Eight-Week Second-session Foil Class

Week 1

Introduction

Structure is about the same as Beginners' class. Line drills are still the staple material. But since the lines are shorter, there's a lot more footwork. After the students have gotten the hang of the night's lesson, make them stretch out the attacking side with a preparation of several advances. The defender usually gets bored and counterattacks, which provides valuable feedback. After a while, the structure deteriorates into single-phrase free fencing, which is OK.

If there are an odd number of students, we'll rotate people in and out of short private lessons during the second half.

Footwork

Start where frosh left off.

Review

Straight and counter parries in 4 and 6
Lunge, advance-lunge attacks.
Volleys of 4-ripostes (counter-6 vs 4 for L vs R).

New Material

none, tonight. Review usually uses up the hour.

Week 2: The other parries

Footwork

Begin pushing them for speed. Take it up to about 75% of what you'd do yourself. (Faster than Jun wants us to go.)

Review

straight & counter 4 and 6

New material

Theory of parries of 7, 8, 1, 2. 7 and 8 for long distance, 1 and 2 for in-fighting. Corresponding ripostes are also on the menu tonight. Emphasize importance of keeping distance so you can get your point on. We'll begin with the guard of 4, which makes them realize that you can start from any position.
Stretch it out with advance-lunge attack, defender does two retreats.

Week 3: Evading parries

Footwork

Add a lot of extra advance-lunges into the mix this week.

New material

Evasion Drill. Define an "attacker" and a "defender" side.
  1. Attacker keeps arm in line.
  2. Attacker advances one step.
  3. Defender retreats one step and parries once. (Use lots of different parries!)
  4. Attacker evades the parry and returns to point in line. Adjust distance.
  5. Repeat until you get to the wall, then switch roles.
They usually need about 20 minutes to get this one right. When they do, explain that this is the first half of an attack, done over and over. They won't understand.

Line Drills
Tell the defenders what to do -- they dictate the action. Begin with 4, then counter 6, then mix 'em up.

Week 4. Drawing the attack

The tough part this week is that the fencer with the initiative is not the one doing the big action. I decide on the spot whether to tell them about this or not.

I usually stop in between steps of this drill to explain the progression of who's doing what to whom.

Footwork

Focus on small steps and long lunges.

Line drills

Simple beat attack. Initiator is simulating making a mistake (ineffective attack, or letting opponent come too close).
  1. A presents the point.
  2. B hits with a beat attack. Use whichever beat they're good at, in the event of L vs R.
Invitation to a beat, to set up the riposte. Initiator is pretending to have made the mistake in the previous drill.
  1. A presents the point.
  2. B attacks with a beat-4.
  3. A parries and ripostes. (4 for RvsR; 6 for L vs R)
Invitation accepted. Initiator tries to do the last phrase, but the attacker infers that there's a trap.
  1. A presents the point.
  2. B feints attack with a beat-4.
  3. A parries.
  4. B evades the parry and hits.

Spread out the attacks, and do everything with adv-lunge or longer.

Week 5. Attacks and ripostes with prises-de-fer

This lesson is just about the same as week 4, but done with prises-de-fer, circular parries, and double-circle disengages. (It's a fun drill, so I've never had anyone get bored yet.) The line drills should go faster. I anticipate that they should have the hand motions correct by 8:35 or so. That's when you bring in the new material, which will take the rest of the class.

Footwork

Emphasize different speeds of advance and retreat. Make them do: groups of 3 fast; groups of 3 slow. Then groups of 6, composed of combinations of the above. Often, I don't tell them this is what they're doing.

Review

Like the 3 stages of last week, but with (RvsR) prise-de-fer 6, counter-4 parry. (LvsR) prise-de-fer 4, counter-4 parry.

New Material

Let the initiator take different-speed retreats with the parry in Phase 2. They'll see that there are two kinds of p-de-f: The small circle from lunge distance that turns into a straight attack with steel, and the large sweep from close distance that needs an angulated thrust.

Stretch out the distance, and this will turn into unstructured phrases that will look like parts of a bout. They have fun with this, so encourage it.

Week 6. The Other Ripostes

From any parry, there are two ripostes. One with steel, one without. Not all of them are useful, but it's hard to say which is which for any particular fencer. We're going to try them all, and find out which ones you like.

Footwork

Nothing special required for this lesson. If they look clueful, you can introduce the fleche. (Actually, this crowd probably already knows it.)

Line Drills

Right vs. Right
Initial ParryWithout SteelWith Steel
4 You know this one. Lower the point in an arc to a point under the arm. (Transfer to opposition in 8.) Hit flank.
6 Release the blade and aim under the arm. Hit in 8. You know this one.
7 Raise point and hit in 4. Turn your hand palm up (Transferring the engagement to 6) and hit as above. (Don't step in close too early!)
8 Release the blade and swing your point around opponent's arm in an arc. Hit in 4 exactly as if he'd dropped his guard. Extend arm, keeping your bell guard against your opponent's blade. Hit in 7. You know this one.
Left vs. Right
4 Release the blade and aim under the arm. Hit in 8. Lower the point to aim at the chest. Without raising your hand, push through the blade and hit.
6 You know this one. Release and hit. Swing your point out and down, transferring engagement to 7. Hit in 8.
7 Release the blade, swing it up around the elbow into 4. Or coupé, which is more fun. Turn your hand knuckles-up, and push straight through the blade. Hit low-line. (This one is hard to do, and not often useful.)
8 You know this one. Don't forget to angle the wrist. Move your hand outward, push straight through the blade, and hit the kidney. Opponent's blade ends up pointed at the floor off to the side. (This one is hard to do, but devastating.)

Week 7. The Second Intention

Week 8: The Tactical Wheel