Modern Fencing: Yes or No?

It seems like there's a never-ending debate on whether or not modern Olympic fencing has any use to the SCA fencer. After all, fencing's fencing, right? And with the resurgence in Olympic, it's becoming easier and easier to find local fencing clubs to join, but is it a good idea for someone who wants the best rapier game they can get?

For the record, my start in fencing was in Olympic, some twenty years ago. I fenced mainly foil and epee, but did some sabre as well, so I am familiar with the sport. Olympic is a wonderful place to learn basic parrys and attacks as well as work on your tip control and speed, but it does have three major flaws: footwork, right of way and touches.

Olympic footwork is basically sound, except for the fact that it is designed for a 14-meter by 2-meter (roughly 46'x6') strip. Because of the narrow width, the only movement options for Olympic fencers are front/back and up/down. That's good, as far as it goes, but SCA fencing is usually done in the round and that extra dimension of side to side makes a real difference. When someone is advancing in Olympic, your only choices are to stand your ground or retreat, but in the SCA, you can side-step in just about any direction.

Another flaw in Olympic (as far as the SCA is concerned) is the idea of right of way. Basically, right of way is the idea that whoever attacks first, wins - no matter who lands their attack first. Now, don't get me wrong, right of way is a good idea, but in a style that scores body parts differently like the SCA, there are times when it is worth sacrificing an arm or a leg to get the head or torso.

The third major flaw in Olymic fencing is what constitutes a touch. Any touch that results in sufficient bend (or that will set off the scoring buzzers) is a good touch. Sounds pretty good, right? The touches might be heavier than we use, but the idea's sound. Well, sort of. You see, in Olympic, it doesn't matter how the touch lands -tip, flat or press - as long as there's sufficient bend. In a form that treats blades as having edges, you do suddenly have to worry about how the blade landed, not just how hard.

Of course, Olympic isn't all bad. Some years back, a visiting fencer from the Outlands commented on how incredible Artemisian fencers were at single-sword. The reason we were (are) so good at single-sword is that most fencers are tought a modified version of Olympic as their first style, complete with parrys, attacks, lunges and drills. Those drills, especially make their way into our psyches until we can't get rid of them. I know I've killed more than one person with a textbook lunge. And, as limited as Olympic is, it is a good way to keep your parry reflexes sharp and cut down on your double-kills.

So should an SCA fencer do Olympic? Not if they're just starting out. The differences in style are too great and they'll find their fencing suffers both on the strip and in the round. After they've gained a good feel for fencing and can separate the two styles, then yes, they can gain from the experience. With one caviat: stay away from sabre. Sabre offers no benefits to the SCA fencer and can lead to the bad habit of hacking.

Whoops!

I got the opportunity to visit another group's rapier practice recently. It was nice to get out and face new people and try out new things. Well, okay, do a refresher on some not-so-new things. Specifically, the baton. I haven't really played with baton in years, even though it used to be one of my staples.

So I was out there, and doing pretty well with it until I faced a guy using cane. We were both fighting right handed and as we were fighting, he trapped my blade and tried to do a high attack to my right side. So there I was, staring at a completely exposed side and thinking, "I know what to do..."

I thrust.

About three-quarters of the way into my attack, I realized I wasn't holding a dagger. Luckily, my baton doesn't have much mass and I was able to pull my blow with only lightly tapping his side. I was chanting "Not a dagger, not a dagger..." as I reset and my opponent was pleasantly surprised to realize he didn't die. I wasn't sure if he got me or not, but after that big of a screw-up I considered myself dead. And figured it was time for a break.

This was one of those times where I got lucky. I was lucky that it was a practice and not a tourney. Core sample or no, if you gack someone with a baton in a tourney, odds are you're done - for anywhere from the day to six months, depending how hard you hit them. At practice, you get a talking to and are advised to practice some more with it before you take it into a tourney. Of course, that's why I was playing with it there, instead of at a tourney. I'm a firm believer that it's never a good idea to try something out for the first time at a tourney: if you're going to screw up, screw up at practice.

Plateaus

It happens to all of us: we keep getting better and better until all of a sudden, we just can't get any better. This doesn't mean we don't have anything more to learn, just that we've learned as much as we can by what we're doing. We've plateaued. And the sad fact is that this isn't something that happens once, but over and over again.

Usually, the first plateau happens fairly early in your career: you've learned the basics and have started doing pretty well for yourself locally, but then Bam! Your death becomes a common, oft-repeated part of fighter's practice and you begin feeling like the shire pin-cushion. The cause of this first plateau is that your fellow local fencers have learned all your tricks, all your patterns, and can counter them without even thinking about it.

For this first plateau, the solution is to travel. Go to other group's fighter's practices. Do pick-up fights when you go to events. And if you see someone do something really effective, ask them about it. This will expand your knowledge base and teach you new tricks that maybe didn't work for the other local fighters, haven't made their way to your local group, or maybe have been forgotten by your other local fighters.

This will get you going again and you'll start doing better and better at tourneys, maybe winning a few but definitely making a good showing for yourself. You're right on the edge of greatness, then Bam! Another plateau. You're still doing well, but you just can't get your head around those Gold Scarves. So, what do you do now?

