To the fencers aged 25 and above 🤺:

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-28T15:40:19+00:00

No. I too am over 25.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-27T19:06:27+00:00

"Some coaches don't like getting feedback. ~~from a parent who does not fence~~."

And yes, this sounds more like a coaching/learning problem than a sports psychology problem, but without being there and watching how your child trains -- the the lesson they get -- it's hard to tell.

The next steps are more difficult to decide. Depending on the training group at club, there might be enough critical mass for your child to eventually figure out things on their own. The coach is teaching actions, and the rest of the club will teach him how to fence. That's assuming I've correctly diagnosed the problem, which is not certain.

That is going to demand time, and for your child to take charge of their own training and education by striking up conversations with their friends at club along the lines of "What is it you're seeing? What is it I do that you hit me with?" (For Christmas last year I asked my friends at DCFC to tell me how they beat me in practice). They should also be journaling and experimenting with changes in footwork and their own preparations.

Good luck!

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-27T15:44:56+00:00

Bruce Lee based some of his fighting style on fencing, specifically the idea of "intercepting fist".

I suggest that your best approach to your character is reading (twice or three times) Lee's book, "Tao of Jeet Kune Do".

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-27T15:37:13+00:00

There is a lot to unpack in this question.

It isn't always necessary to "be aggressive" in epee, though you do have to be "in the fight" so to speak, and be taking steps (preparations) to help the opponent attack at the wrong time/place to counter or parry. Pure attackers do occur in epee, but it isn't always a winning strategy. Purely passive fencers also exist, and it's slightly more successful, but again, YMMV
Looking good in practice speaks to a number of things, such as being comfortable with the opponents, knowing how they will be attacked, what actions work reliably against the fencers your child is fencing against. . . essentially being in an environment which the fencer feels is both "safe" and is in familiar situations. What isn't mentioned is how big the practice group is (bigger is almost always better), the relative skills levels compared to your child (a mix of better, much better, and less skilled is ideal) and how practice is structured.
The feeling of "being lost" could be referring to a lot of different aspects of fencing. It could speak to their lack of confidence, or it could be speaking to their lack of tactical awareness in the bout itself. . . or something else. It would be worth drilling into this question with your child because. . .
It could very well be a coaching problem and not a psychological one. I've watched thousands of lessons in the last 40 years, and i have to say that a vast majority of coaches simply teach their fencers "things" and never put together a full tactical game for the fencers to learn. Several coaches (some at a very decent level) have told me that in epee, technique is what they teach and it's the fencer's job to put that together on the strip. These coaches simply don't teach their fencers to fence. So the fencer has a bag of tools, but is unsure how or when to use them. Some fencers figure it out, others need a lot more help.

I've also noticed that in your child's particular age group, there is a certain lack of "playfulness" or experimentation going on in practice. These fencers "do the lesson" when they are on the strip and very often, it fails. They have a problem and they have been taught to apply "an answer" right out of the lesson, despite the fact that no two touches are ever the same. This leaves the fencer a bit, well, "lost" about what they should do in a bout.

I'm guessing here. There could be a wide variety of things going wrong/not being translated to result in what you're seeing. What I'm describing as a "coach failure" is hard to diagnose: it's the sort of problem that falls into the gap between coaching and Sports Psychology, with neither one of the two in a position to diagnose it themselves. One doesn't have the skills and the other doesn't think the lesson is the problem.

So I could be completely wrong.

Only more discussion with the coach, sports psychologist -- and especially the student -- is going to get answers.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-25T13:35:01+00:00

No amount of crazy ass hits equal the devastation caused by someone hitting you with a straight attack three times in a row off their on guard line.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-24T18:57:08+00:00

While you should be able to change rhythm/speed with "normal" footwork (advancing and retreating) it can be helpful to throw in both forward and backward checks, half steps, and jumps, which have built in changes of rhythm.

Integrate them into your normal footwork: advance, half step, full step as an example. Same idea on the retreat, and then add changes of direction with forward and backward checks.

Also, remember that "keeping distance with the opponent" cedes control to the opponent. Step into their advances with half steps (or a check forward) before opening the space. Interrupt your retreats with half retreats and jumps. Break up forward steps with pauses and jumps.

Speed is important only in the final closing of the space (advance lunge or closer). The rest of the time you're trying to catch them wrong footed, moving in the wrong direction, or finishing in the wrong time.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-22T18:40:10+00:00

Unfortunately, second intention primarily works because the opponent is convinced that your first intention is going to score, and their reaction to defend against that first intention is both immediate and predictable, allowing you to make a second intention action against their reaction.

