I ended up not ending on Friday because my belly was bothering me. Generally speaking it’s a bad idea to put on tight pants and run around when one’s belly is upset.
Fortunately my belly and I were on speaking terms this weekend, and I led/participated in a successful melee practice on Sunday. I got to teach, learn, make friends, and fight. The group I was visiting also had a tasty potluck lunch. It was a really great weekend and fun practice.
I realized I essentially taunted anyone paying attention by hyping you up for a visit from my mentor and then never posting about it again.
The visit went really well. I didn’t get to fence with him a lot, but my students did. He had some advice for each one and had nice things to say about everyone. I think everyone had a really good time.
On Friday, we had a short class (Fridays are always 1.5 hours instead of 2 hours), and I spent some time working with a student who has some spatial relation issues. If any of you out there in the fencing world (or the contact sports world in general) have any insight on how to help her, please drop me a line! In the meantime, we’re working slowly with the building blocks we have.
On Saturday, my mentor found out that he has won the new highest fencing award in the SCA. He’ll become a Master of Defense the first week of December. I’m so proud of him, and I’m excited to help him with the event to make sure everything goes smoothly.
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.
usually, i am squared off. i find this a lot better because your point control increases. i like doing a mix between stophits and parries (im defensive) so its important for me to keep my back from turning because otherwise i will miss and my opponnent will get the point.
this said, i do have a bad habit: when i lunge, i turn my back so you can only see my side (as well as a lean). this makes it impossible to see what your opponnent is doin and you cant do a second hit. its always important to have at least a second hit planned because most likely your first one isnt going to hit.leaning in my lunge has resulted with tendonitis in both my knees which is why i dont practice lunges anymore. i need my knees to heal first. but thank you very much for the offer!
i love fencing and talking about fencing so if you have any other questions please let me know! or if you just wanna chat, im there too 🙂
Hell yeah! I’m always stoked to make fencing friends. This isn’t my primary blog, but I’m working on creating a new fencing-blog account and adding it as a contributor here so that I can follow blogs, send asks, etc. and keep all the fencing stuff in one place.
As far as lunging is concerned, I don’t do a lot of it if I can avoid it. I study Italian rapier, which involves a fair amount of lunging, but as I’ve made it my own and adapted to my own body type (imagine a personification of a Welsh corgi – barrel chested, short arms and legs), I’ve found that I enjoy a close fight much more than the distance game. I don’t have a lot of reach unless I lean in and present my head as a nice, vulnerable target.
I’ve been doing the lunge challenge mostly to connect with my fellow fencers, but I thought that practicing more lunges might encourage me to lunge more. I’m planning to pick it back up since taking it easy didn’t really make me feel any better. As I get back into it, I’ll let you know how it goes.
I went to a fencing event this weekend. I participated in two tournaments and was really in the zone. However, I also spent a lot of the day waiting to fence. I’m so worried about not being in the right place when my name is called that I spent a lot of time just standing around with my gear on instead of doing pickups. I’m going to try to keep that frustration in mind the next time I’m running an event.
I didn’t win anything, but I did do good fencing. I was in a really good head space during the invitational tourney, and I felt like I was doing my job well in the five-man melee tourney. Some fencers whom I really respect complimented me, and that made my weekend.
In the evening, a dear friend of mine won an award, and I stepped forward to pass on a piece of regalia to him. I’m proud to see my CAR* garter on such a worthy arm.
On the way home from the tournament, Nik and I talked about scheduling fight time since I can’t come to two of the three weekly practices at the college. I also want to work in more yoga – just a few sun salutations each day will probably help me with my flexibility and stiffness.
Speaking of stiffness, my shoulders were fine all weekend. I took ibuprofen at the beginning of the day before fighting, but I didn’t take any muscle relaxers at night (unless Scotch counts, in which case I had a modest dose). I was only moderately uncomfortable on the ride home. I’m going to stop babying myself and start being more active. It seems to be what my body wants me to do.
*
Order of the Argent Rapier: given to those who have distinguished themselves with the rapier in war, on the tournament field, and in the training of new rapierists. Holders may place the initials CAR after their name.
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.
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.
I decided to give it a try, and I did 100 lunges at practice tonight. I used Nik as my pell for the first 50 and hit a thumb-sized piece of tape on the wall for my next 50. We’ll see what the shoulder says in the morning.
I also got to do some endurance training. We fenced single sword for 10 minutes straight (well, 9 minutes, we were interrupted). We were going to do 11 minutes with sword and dagger, but I smashed my finger and had to stop. Somehow I managed to pin my middle finger on my left hand between the grip of my dagger and the hilt of his sword (yes, I got the kill). I’ll live, but I was done for the day.
I made an appointment to see my GP about my shoulder. I’m taking a break from the lunge challenge for the time being. I think the repetitive motion is doing more harm than good. I like being part of something, but it’s not worth my health.
If I feel better, I might work in a day from time to time, but I’m not going to try to play catch up anymore. I thought 200 in a day was reasonable, but it really isn’t.
Our culture values playing through the pain when we really need to rest and take some anti-inflammatories. “No pain, no gain” is a phrase we’ve all heard at least once, and I’m thinking it’s time for that sentiment to go out of style.
Today I did 200 to make up for skipping yesterday. My shoulder is killing me. The numb spot on my back is getting bigger, and the trapezius on that side is cramping like crazy. I may need to do the next few days left handed only.
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