Footwork

Distance Drill (Group):

There are two ways to do this drill, with hand signals and without
Without Signals

  • One fencer leads the entire group.
  • The group must try to keep the same distance they started at.
  • If the leader advances, the group retreats.
  • If the leaders lunges, the group waits for the leader to recover, then they lunge.

With Signals

  • Same basic idea as without.
  • For this drill, the leader can now raise their left, right, or both hands.
  • The leader will assign a piece of footwork to each signal, when they give a signal, the group will do that piece of footwork.

Note: when rotating through leaders, try to make sure they aren’t picking the same pieces of footwork every time (jump lunge and duck come to mind)

Distance Drill (One-on-One)

  • This drill is essentially the same as the above drill without signals, but instead of one leader leading the entire group, it is one on one.
  • You can make little modifications to keep it interesting like mirroring footwork instead of normal following as described above.

Italian Drill

Setup and notes

  • In this drill, each fencer is paired up with another fencer, similar to the one on one distance drill.
  • Each fencer holds a glove in this drill, they do not wear it.
  • In a perfect world, there should be constant movement in this drill, since as soon as the attacker recovers, the “defender” (retreating fencer) can begin their advance lunge.

Drill

  • Fencers come en guarde at advance lunge distance.
  • Taking turns, each fencer will attempt to take an advance lunge to hit. the other fencer on the wrist or lower arm.1
  • During the advance lunge, the other fencer is allowed any number of retreats to attempt to get away.
  • As soon as the fencer advance lunging recovers, the fencer that was retreating now gets an advance lunge.

1 When I say hit, I do not mean slap, I mean lightly tap the other fencer.

Glove Game

Setup and notes

  • This is a setup for the next drill.
  • This is also a partner drill, like above.
  • One fencer has a glove.

Drill

  • In this drill, the fencer with the glove is leading.
  • At some point, the leader is going to stop footwork, at this point the follower should lunge and grab the glove.
  • If the follower is out of distance or too close, they reset to proper distance and footwork begins again.
  • The fencer with the glove is always leading, so once it has been grabbed, the leader switches

Smooth Drill

Setup and notes

  • This is also a partner drill, like above.
  • One fencer has a glove.
  • This drill can be done stationary, but should be done moving.
  • The fencer without the glove is trying to manipulate the distance, so there is no leader.

Drill

  • Just like the last drill, the goal is for one fencer to grab the glove, we’ll call them the student. The difference between this and the last drill is that the fencer with the glove (coach) can now pull the glove away when the student is lunging.
  • They should just pull the glove back, not up to their shoulder or in to their chest, but just straight back.
  • This is a fairly hard drill for the student, so roles should switch every 3-5 lunges.