Fencing Club

Okay, so Mr Fieldhouse was ill last week. So no fencing

But this week it was back with a bang and all who attended performed excellently!

This week was working on our parrying (blocking) and riposting skills. A riposte is a thrust or a cut that comes straight after a parry.

We all got into pairs after a quick game of Simon Says. One in each pair (A) had a fencing mask on and would practice their parries, they were only allowed to parry once. The other partner (B) attacked with one attack. When the A’s had parried the B’s first strike, the B’s were allowed one more strike to see if they could find the next opening. It was really good to see some nice combinations coming from everyone, with a string of cut ones and twos, as well as the occasional 3, 4, 5 and 6 being thrown in as well.

They then all lined up against me and one at a time they attacked with a their choice of 3 quick attacks. The variation was really really good, with all the different cuts being done as well as a few well timed thrusts.

Next week, I think we’ll need to have a go at the bridge game and see how well we can fence against each other!

Mr F.

This week was a very productive with my class working very hard at the cuts and defences. They drilled themselves on foot work and the 6 cuts and 4 defences. 

Michael also returned for his test and past it with flying colours.

Towards the end of the lesson, Mphango and Michael lined up to test their guards against everyone elses cut that they had been learning, each person had to use fencing steps to cloes in on Michael or Mphango then step and deliver a cut when they thought they were close enough. At the start everyone kept trying to hit Michael and Mphango’s swords, but after a little correction, they started trying to hit Michael and Mphango.

And suddenly they started being more successful!

One fantastic piece of skill was shown by Hasham (sorry if I spelt it wrong, I don’t have my list with me!), who threw a cut 1 at me, which I blocked. I then asked him how he could hit me quickly, he promptly flipped his sword over, stepped to the side and thrust. PERFECT!!!

A big congratulations to all who graduated this Wednesday!

Each pupil who had been attending the fencing club since September were given a short test to see how much they had learned during their time at fencing club.

They had to show me the salute, the en guard position, how to step forward and how to step back, 4 of the 6 cuts, 2 of the 4 guards that they had learned and how to riposte from a guard. In addition to this, they had to fence each other to the best out of three points whilst showing good control and movement.

Particular mention must go to Tulsi and Aatteeqa who’s bout lasted over a minute with thrusts, all 4 cuts and lunges being used. Excellent stuff! Also, Suraj for his very direct approach to fencing, all his 3 hits were done in under a second or two against Harris. Nathanial was also very good with his lunge, as poor Carl found out, Mphango’s moulinets were fantastic, even if she did show off a little!

So to Nathanial, Aatteeqa, Alana, Suraj, Saif, Ali-Asgar, Sarah, Harris, Tulsi, Mahnoor, Carl, Hunaina, Nadine and Mphango, well done and congratulations! I hope to see you all sign up again later on this year before the Lidget Green tournament that will take place in the summer. Keep practising at home and if you have any questions about fencing, please come and ask!

The newcomers who behaved excellently got a good idea of what they were going to be training in over the next 8 weeks and hopefully they will be inspired by what they saw.

Perhaps, they will be even better than the first group? We’ll have to see…

Nope, no fencing round a bonfire, I’m sorry!

This week, we were refining our cuts and our guards. After the year 6’s went to Winmarleigh Hall and experienced some fencing that had NO CUTS in it, they wanted to get back to good old slashy slashy pokey pokey rather than just pokey pokey.

We had a few very good games of Simon Says, whilst practicing footwork and cuts and defences. Lots of good work was done, although it was the listening skills that let people down!

We then replayed the bridge game, although this time the bridge could hold 4 people, adding a bit of a tactical element to it. It turned out some of the kids were very aware. Although my memory has let me down, as one sneaky attack by the sabre’s was foiled, the defending foil returned the attack with a perfectly timed parry only to be then hit by the cowardly sabre’s partner who had just dispatched the foil’s partner!

There were some brilliant plays and an excellent example of a single time defence (thats blocking your opponents sword and hitting them at the same time!) by Saif who blocked and stepped forward at the same time to thrust his opponent on the mask!

I’ve got some fun and games next week, so be prepared!

Mr F

It was all about a bridge.