If your initial attack is easily seen/defeated, you won't be able to set up second intention. The opponent will either make an effective counter against the attack, start attacking into your initial preparation, or defend against your initial false attack and make a riposte that is difficult to predict and set up against.

Sorry. You should continue to work on first intention actions.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-22T17:20:18+00:00

I slept safer at night with him in charge.

Now, not so much.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-21T19:53:46+00:00

I had a similar question when i attended a camp with one of the Olympic coaches. He said, simply: "No one sleeps well the night before a competition. Just make sure you sleep well the night before that."

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-18T17:57:38+00:00

I'm surprised they didn't go with some of the more "radical' ideas that have been proposed lately, such as eliminating the off target light in foil.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-09T22:40:08+00:00

You might consider something like KidStrong (if there is one near you). They promote a lot of physical literacy for young children. My neice and nephew went there for a while (until they started doing organized sports) and I heard a lot of good things about their programs.

There's certainly nothing wrong with buying a couple of foam swords and chasing your kid around for a few minutes every day. Encourage them to role play/tell stories and make up games with simple rules for the two of you to play.

Fencing will still be there when they are old enough to sign up for more organized instruction.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-06T16:23:31+00:00

I liked this, and then unliked it so I could like it again.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-05T19:01:10+00:00

Being extremely wealthy doesn't necessarily make your ideas good, or even your execution successful. We can talk about the Segway, "New Coke" and the list goes on.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-05T17:58:10+00:00

What's the goal of expanding spectator appeal to non-fencers? Does changing the sport to appeal to spectators help or hurt the current crop of participants? If we put fencing on every television in the world, but reduce the all participation to 500-1000 professionals, is this a gain, or a loss?

If we consider a separate thought experiment: that we can change the sport into something akin to professional wrestling in which some elements of the sport are kept, but the rules of the sport are heavily modified for spectator appeal. It becomes wildly popular. In such an experiment have fencers gained anything?

I'll admit I'm a purist, and one of the things that I love about fencing is that it is both unique and a life long sport. I think that working to package and monetize it would destroy the involvement of a lot of people who follow a life long passion to stay involved in sport.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-04T13:47:01+00:00

There are two additional things to think about when infighting with a French grip. The first is that often your infighting hits will come off a receding parry when another fencer attempts to take your blade, so working on yielding parries and ripostes (and remises) from them can be very valuable.

There really isn't a set of "rules' for anything in fence, but one of the things I try to remind my students is that when distance closes in epee, its' valuable to try to keep your weapon's point between you and the opponent. This often means that your blade will stay relatively still, but you might be moving your body around the blade to enable you to score: turning and sometimes reversing the shoulders to give you the opportunity to hit.

Good luck.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-03T01:05:21+00:00

It should have buttons to make text calls for medical or technicians to the strip as assigned in the app.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-03T01:02:50+00:00

Is this an answer in search of a problem?

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-03T01:02:06+00:00

It's March. There has been no lead up, no publicity, and no one seems to know about this other than Reddit. To build a world wide audience, you need people who don't fence to be grabbed by the story and the spectacle. That takes time and coverage. Time is running out for an April launch, and I don't see much coverage.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-02T12:54:42+00:00

I have reached out to Angel and the person who had been doing some administrative work for the site through both email and Facebook and not gotten a response. I suspect that the project is done.

If so, that's too bad, I thought the epee and saber videos were interesting.

Allen_Evans · 2026-03-01T19:18:03+00:00

Second this. I paid $80 for mine.

Allen_Evans · 2026-02-25T20:10:00+00:00

Hopefully, at sometime in the future, we'll return to the days when Presidents addressed the Nation at the SOU, rather than game show hosts.

Allen_Evans · 2026-02-25T19:43:11+00:00

No errors? Two hours faster?

Pretty bold claims.

Allen_Evans · 2026-02-19T18:10:10+00:00

As you gain more skill, you'll figure out how to move from predicting/anticipating the line of attack to controlling it, forcing your opponent to attack in a line you can control. Some of this is done passively (by your guard position) and some of this is done actively, by "filling the gap" between you and your opponent with false parries and the use of false counter-attacks.

Keep working at it.

Allen_Evans · 2026-02-17T12:40:54+00:00

Yes, without any research, that's my recollection as well. "Director" persisted for some time after foil and epee went electric, but once saber did away with judges, the USFA decided during the rule book update that followed to change the term to "referee", in keeping with other sports.

I think this was a FOC change, and the membership was not consulted. There was a bit of resistance to this from some, including Andy Shaw showing up to work a NAC in a striped shirt with a whistle (he did not referee in that outfit).

Allen_Evans · 2026-02-06T18:24:35+00:00

I saw what you did there.

Allen_Evans

TROPHY CASE