of that action but it must also adjust for the change in strength.   To make this double adjustment tends to confuse the mind and the pathways to the muscles and tends to decrease the ability to co-ordinate.

Never lose sight of what you are training for.   Specificity is the key principle.   You may start generally training each area but the long-term goal is to sport-specifically train, develop and prepare for competitive fencing.

The serious athlete has to make fencing their obsession.  The more you practice the quicker you’ll learn.  Every non-committed moment should be spent thinking and practicing fencing.   You develop the link between the controlled physical performance of the skill and the mental thought that accompanies the performance. Progressively you learn to develop a physical and mental awareness of each and every skill.  You learn to bio-mentally feel each and every sport-specific skill.  You learn how to feel fencing. 

Monitor every training session.   This in itself gives each session a purpose and goal to work towards.  You will find your attitude towards fencing changes to become performance skill goal-oriented.  This is an attitude consistent with elite performance.  You will first start to see improvement in the general strength and endurance areas of fencing fitness. This then transfers to the sport-specific performance skills.  You develop a confidence and self-assuredness in the performance of your skills and eventually this transfers to the competition arena.

Competition fencing is not about winning. It is about perfecting and performing the skills that are required to score each touch and thereby win the bout.  This results in winning but the thought of winning will cloud the pathway to successful performance.      As we learn we become increasingly more aware of the mental and physical sensations that accompany successful performance skills.    There is now enough evidence to link specific states of psychological feelings and sensations of athletes during competition with the quality of their performance.   Descriptions by top athletes of the feelings and sensations accompanying their best performances show a remarkable level of consistency.   There is a similar consistency with the sensations accompanying poor performance.   Feelings and emotions create energy and force.   These emotions trigger psychological energy and with the right combination of feelings produce the kind of physical arousal that contributes to high- level performance.     Arousal patterns stimulated by feelings of anger, frustration and anxiety create dramatically different performance consequences to feelings of challenge, inspiration and enjoyment.     The ideal mental climate for competition is characterized by a combination of specific feelings, which include: high intensity positive energy, enjoyment, calmness, muscle relaxation, confidence and focus.   A good, consistent competitor is capable of sustaining an ideal emotional environment throughout the entire competition.

Every athlete is an individual who develops their strengths and weaknesses at their own rate.  The most substantial results from any fencer are going to come from the areas where that fencer is the weakest.  Say for example that you are prepared physically and technically.  You take an excellent lesson yet when it comes to the actual fencing bout it falls apart.  You worry about losing, your actions become much larger, you cannot seem to pick up your opponent’s timing and before you can do anything about it, the bout is over and you can’t remember a thing except that you lost and you shouldn’t have!     This fencer is not going to improve to any great extent by diligently training and following a physiological or a technical training program.   However by spending time on psychological and tactical development this fencer will be addressing the inhibiting problems and will improve.

The mental sport-specifics start with the athlete examining and monitoring the thought process that occurs at the various stages of playing while performing the game.   This is where the physiological and technical starts to become psychologically and tactically controlled.  You need to develop the link from mental thought to perfectly timed and performed physical performance.    The skills themselves should be learnt with the correct mental and physical co-ordination required of each skill.       First you start by viewing your daily tasks without sight.  Try cleaning your teeth with your eyes closed.  Make yourself mentally view the task in your mind’s eye.  This is the process that continues through to learning the sport-specifics of the game.   A process of learning to physically perform in harmony with your thoughts.   It is the way you learn that reinforces what you want to learn.    You learn better by being kinesthetically aware of the progressive stages of the skills that you are addressing.    You learn the skills more completely, developing a feel for the skill itself.   Performing the actions in slow motion appears to reinforce the timing of the skill.  From slow motion co-ordination comes fast, efficient and fluid speed. 

When prioritizing the sport-specific training components of competition fencing, the extent of general conditioning on the sport-specifics of the game remains questionable, however the physical control and timing of these actions are undoubtedly enhanced through mental training.   It should be considered that separate time spent on general conditioning of the sport-specific energy supply systems could be better utilized actually playing the sport-specifics of the game.

The prioritized training components of competition fencing

1.           SPORT SPECIFICS

*     Biomechanics of technically good footwork.

Goal     To develop a kinesthetic awareness - a feel of movement, balance, coordination, continuity of joints, summation of joint forces, etc.

Training method       15-20 minutes of footwork as part of warm-up to every fencing session.  Monitor. 

*     Biomechanics of the actual moves and sequences.   

Training method      Individual lessons.  Transfer and apply this knowledge from lesson to bouting by monitoring.

Goal       To develop a kinesthetic awareness and the psychological thought of each move and sequence.   Example; parry riposte, feint deceive attacks (compound attacks), simple attacks, preparations of attack, etc.

*     Control of reflexes.

Goal        Control reflexes, i.e. responses to sport-specific stimuli.   For example, not reacting to the feint and parrying the attack at the last moment,

Training method       Individual lessons coupled with training exercises such as:

• Distance Fencing,

• Distance Fencing incorporating the Line and how it affects priority.

• Defending the rear line, or Back against the wall.

2.         MENTAL TRAINING        

Reinforce the kinesthetic sensations through mental-rehearsal practice.

The moves and sequences

Reinforce the correct reflexes through mental-rehearsal practice.

The conventions of priority.

Reinforce the tactical application during mentally rehearsed practice.

Reinforce your competition strategy during mentally rehearsed practice.

3.         GENERAL PHYSICAL CONDITIONING

*     Aerobic endurance as a base.  Continuous activity increasing duration to sport-specific interval training.    

*     Flexibility training.     General to specific-specific exercises. Stretching should be done not only as part of a warm-up but also during monitoring AFTER EVERY fencing session.

*     Strength training.      Weight training.

Specificity is the key to training success

Build from general conditioning to sport-specific training, preparing ultimately for the sport-specifics of the fencing competition environment.

Australian Academy of Fencing wishes all fencers who follow this training, all-the-best in your pursuit of performance excellence!

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