Finally Fixing Foils

Our fencing club is primarily a foil club. We often experience weapons failures if the body-cord or the floor-cord doesn't fail first.

The most common failure by far is in the tip. One touch is fine but a minute later a white light comes on when parrying before I have a chance to riposte. This is not completely diagnostic or limited to a tip problem but it often can be. After checking the connection between the body-cord and the weapon, mostly wiggling or un-plugging and plugging back in, I then check the bolts that hold the body-cord to see if they are loose. Then I check the length of wire that runs behind the pad to see if is crushed, and then inspect the length of the blade for "inch-worms." If there is nothing obvious then it is probably time to take off the tip and clean out the corrosion as Hawaii is a great place for things to rust quickly.

But if we weren't primarily a foil club we could do sabre where the most complex pieces of equipment carried around are the lame, which is only complex due to delicate strands of wire, and the body-cord. The sabre itself is either broken or the plug is bad if everything else checks out. I read somewhere of a procedure that would be able to isolate the malfunctioning piece of equipment, I forget where and how, but then after that the malfunctioning piece must be fixed and sometimes it is a struggle to know what to fix.

As I learn more I will share, hopefully our fixed weapons will work!

Tired Fencing is Erratic

Yesterday I was fencing with our club and by the end of the night I was noticing just how large and grotesque my parries were. I was mentally tired but not particularly physically tired but it effected my game quite a bit. But it is exciting enough to stay awake.

Need to really write more.

Long Time

Just busy, take a look at the new post about legs, please feel free to comment!

Bryan

Legs and Locomotion

Feet are important, but they don't go anywhere without the legs, so let's talk drumsticks. People I have observed are often not aware where their feet are, and they don't know where their legs are. No matter how strong your legs are, they are among the most often hurt. So, as feet are important, so are legs. Knowing about your legs could save you trouble down the strip.

Your feet move along the strip, your legs move your feet, your legs carry your body on top of your feet. Often when an action happens in the legs and feet the body telegraphs it for the whole world to see, or at least the opponent. One of the forms is bobbing: both knees straighten to some extant. The feet may also be a bit closer than they were, helping the fencer to stand up. From this position the fencer needs to drop down again to effectively take advantage of an en-guarde position. When repeated quickly down the strip it seems as if the person is galloping down the strip.

Rocking is also a major problem. This is caused by one or the other of the knees straightening, causing a shift in weight. This is particularly disastrous because it can bring the target area much closer to the tip of the opponent's blade. It can also bring the front knee too far over the foot, causing strain over the long term.

Bouncing, it may feel as though you are ready, but I have a story from another martial art, Tae Kwon Do. One of my friends told me about a tournament where he faced an opponent who was bouncing in readiness, he circled once, got the rythm down and caught his opponent just at the top of the bounce. Even though it wasn't a big movement the feet needed to be on the ground to initiate an effective reaction. Along with setting up a predictable pattern it is tiring and can lead to long term damage, or short term strain.

In warm-up getting the blood flowing in the legs is a good thing, and bouncing might be an ideal warm-up. However, out on the strip it shows an over-eagerness and an easy way to tire and defeat the bouncer. The feet should be lightly on the strip but leave excessive, repetitive bouncing out of it.

An exercise: The escalator, some old comedian or another used a waist high curtain and made it look like there was an escalator behind it. The smoothness of his descent was quite a treat and feat. Do something similar, and see how low you can go with smooth steps, no "elevator."

The importance of knees is to bend, right, but knees need to bend correctly. Most knee injuries come from lunges. A competitor lunges at an opponent and has to keep going to get the point. The front knee is bent well beyond the foot. This in itself is okay, only if you don't need to retreat, but slowly come out of it and celebrate a good touch or wonder how the opponent got that riposte. However, it is more likely that you will try to spring back to avoid the riposte. The pressure on the knee to come out of this very low lunge can damage it and possibly bring your bout to a close. The rule is to not let your knee go less than 90 degrees with the foot or the leg. That way the sudden reversal will not put quite so much pressure on the knee, but spread it to the foot as well. Make sure to practice lunges slowly to get the feel of a good lunge, make it muscle memory.

The hips are just as important as the knees. In combination with the knees the hips provide the other side of the shock absorbers. You should feel as though you are sitting on a somewhat high stool, but definitely sitting. This allows for the movement of the knees to be compensated for by the hips. This compensation deadens most of the movement of the legs, making smooth steps seem even smoother. There should be no galloping or rocking with the knees and the hips working in concert.

Strong legs are good for fencing. That statement is obvious, being able to move in fencing is the best defense and offense. I have seen people win bouts without moving more than their wrist, but they were 90 years old and had very good form, also they couldn't keep up if they were to try to move. Anybody below 70 who doesn't have an injury or chronic pain should move. So what do you need to do to get those legs into tip-top condition?

- Squats, calf-raises, standing leg lifts, side-lifts toes forward, one-legged, with weights.
-Sit-ups and reverse sit-ups or supermans, are actually important to the strength of the legs. These exercise the core of the body which sits directly on top of the legs and there are muscles that run between.

Knowing what your body is doing is important for all physical motion, most people just go about their daily lives without thinking about it. In fencing this is another idea which needs to be ingrained so that it can be done without thinking. You may try using any of the bad things as lures for those who might react to them, however, it can get your feet bound up in a knot if you are not careful. The legs are the movers and shock-absorbers built into one. Learn, strengthen, take care of and you will move opponents to the brink of collapse.

