I was feeling pretty good, so I put in 100 lunges this afternoon. My right shoulder/back region started tingling about halfway through. I was in third hand position. I don’t know if the problem is hand position, body position, repetitive motion, or the time spent holding the sword out in front of me. Up to this point, my back has gotten tingly from sitting down. Leaning against a seat back usually helps.
I’ve noticed that when I do this drill, I square off a lot more than I usually do when I fence. I’m trying to turn sideways to present less of a target (you know, the way I was taught to fence in the first place). Unfortunately, whenever I think about narrowing the available target, then my lunge becomes narrower, or I stop hitting my target.
hi friend! as an epee fencer, i would suggest keeping your back straight instead of turning sideways. as youve noticed, you tend to miss the target. I too used to lunge like that but my coach told me to stop – for one, it’s also incredibly difficult to do a second action after the lunge. naturally, you should do what fit’s you best but my advice to you is to always keep your back straight and to not lean – this will stop bad habits from forming.
i think it’s really great that youre doing 100 lunges every day! that’s the kind of practice that will get you far.
Hi! Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep on doing what I was doing before then, but I have a question.
When you line up to fence, are you turning your body sideways, or are you more squared off with your opponent? When I do foil, epee, or single rapier, I try to present a small sideways target but almost always end up squared off. When I have an offhand device, being squared off has its advantages, but when I don’t, I’m not sure that I’m doing myself any favors.
If you’re interested in the 10,000 Lunge challenge, I’ll send you the document with details about each day’s prescribed drills. You’ll probably have to modify it to fit epee, though, since this was designed by a historic rapier fighter.
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