09-29-2003, 04:25 AM
Thanks for sharing Pete, this will hopefully get me pointed in the right direction.
The fencing club has some good club officers that do informal classes for new-comers, and there's also a heavy french accented woman who everyone looks up to and drills with some eccentric exercises: playing patty-cake to improve hand coordination, blind hand-push/release games to train parry and engage instincts, and footwork exercises to reinforce proper advance, retreat and double advance/retreat technique and reactive use.
Right now I'm working on doing the basics correctly. Training instincts to associate retreat and parry, engage and advance in the right sequence, and staying in a proper stance throughout. In fact that lesson you gave about traditional and modern style puts the theory and practice in better perspective. In drills and sparring, I'm sacrificing some fun and holding back aggressiveness, to quail speedy wild flailing for slower controlled technique. They tell me the speed and power will come once the technique is practiced, and I believe that. The potential speed and quick reactions will still be there when I need it, and if the proper technique is ingrained into muscle memory then I can utilize it when instinct kicks in.
I hope to do it right the first time (relatively of course) so I get it right as a beginner so I don't correct it later. I wish I could spare more time to attend club meetings, but such is life in balancing needed work and hobby.
The fencing club has some good club officers that do informal classes for new-comers, and there's also a heavy french accented woman who everyone looks up to and drills with some eccentric exercises: playing patty-cake to improve hand coordination, blind hand-push/release games to train parry and engage instincts, and footwork exercises to reinforce proper advance, retreat and double advance/retreat technique and reactive use.
Right now I'm working on doing the basics correctly. Training instincts to associate retreat and parry, engage and advance in the right sequence, and staying in a proper stance throughout. In fact that lesson you gave about traditional and modern style puts the theory and practice in better perspective. In drills and sparring, I'm sacrificing some fun and holding back aggressiveness, to quail speedy wild flailing for slower controlled technique. They tell me the speed and power will come once the technique is practiced, and I believe that. The potential speed and quick reactions will still be there when I need it, and if the proper technique is ingrained into muscle memory then I can utilize it when instinct kicks in.
I hope to do it right the first time (relatively of course) so I get it right as a beginner so I don't correct it later. I wish I could spare more time to attend club meetings, but such is life in balancing needed work and hobby.