Fencing
Mastering fencing footwork: Essential drills and techniques
If you want to glide across the fencing strip and outwit your opponent, footwork drills need to be part of your training.
How do fencing pros such as Miles Chamley-Watson learn to move with such ease on the fencing strip? It takes countless hours of strategic practice to get it right. The one-time Olympic medalist explains the goal of his training regimen.
"Everything is very progressive,” Chamley-Watson says. “Everything we do is catered to what will help me in fencing.”
Miles Chamley-Watson
© Ryan Kelly / Red Bull Content Pool
One of the most essential parts of any fencer’s training is practicing footwork drills. Fencing footwork exercises are designed to train your muscles to alternate between small, refined steps and explosive bursts of movement. Just like Chamley-Watson’s routine, your own training plan should focus on progressive exercises that help you build a strong foundation.
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Understanding fencing footwork
Fencing is a game of intense precision. If you want to land a hit on your opponent and score a point, you need to be the exact right distance away. Even one millimeter off could be the difference between victory and defeat. Fencing footwork drills teach your mind and body to make those meticulous moves automatically. After all, there’s no time to plan your strategy in the heat of a fencing bout. Amid a competition, instinct and muscle memory should drive your footwork.
Fencing footwork drills help you break down all the important movements, building form and accuracy over time. You can expect a lot of exercises in the en garde position, the fencing starting stance with one foot forward and one foot back. You’ll establish the proper form and polish your advances and retreats — respectively, the forward and backward steps you take to move toward and away from your opponent. You’ll also practice lunging at your opponent via a powerful push forward from your back leg when you’re ready to attack.
Miles Chamley-Watson in New York City
© Keith E Morrison / Red Bull Content Pool
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Benefits of footwork drills
Regular footwork practice helps your form in all kinds of ways on the fencing strip.
- Increased agility and speed. Footwork drills help you move quickly without sacrificing grace and precision.
- Better coordination. You’ll train your brain to move your body exactly where you want to go.
- Improved balance. Consistent practice helps you control your center of gravity as you advance and retreat in a matter of seconds.
- Stronger defensive strategy. As you improve in areas such as distance estimation, you gain tactical awareness, making you a formidable opponent.
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Types of footwork drills
Basic drills
If you don’t establish the right form when you start fencing, it’s incredibly difficult to correct as you move further into your training. Basic footwork drills help you lay a solid foundation from the beginning. Simple exercises such as stepping in place in the en garde position get your body used to the motions at a steady pace.
Advanced drills
Learning to fence is a lot like learning dance choreography. Once you’re steady on your feet, you can start to add more intricate footwork. As your footwork improves, you’ll also work on increasing speed. When you can change tempo instantly, your opponent is less likely to see an attack coming. You’ll also learn to estimate distance more accurately, so you’ll know exactly when to strike.
Partner drills
Max Heinzer in Hallwyl, Switzerland
© Valeriano Di Domenico / Red Bull Content Pool
One of the best ways to prepare for a match is to practice with a friend. In fact, partner drills are especially effective at improving your distance judgment. That’s because it’s much easier to tell how far away your target is when facing a real-life opponent. Grab a buddy and practice sequences of advanced lunges, or play the “glove game.”
Weapon-based drills
While all categories of fencing share some universal footwork traits, there are some slight differences within each discipline. Foil, epee, and sabre fencing each have different valid target areas where you can score a point on the body of your opponent. Sabre matches can move especially fast, so agility is key. Foil fencing has the smallest target area, so moving as little as a centimeter in the right direction makes all the difference. Epee matches start slow and end with a rapid battle, so you’ll want to master changing tempo.
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How to perform fencing footwork drills
Footwork drill coordination
When you’re ready to practice moving across the fencing strip, you can try a straightforward drill of running forward and backward, no special stance needed. Warm up in 30-second intervals, then move back to the en garde position and practice quickly moving forward and backward. Once you’re used to the back-and-forth maneuver, you can practice short sets of simple back-to-back advances and retreats.
As you progress, mix it up with more complicated sequences. After stepping in place en garde, try repetitions of stepping in place onto your full foot, then tapping your front toe or heel. Start your “step, step, toe (or heel), step” drill at a slow pace, then increase speed to medium and end your drill at a fast pace. When you reach maximum speed, it will almost sound like you’re tap dancing.
Footwork drills for distance judging
If you’re working on distance control, you can add an extra challenge to your advance and retreat drills and practice stepping at different intervals. Take a large advance and a large retreat, then follow it with a shorter movement forward and back. To enhance your technique further, gradually increase the speed of these moves or practice repetitions that alternate between slow fast pace.
If you’re ready to practice with a weapon, you can try hitting your target with sequences of “advance, lunge, hit.” Set up your target against a wall, get into the en garde position, and take two steps back. Then, as the drill name suggests, you’ll advance, lunge forward, and strike your target.
One popular partner exercise among fencers involves trying to land a hit with something soft and short, such as a bandana, rag, or glove. You’ll practice a similar set of “advance, lunge, hit” if you’re aiming for your partner while they retreat away from you. This drill is great for learning how to avoid getting hit without retreating too far back to follow up with an accurate counter-attack.
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Tips for effective footwork practice
Alexander Choupenitch attacks
© Honza Pelikán/Red Bull
Get the most out of your footwork drills with these three pointers:
- Set achievable goals. It’s alright to start slow as you master the fundamentals. Aim for easily attainable goals with each practice session.
- Master and maintain your form. Correct posture and form is the first step to developing your technique. It’s important to get it right before you try anything advanced.
- Practice consistently. There’s no time to hesitate in a fencing match. If you want these movements to be ingrained in your muscles, practicing frequently is non-negotiable.
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Sample footwork training routine
If you’re struggling to figure out how to start with footwork drills, here’s an example of a routine that’s great for beginners.
- Hold the en garde position. Get your foundation right from the start. Begin in the en garde position, but extend both arms out for stability, and hold for 30 seconds.
- Hold your lunge. Take a wide step forward as if you were lunging in attack at your opponent, then hold again for 30 seconds.
- Test your balance. Return to a normal standing position, feet hip-width apart. Raise your right leg and hold it in the air for three seconds. Do this three times and then repeat with your left leg.
- Toe tap in place. Move on to coordination exercises with 30 seconds of quick steps in place while in the en garde position. You can start slow and increase speed gradually.
- Lunge form practice. Perfect your lunge form with 30 seconds of in-and-out lunges. You’ll start in an en garde position, jump into your lunge, and then back to en garde until time is up.
- Advance and retreat. Spend 30 seconds advancing and retreating a half-step distance. Then, increase to a full step for the same duration. Close out by testing your coordination, adding two steps backward for every one step you advance.
- Advance lunge. Similar to the above drill, practice 30 seconds of one-to-one advance lunges. Then, add some step variation, taking two advancing steps forward before fully lunging.
Footwork drills give you an edge over the competition
Start with the basics and always prioritize proper form. If you build a strong habit of practicing footwork drills, you’ll be conquering your competitors on the fencing strip before you know it.