Online Training

This page contains links to various exercises that you can do at home to support the training given at the club or, if you have signed up for a course, some of them will give you a good introduction and even get you ahead of the game!

If you are ‘staying home’ then there are some which make good home exercise routines. Do make sure you are exercising in a safe place with good flooring, no obstacles to jump or fall into and especially if using any makeshift swords!

These videos have been chosen as being the best available for their subject and most closely match the techniques taught at Blackheath. Where they are hosted on Youtube feel free to follow suggested links, but preferably from the same coach. Even top class fencers do not necessarily make the best coaches! If they are hosted on Facebook you should be able to watch them without an account.

This page is NOT on the website menu but is made available to Club Members and Adult trainees so please bookmark the page so that you can find it again! Tip: You may find it useful to go into Youtube video settings and increase the speed to 1.25x on some of these.

Although split into footwork and bladework sections, the key to fencing well is combining the two skills effectively. This is done by getting the timing right!

“Arm first, legs last” is the general rule for an attack (in Foil and Sabre) but sometimes there are preparatory footwork steps that need to be taken. Footwork is absolutely key to getting that touch!

As we find appropriate online resources we will add them to the page

A brief history of fencing (British Fencing website) The author, Malcolm Fare, is owner/curator of the Fencing Museum in Cheshire which can be visited on appointment

General training

Lines of Guard (we will tell you about the other lines at the club!) By the way, the hand in the middle, as illustrated, is NOT a line of defence!
Aimed at those who really want to take their fencing to the next level it is still very relevant to the beginner. Just don’t be put off by the ‘years of practice’ he keeps on about!

Footwork

Feel free to move on to Coach Tyler’s Intermediate and Advanced exercises that follow this one on Youtube. If you are an adult trainee stop if you do not recognise the terminology!
You can’t be falling over mid move. Balance is important! Here are some balance exercises. Some the same as Beginner Workout but plenty of new ones too!

More advanced Footwork

New Adult trainees should probably wait a few weeks on this one!

Blade work – Fundamentals

“Hold your weapon like a bird. Too tight, you will strangle it. Too lightly, it will fly away”

Scaramouche – Film 1954

For beginners, get the arm straight FIRST, take aim, then deliver the hit with the legs. As your accuracy improves you can shorten the time between arm and leg movement. Tyler is really taking a big chance moving arm with leg; he may not get priority!
Tyler, being American, uses numbers for the guard positions, in the UK we use the traditional French. Four=Quarte, six=Sixte, eight=Octave and seven = Septime

Blade work – Advanced

Zemowitz Wojiekowski (Ziemeck) is UK coach of World No2 Richard Kruse and runs ZFW Fencing in north London

Maestro Ziemek draws our attention to the idea of broken time.

Posted by ZFW Fencing Club on Sunday, 5 April 2020

More of Ziemek’s training videos below on the FCL FB page. If you do not have a Facebook account you should still be able to see them, otherwise consider creating an account with minimal information about yourself and set the security levels really tight.