As I walked through the studio entrance, Leslie, the coach greeted me. Seems she was willing to overlook my tardiness this time around. Phew!
She took me over to the weapons. First, I needed to learn a little bit about a fencer's tools and the differences between them. She explains the three swords to me: Foil, Epee (Eh-Pay), and Sabre. Each sword measures at around three feet, but the main differences lie in their rules.
To score points in Foil, you must touch your opponent's torso with the tip of your blade. In addition, only one fencer has the right-of-way to attack. If both fencers touch at the same time, or one fencer attacks before parrying the others attack, than no points are scored. Having the torso as the primary target makes protecting the hand less important, so foil blades have a smaller bellguard (the domed piece above the handle that protects your hand) than the other two. Because of their minimalistic construction, foils are the lightest weapon in fencing, but not by much (grams, if that).
In Epee, everything becomes a target. Heads, hands, feet; anything goes. Fencers score draws if both make a touch with 1/10s of a second (the sensitivity of electric fencing equipment). Since the hands are a target in Epee, the bellguards are quite large and almost envelop the hand behind them. The first night I went to the club and watched, everyone fenced Epee. Note to self: nobody expects you to go for the feet!
Closest to the image of fencing as portrayed in movies between pirates, lies the Sabre. Like foil, the torso is the main target for points in sabre with a few additions. The hand, mask, back; basically the entire upper body scores points in sabre and you don't have to stick them with the point. Any touch counts be it slashing, hacking or stabbing. Because of this, sabre fencing requires special jackets and masks that register touches electrically where the other two types feature tips that register a touch when depressed. Since fencing sabre encourages sidewards slashes, the sword has a slight bend in it. These same slashes to the fingers can really hurt, so the bellguard curves down and over the fingers providing protection all the way to the hilt.
Now Leslie sums it all up before I choose the weapon I will learn with. Foil is more proper and systematic, epee is a game of logic and awareness, sabre is fast and physical. For whatever reason, I choose foil. I guess I feel like starting with the smallest target and working my way to epee is the best way to build solid technique.
So I grasp the sword in my hand and Leslie fits me to a glove and mask. No lame (the jacket) necessary today, I already knew the first lesson would be a once sided game of form and footwork. Good thing too–Because of my late start to the day, I only had time to don jeans and casual sneakers.
Leslie gets suited up with a chest plate (necessary for a woman to protect their breasts, something I'd never thought about) and a custom made target draped over her torso like an apron.
The lesson formally begins as Leslie teaches me the fencer's salute. To do the salute, you hold your mask under your sword arm and stand heels together with my lead foot (same foot as my sword hand) pointing straight out and back foot angled to the side. Then you lift the sword to your brow and back down, adding a flourish if that's your thing. Now the action starts...
Or not. Today's lesson involves mainly footwork. The En Guarde stance is simple enough. Keep your feet angled the same as the salute, but place your legs shoulder width apart with knees bent. Hold the sword by pointing your upper arm straight down and forearm forward, forming an 'L'. Leslie angles my wrist slightly, which shifts the tip of the sword inward and, "constantly pointing at the target".
From here I learn the basic footwork for advancing and retreating. It's simple enough. To advance, keep your upper body quiet, spring off the back foot and take a step, rolling from heel to toe on your front foot to absorb the impact. The back foot follows flat, and your legs end up shoulder width apart again. Retreating is the opposite... spring off the front foot and roll onto the back.
The entire time, the sword stays level and angled at the target: the center of the torso. Note to Self: Don't lift your sword arm as you advance/retreat.
On to the real fun. After advancing and retreating across the studio dozens of times to build muscle memory (the key to fencing I'm told), Leslie gives me the go ahead to learn a basic touch. Put simply, you stand close to the opponent and extend your sword arm out. If your arm is relatively parallel to the ground and the tip of the sword bends downward on the target, you've been successful...
Now, fencing rarely gets so familiar to where a basic touch would score. I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't try to hug people attacking me with swords. Fencing is cautious, and that's where the lunge comes in. This lunge is hands down--universally accepted--the most useful point scoring technique in the book.
To begin, Leslie takes a few steps back. A basic lunge involve extending the arm as though making a simple touch (Ah, that's why I learned that first!), then springing forward off the back foot in a graceful stride. Extending the arm first is vitally important: sword arm extended, you can now use the length of your arm and sword as a ruler to measure how much of a stride you need to make. After a successful touch, Leslie urged me to get used to quickly return to the En Guarde, a steady base to allow quick advance/retreat (The move works in practice, but it won't always touch in bouts. Best to be prepared). Now let's put some footwork in it.
The next exercise involves advancing two steps, extending the arm and lunging. I say it like that because that became my mantra. Note to Self: Extend the arm first, always. With me learning to gauge distance better, and starting to get the pace and rhythm better, Leslie suggested we do a few on the retreat. This interests me more, as I'm a fan of the strategy "use your opponents own strength against him". With my opponent advancing, it's much easier to clear the distance to my target.
Alas, the lesson ended. Despite the somewhat tedious material, I actually enjoyed this first lesson quite a bit. I signed up for round 2 and bid Leslie farewell.
Homework for Lesson #1:
- Stand in En Guarde.
- Practice footwork.
- Make lunge more fluid.
No comments:
Post a Comment