There were two groups at fencing tonight. The Foils and the Sabres. Both of them were out for an afternoon stroll. The both made their way down into the valley to cross the bridge that went over the river in the middle of the valley. Problem was, the bridge wasn’t very big. Infact it could only take two people at a time.

This led to the problem. As both groups sat near the bridge, Mphango thought Connor gave her a funny look, then Ali-Asgar said Tulsi stuck her tongue out at him.

Swords were drawn.

Each fencer had to stay on the bridge as long as they could remain undefeated. Each team had 8 fencers. So the battle ensued. Each fence was hard fought and fought well. In the end the Foil’s took the bridge after defeating the Sabres.

Next week, more fun and games.

I know, I know, it’s a week late, but I thought I would write now, whilst I have a quick 2 minutes in between marking various bits and pieces.

Last week, we did a quick bit of revision about cuts 1 and 2, whizzed through 3 and 4 (because they are very easy!) and they did a bit of partner work.

We got into pairs, A and B. A’s had to wear the mask and were only allowed to defend, B’s were attacking A’s but only so they could practise their cuts, not to try to hit them!!! We didn’t have time to swap over, so that’s the first exercise for this week. After that, well, we’ll wait and see. I don’t think there will be any fencing, but maybe some fun!

Mr. F.

P.S. I know you can’t see the video anymore, it is because youtube.com is blocked on the school internet. If you have the internet at home, ask your parent’s first if it is ok to watch it first (just scroll down and press play).

Now, despite having promised to teach the fencers two new cuts (3 and 4) at ten past 3 I changed my mind. After two lessons of techniques and bits of etiquette, I decided that we needed to practice our fencing skills in the best way possible, by fencing!!!

However, we did learn something new today, and something mighty important too! The lunge! This is where, instead of stepping forward, you take a long stride with your front foot leaving your back foot where it is and thrusting your sword out in front of you. This means you can reach a lot further!

So, we quickly had a go a practising our lunges and then swiftly moved on to the fencing matches. There were 15 at the club as well as me, so if we were to fight in pairs, someone would have to fight me!

We decided to make the matches the first to 2 points. You could get one point by hitting someone with any strike, but you could win the match if you hit someone with either a cut 1 or 2 or a lunge as if you did these correctly you would score 2 points.

All the matches were contested very fairly, even between brothers Michael and Carl, although Carl did at one point decide to try and flatten Michael by running into him! Alana (my surname sake) ended up fencing me, but that is only because she is a lefty and therefore even harder to beat for normal right handers. 

Well done everyone, back to the technique next week.

Hello all!

Last night the club only had 8 members, mainly as it was Eid (Eid Mubarak! to everyone who was celebrating!).

Anyway, the 8 who were there did themselves proud and are starting to show some really good technique when performing their cuts.

First of all we started with a salute, which Connor demonstrated excellently. From there we went into our En Guard position and practised our Cut 1. Mphanga reminded us how to do this by cutting across me! I don’t think it is every day she will get to bash a teacher with a sword!

From our Cut 1, we then learned our Cut 2 (see the diagram below!). Cut One is in red and Cut Two is in blue, it is just like creating a big X!

After marching up and down the hall a few times, practising our cuts with our fencing steps, I asked Alana to put a fencing mask on and we got a plastic sabre each. Alana had to try and hit me (and as she is a left handed swordswoman she is a bit tricky to fence against!). When somebody tries to hit you with a sword there are two things you can do! My class got both of them straight away

A: Put your sword in the way to keep you safe (nice one Connor).

B: GET OUT THE WAY!!!!! (excellent idea Jordan). 

Now usually you can just get out the way, if you see what your opponent is going to do, but if you can’t, you need to get your sword in the way as quickly as you can to stop you from getting bashed.

So, against the two cuts we have learned so far, we also learned our first two guards, quarte and tierce. See the pictures below.

Quarte

Tierce

From then on we practised cuts against our partners whilst our partners practised their blocks against our cuts. At the end of the lesson, all the children lined up and were allowed two cuts against me to see if they could do the cuts properly. Everybody did really well and all are starting to show that they might give Jack Sparrow a run for his money soon!

Here are two men having a practice with sabres. They are going slow so you can see what they are doing clearly.

Sabre practice