You start teaching. You help out at fighter's practice with the brand new fencers, showing them the basics of footwork, parries and attacks. This slows you down and forces you to think about what you're doing and how. And it also starts to teach you how to watch other fighters and take apart their style. And after a while, you begin to make progress against those Gold Scarves who'd been your bane for the past few months.

And things are going great until the same thing happens again. This is when many fencers will begin doing research, either on period techniques or other martial arts, trying to find that certain something missing from their style. They'll start focusing on the why of fencing moves and begin adapting other arts to their needs.

And again, as you get deeper into your research, your skill will begin improving until you're the equal of all but the very best Gold Scarves, but then you hit another plateau. And it's time to change things up again. It's time to start "hunting Dons." You should be taking every chance you can get to fight with the White Scarves, both in tourneys and in practices. Ask them questions. Ask for their advice. Pump them for as much knowledge as you can: after all, many of them have forgotten more about fencing than most of us know.

And just like before, you'll start improving again. And, like before, you'll hit that plateau again. And this time it's back to teaching - but not focusing on the beginners. This time you're focusing on the intermediate or advanced fighters, teaching them your tricks and helping them through their plateaus.

But even after you get past this plateau (and hopefully earned your White Scarf), you're still not done. Every so often, you'll hit another plateau. And the fix for that plateau will always be to learn more or to teach.

As for myself, I've taught beginners, I've traveled, I've done research, and I'm definitely at a plateau. I guess that means I should start hunting Dons.

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

I went over to Bronzehelm for Schola this last weekend and was pleased to find a good chunk of time set aside for fighter's practice. It was wonderful to have a chance to play around with new people and it gave me a great opportunity to try out what I've been learning with my saber. I was even a good boy and warned them that I was trying out news stuff and apologized in advance for any oopses I might make.

And I apologized each time I made an oops.

And I apologized afterwards for all of the oopses.

You see, they style I'm studying with my saber is almost all sweeping tip cuts. And when they work, they work great, but when I'm off, it's a lot of hacks and hard slaps. And let me tell you, my control with the style is nowhere near ready for prime-time. And no, I didn't use they style during the serious fencing. After all, if I can't control it in practice, there's no way I can control it when the adrenaline is flowing.

The good part (for me, at least) was that after watching for a while, Don Adam took me aside and worked with me one-on-one to try and figure out a way to help take the force out of my attacks. And he came up with a couple of ideas that look very promising. The first is no more two-handing for a while: it just adds too much power to my swings. The second idea was to strike with the flat of the blade initially and then turn it edge-on for the draw. This not only spreads out the force over a broader area, but also uses the flexibility of the blade to absorb the force of the blow. And it worked great in practice, even with my current control level. I definitely still need to work on it, so it'll be a while until I can bring it out in a tournament, but at least I have a direction to go.

Did I mention it was a great event?

Excessive Blows

Recently the problem of hitting with excessive force once again reared its ugly head. This, like day-glo Converse and decaffinated coffee is a problem that should never come up. Okay, I realize that there will always be the occasional train wreck, but short of that, there is no reason why hitting too hard should be a problem. As I see it, there are only two causes for hard hits: lack of training and blatant stupidity. And since we can't get rid of stupidity, we are forced to rely on training to minimize the problem. The training's even relatively easy: pracitce regularly, and when you practice, hit as light as possible, and take even the lightest hits.

Okay, hitting light can take some practice, but the basics are easy. To get a light hit requires three things: force, balance and range. Of these, force is the easiest to practice. Remember those tennis ball drills you hated so much? Well, if you can consistently hit a tennis ball on a string without causing it to swing more than six inches, you're hitting about right. Of course I realize hitting a tennis ball at speed is difficult, so try a kick ball, or even a piece of paper. Once you can do that at speed with a normal attack, move out a few inches at a time until your lunge barely moves the ball (or paper).

And balance is even easier to work on. In fact it's real easy. Don't lean. When you lean forward, you add your body's momentum to the attack which means - you guessed it - more force. And when you lean back, you take away both your mobility and your body's elasticity. In short, if you lean back to avoid a hit and it still lands, it's going to hit with more perceived force.

Which leads us to range. Hopefully, all those tennis ball drills will have taught you your range. So all you have to do now is only attack when your opponent is in range. If they're too far out, take a step forward. Likewise, if they're too close, take a step back (or if you really want to mess with their heads, take a step to the side).

Now, as with most fencing drills, it's best to start out slow and gradually build up to speed, but with practice it shouldn't be too hard to hit as light as you want. And believe it or not, your goal is to consistantly hit too light in practices. If your opponent at practice has to ask if you got anything, that's an ideal hit.

Why? Because there's this little thing called adrenaline that tends to kick in at tourneys and (especially) melees. And what adrenaline does is lessen your control. No matter how hard you try, you'll hit at least a little harder. That's why I say to train light: so that when you're in a furball and hitting twice as hard as normal, that just means your hitting like a grasshopper instead of a fly. Adrenaline also makes you less sensitive to hits you receive. So again, if your sensitivity is halved, your opponent won't have to leave marks for you to call it good.

That still leaves blatant stupidity to worry about, but if you train regularly, and train well, it lessens the chances of that as well.