Fixed Website

It took a bit of doing, but now it should be fixed hawaiifencing.org should now work as is, no special ways of going about it. The official http://www.hawaiifencing.org was given to me all of a sudden by Google, who changed something so that my previous work around just broke it. So I had to mess around with all sorts of technical things and it now works. Now to go find all those places I put the old address. I also added a thing to leave comments and whatnot on the Contact Us page of the site. I would like to put the funny looking letters but I don't know how to embed anything into google forms. Oh well.

I am working on the next post, it should be out before Christmas. Have a wonderful season, and Merry Christmas, now if there was only a bit of fencing somewhere during that time...

Hawaii Open "Postponed"

I've been looking forward to something larger than a club tournament for the past year. Of course that means that the big tournament over on Oahu is pushed back until 2010 rather than February 2009. Flights might have been as low as 90 dollars round trip from our island. But the mainlanders can't come because they scheduled a tournament on a close weekend and tickets are expensive, so Hawaii cancels. Argh!

In good news I was contacted by a fencer up Kohala ways and I got new fencing gear from Leon Paul! The gear is shiny and the sabre blades have a real nice ring to them. Maybe I can use the bag to get my gear back so that I can fence while back on the mainland over Christmas. I doubt it, but if I contact people then I might be able to, who knows?

The Air We Consume

Humans tend to need to breathe even when it would be very nice not to. Of course it doesn't help that some people need to wash their fencing jackets, as the smell could kill several small animals. Though, truth be told, fencing equipment is much easier to clean than Kendo equipment that is dyed with indigo that tends to run. Needless to say the smell in Kendo can be overwhelming. It is very necessary to air out or wash equipment in Hawaii, as anything left in a pile will soon become colorful. And don't even get me started on rust and weapons, or that Hawaii eats everything, maybe I will write a list of materials and how they don't hold up to Hawaii some other day.

On the serious side, breathing during fencing almost needs to be well practiced. Breathing in certain loud ways before an attack or other action can become a tell-tale, so be careful. But the need for release when doing an action, such as a lunge, is very true. Holding your breath while doing any action may harm you, but it is most likely going to slow you down, meaning they will stab you. Smooth breathing is one of the keys to smooth movement. There is a release after the point where a competitor screams and pumps their fist.

Watching the Olympics this past August, I noticed quite a bit of screaming and yelling after a point. I really don't like it, and it gets really annoying on the other side of the strip, I call them screamers. It is used to sway the director so that the confidence in a point is seen and it can be a release although it is not very good.Kendo has a kiai, or a shout that identifies the target and the intention. The kiai is before and during the action whereas the scream in fencing is usually at the end. In Kendo the shout can demoralize the opponent, and also it is a release while the "killing" movement is made. But in fencing the blades are much thinner and an important part of calling the action is listening to the beats and parries. So if a scream was during then a fencer may be warned or possibly carded for anything before the halt.

There is a school of thought that uses "Hey-la!" It can be common, and used as a feint. The "hey" is the bladework and can be drawn out as more parries and attacks are necessary with "La!" being the perfect point. This of course is a form of release, or not being tense when attacking. I think this is from the French school but I am not sure. The big question to most people who aren't just afraid to vocalize, is will it help? I think the answer is yes, but be careful of overuse, or it becoming a tell-tale. But back to just breathing.

On just the breathing side, you should be in good enough shape that a bout with 9 minutes of total fencing won't make you die on the strip. Many people don't think of fencing as to intense, but unless you can stand still with perfect technique, or stunning stationary stabbing, you need to move. If your opponent realizes that you are easily winded, then they can run you up and down the strip, taking advantage of your tiredness to win the bout. The cross training does not need to be intense for those who just want to enjoy the sport, I walk, hike and swim. I also lift weights, do push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squats, calf-raises, run hills, but I need to do that because I work in a chair most of the day. I am doing better at maintaining an exercise program, but I need to keep my motivation. With all of that, one of the most important exercises seems really easy, but shouldn't be overlooked.

Breathing well can be its own exercise. Taking into consideration breathing when a person with a sword approaches can seem crazy, but it is essential. The fight or flight principle drops a bunch of adrenaline into the body causing increased heart-rate and faster breathing. Hopefully you won't run from the strip, but not having control while fencing, even if your body is fighting, will be worse for the damage given and taken. You need to be in control, adrenaline is okay, but you need to relax so that your movements are less jerky and you can put the point in line before tying to get a touch. Breathe with the diaphragm as this will greatly reduce how much your arms move when you breathe as well many other benefits suggested by breathing gurus such as singers and swimmers. The better you breathe the better fencing you will do, even if you don't beat more people.

Lastly, dealing with a surprise or a hard hit can cause a fencer to lose too much focus. If you need a second after a hard hit, or someone running into you, ask for it and recover your breathing. If it is just a surprise people still often stop breathing. If they had splashed water on you or thrown you into a river, this might be a good reaction, however, not breathing on the strip will soon slow you down.

When you have thought about breathing and trained, then you can focus more on the technique and allow the under-workings continue to function appropriately when there is stress. So if you have stopped breathing in protest about how much I wrote about it, I can say that I will stop, for now.