Foil Fencing Crash Course | Session 01: You Gotta Start Somewhere

[@michaeltracyusmc]

This is classic foil. It stresses economy of motion which is how I was taught by Fencing Master Leon Paul. I am in my late eighties and I can still do this albeit a lot slower than these younger men.

[@ElkWhistle]

Loved it I learned some n Paris years ago. BUT I need to get into it again. Your video was really helpful.

[@s-class8871]

Thank you for the kind words :)

[@Jake-qo8mz]

Great stuff, recently got into fencing and i've been taught the basics over the past weeks but my technique is horrible, so this really helps to identify what the key components of good technique is.

[@johngrgas4885]

Great video. Could slow things down a bit because it’s aimed at beginners. The audio is horrendous in this gym... you guys need to invest in some off camera/phone mics. Please post more!

[@wandakowalski7063]

Love your videos … bit of an echo but I like the different views. Just took up fencing, for exercise and mental stimulation. Love it!! Even so, I still want to learn proper technique. In the first session, it was lessons with a really great instructor and free fencing available. In this next session, there are no formal lessons, just free fencing. The rationale is that beginners will learn from experienced fencers. And they will teach the beginners. I got a lot out of the lessons and a chance to practise what I learned with people of my own level. I did attend the free fencing and the club atmosphere is generous. But a more experienced fencer is just using me for target practise. I don’t know enough to defend and I don’t know what mistakes I’m making and will continue to make them unless I get instruction. I think that the best way to learn is lessons and free fencing. Otherwise, I don’t feel like I’m fencing when I’m in a bout with a person who competes on the national level. I might as well have a big stick in my hand. In your opinion, can a beginner learn good technique just in free fencing?

[@olgahereijgers6777]

Great video! I have been fencing for the past three years, but there is still some things in here that I didn't know yet/forgot/didn't think about. Very useful!

[@eleanorchineseharp]

You guys really explained everything well. Great job!

[@kazungualbert9441]

Fantastic explanations guys keep going

[@RobinYoulton]

Thanks Jospeh & Eli, I'm watching all your videos and learning so much from your instruction. I'm quite new to foil fencing. In this video, I specifically learned about angling my on guard sword point towards my right or left handed opponent (a revelation for me!). I also practice Karate, and I've been a Bruce Lee fan since forever - so I smiled when Joseph made the JKD fencing reference. I also noted in another of your videos you used the side shot from the Colosseum fight, which looks like pure fencing mobility to me :)

[@adamwong7750]

Very good and informative video! Great Job! :)

[@s-class8871]

Thanks, homie!

[@lainlain9966]

You guys the detail is awesome, just need a video editor and director for your video, good job...

[@clover84htx]

Thank you for this video!!! Super informative!!! 👌🤺

[@WyattEarp895]

bro this is a genius idea. im going to use this video and the others u make to help with guiding my students now. keep it up brother love to see what you come up with next

[@s-class8871]

iAmTheEggman895 thank you! Our next video will have more of our exercises that I’d like to think we came up with :)

[@chalkisplacebo.6697]

for a first vid you guys are really put together here

[@rylandelap4734]

You guys do a great job!

[@user-lu9hq6jv4v]

Learned bunches, thank you!

[@khanakornkrittikaruj8574]

Thank you guys .It’s very useful.

[@herbwong1226]

You are the best!! I love you guys!!

[@s-class8871]

Herb Wong much love thank you!

[@easonchen900]

thx!! the content it's help a lot !!

[@herbwong1226]

Bro, this is the best info for beginners.

[@karthikeyankr6458]

Nice sir. Congratulations

[@jawhoney]

Very good boys

[@dudeofvalor9294]

Interesting comment about angling your blade in when on en-guard. Do you have your blades set as well as doing this? Good video and the more this kind of material is out there, the better it helps us fencers :)

[@s-class8871]

Dude of Valor hello good question. Eli angles his blades all the same with a “tang” of down and slightly to the left. Some fencers we know like different cants for different situations (ie vs a lefty setting the tang to down and to the right) treating them almost like gold clubs with each one for a different situation. Personally I do what my brother does and like all my blades mostly the same. You should experiment and find what works for you. Hope that helps :)

[@dudeofvalor9294]

@@s-class8871 Agree and I have mine set in the same way. Sadly time and money makes it tricky to test out different sets for the blades but by in large happy with my configuration. Cheers

[@SSBN506]

@@s-class8871 Setting a blade for a lefty is a very interesting idea never thought of that before. I may experiment with that on one of my older blades.

