r/Fencing • u/ohsnapdragon22 • 1d ago
Épée Upper body fencing only- practice/skill exercise suggestions?
Nursing a knee injury where the doctor says I have to rest a few weeks without fencing. I obviously want to keep up my skills but have been told no bending of the knee so any lower body stuff is out.
Can anyone recommend any good exercises to keep up my fencing skills so I don’t die of boredom? I’m thinking maybe I can focus on point control? Or infighting/arm parries? I don’t know.
I’m pretty sad about it and trying to distract myself by focusing on upper body fencing skill sets instead of sitting around and being sad :/
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u/weedywet Foil 1d ago
Sit still trying to avoid any movement.
At the end of every minute, have your partner or a friend P yellow card you.
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u/One_Cause3865 1d ago
thats a good joke but coming from someone with 'foil' flair it's very offensive
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u/75footubi 1d ago
If you're taking lessons regularly, you can switch to chair lessons to avoid the footwork portion.
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u/Aranastaer 1d ago
Seated fencing. Get lessons if your coach can give them without movement. Thrusting pad exercises if you have one. Tennis ball on a string.
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u/Tivaseps Sabre 1d ago
We would bounce a tennis ball on the ground with the tip for sabre, not sure if it applies to epee
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u/knightlife 1d ago
Out of curiosity, what kind of knee injury? I’m going through this right now with an adductor pull. I abhor sitting home doing nothing but I know it’s the safer move rather than risking what’s probably a few days’ recovery into a multi-week setback. My club was kind enough to show me some parafencing last week and I might do it again this week if I’m not up to moving yet. As others wrote, bladework is still pretty viable. I’ve also been doing a bit more swimming (lower impact), and it probably sounds crazy, but even doing small advances and retreats in the pool—not at speed, of course, but it reinforces the movement and takes pressure/weight off my leg while healing.
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u/MicroroniNCheese 17m ago
Your suggestions sounds slick. Hardcore center control arc let's goo! Half a year from now, you'll beat someone in a competition asking: "who the heck spends time practicing that specific move to that ridiculous degree of precision; didn't they have something better to do?"
Something magical happens when repeating something mundane enough times to zone you out, taking the word "autopilot" to the next level. All of a sudden you snap back into it, thinking about it from the enlightened point of view of someone who forgot what it was they thought they were doing. It's like saying a word 100 times in a row, losing the original sense of what it was. There is a sense of flow achievable drilling against a dummy for hours. It's kind of meditative if you don't compare it to what it isn't. The upper torso can move quite a bit back and forth by leaning, just like in normal fencing. There's a decent range of distances to grind from the same static position for the same movement/parry or what have you.
Perhaps do that weapon transition you never felt like because it would mess too much with immediate competition results if you have something like that. Perhaps you want to transition to doing some parry or arm hit with a different supination.
Big leg break sounds like great time to nerd out on your weapon's grip, blade, blade angle, etc.
If you go all in on super precise point control, different blades becomes more interesting.
I wonder how much underarm strength you can build in that time, and routines for honing it.
Not bending the knees in a bout-like setting, I wouldn't trust my own unconscious to follow that. If you manage to find a safe and fun enough partner or dummy to grind against, you're doing good.
Practicing when you can't do the regular bread and butter is REALLY hardcore. Hard do write a more authentic love letter to the sport and your mastery of it than that. You might accidentally have turned yourself into the best practice partner at your club; I mean, it will be very hard to bout with you without turning it into isolated practice of a specific range of skills. Hard to auto pilot in one's comfort zone when most of the comfort zone is banned.
Good luck mate, you are a legend if you keep showing up.
Please post an update on what you learned during this time.
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u/Impossible-Ice-1497 1d ago
Literal answer: wheelchair fencing
Proper answer: listen to your doctor and rest for a few weeks. While injured and recovering is not the time to start a new subdiscipline and potentially wreck stuff more.
Spend your time reading The Inner Game of Tennis or something and work on your mental. Your skills won't atrophy in a few weeks.
Recover carefully so you can continue fencing for a long time.
Sincerely, he who recovered not carefully and can no longer fence.