[@SSBN506]

Love the video very helpful and hope you do more. I have my blade the way you suggested but do run into a problem. When it to the right like you are suggesting I find if someone atacks my right shoulder I tend parry cart and parry the blade into myself. Not all the time but do struggle to not make that mistake. When my blade is slightly to the left of the outside my brain seems to pick the proper perry. Haven't had a lession with my coatch yet to identify that problem. But open to suggestions. My name is Daved channel reflects my sailboat projects.

[@s-class8871]

Catalina Projects I’d need to see it in motion. If you take pics or vids of what your form looks like we can try to analyze. The common mistake people make is a “two part” parry where the hand (wrist) leads THEN the blade follows instead of using their fingers to direct the tip first.

[@3p1l3f]

sorry to jump in, the best you can do is work with your coach, or even a partner, if left handed better,. So your partner sits on garde with the blade on you outer line, hence he or she will be always on the closed line. Start mixing among your partner going for a straight touche (in which cae you i'll just extend your arm blocking his or her attack) and pressing your blade, in which case you will disengage and touche. That way you will get use to feel when there is a real pressure on the blade an when you have the line closes. From there start adding layers to the exercise i.e. the partner pressing your blade while going forward, that is when you should parry counter forth. You will get use to feel that pressure and distinguish when is a real treat and when you can simply use it agains your opponent

[@s-class8871]

Felipe Saucedo chillipe!

[@SSBN506]

@@s-class8871 & Felipe Thanks for the feed back. I will go over it with my coach keeping your suggestions in mind. I am a returning veteran fencer who stopped fencing for 18 years and i love how you can now start to find videos like yours that show the basics we all know but taking it to another level. Looking forward to your content. Your take on the tactical wheel mentioned on reddit i am really looking forward to.

[@DeagleBeagle]

But at 13:00 if you take a step back, you lose right-of-way so you better make sure that he doesn't hit you and that you hit him right after. That seems very risky to me. A beginner is not going to be a good judge of range/distance to be able to do something like that consistently. And I doubt that you would be able to do that as a pro either, versus another pro, consistently. It seems like the rules of fencing encourages aggression so ideally you would want to strike first and get a hit rather than trying to back up or parry then hit back.

[@Rhydderch69]

You're right about the fencing rules giving priority to the attack -- that is literally baked into the vocabulary. The problem is that you didn't lose "priority" when you stepped back, you lost priority before that, when their hand started extending with the point threatening target.

[@BetterExplanation]

If I’m in a middle guard, surely that is better because I have the least amount of motion required to defend all the parts of my target?

[@s-class8871]

I think of it as having more problems to deal with, but I mean, you do you. Everything in fencing comes with a cost and an benefit. There is no perfect. Perfect is knowing when to use what.

[@BetterExplanation]

@@s-class8871 that makes sense. At least in the guard of tierce you are for sure protecting one side.

[@s-class8871]

@@BetterExplanation exactly! Thank for actual watching the video. Appreciate the great question

[@asahar]

Спасибо. Классное видео. Только мне надо подучить английский .

[@s-class8871]

Thank you! Maybe we can try translating it into Russian. We know a lot of Russian fencers. We'll try to get some subtitles going for our next one.

[@asahar]

@@s-class8871 Thank you, but I'm not from russia. I'm from Ukraine. I will write the following comments in Ukrainian

[@s-class8871]

Александр Сахарчук my mistake. We also know a ton of Ukrainian fencers. I used google translate to look up your comment and it detected Russian. My apologies

[@michaeltracyusmc]

The previous comment was penned by my Uncle John Durbin.

[@iantheduellist]

Any practitioner of historical fencing can see the obvious problem with their on guard position, especially those who practice the manuscript of Capo Ferro and Giganti. With a thrusting sword, both smallsword and rapier treatises teach to never give up the direct line of attack. Any fencer with a basic understanding of this key concept can easily exploit this by crossing the line and constraining the oponents blade while you thrust at the same time. This is only one of the numerous glaring issues with modern "fencing".

[@remkovdb]

lesson1: wear a mask, when someone is wielding a blade

[@Rhydderch69]

I cringed instinctively as well... though I recently saw a video of Uriah Jones giving a kinetic lesson, early 1970s, no mask on the student Good lesson... but times were different! :-0

[@Rhydderch69]

(meanwhile, half of my sidebar videos are on "fights over masks in schools.") Times we're living in.