? Coaches Compendium

 

The Épée Lesson

Fencers use one-on-one training with a coach to achieve a high skill level. The individual lesson perfects technique, tactical problem solving, and the traits necessary to fence at a competitive level. This one on one training is "part and parcel" of many combat systems. Unlike other systems, however, fencing has a long history of the coach/instructor using a variety of simulated actions to teach the student, rather than drilling or sparring.

The individual lesson builds templates of possible fencing actions for the student. These templates help the fencer recognize bouting situations as they occur and assist the fencer in developing strategies. Through these templates, a fencing student begins to recognize an opponent's actions a and tactics. Through the lesson, the student learns to "see" a bout and to develop counter-strategies against the opponent's actions.

To this end, your ability to cue1 a lesson is an important skill. Your cues in the lesson are the way to communicate information to the student as they first "see the bout" in your lessons. The cues you give should reflect the situations, timings, and actions in a fencing bout as realistically as is practical.


"Open" versus "Closed" Skills

Fencing is an "open" motor skill. The simple definition of an open motor skill is one in which an athlete's environment is constantly changing.2 This is in contrast to a closed skill sport, in which the same physical motion is repeated over and over again. In a closed skill sport the problems presented to the athlete do not change. In an open skilled sport, the athlete is constantly given novel situations and problems to solve. We can contrast an "open skilled" sport such as fencing, tennis, or basketball with a "closed skill" sport such as running or swimming.

In a fencing bout, the student must:

  1. OBSERVE the opponent and the opponent's choices of actions.
  2. DECIDE what action to take to defeat the opponent's action.
  3. ACT on this decision at the right time.
  4. And finally, EXECUTE the action in a proper and efficient way.

These four things determine the stimulus/decision/response chain of the fencer. In the list above, these actions are numbered only for convenience; the fencer does not execute these actions in a set order while bouting. In fact, several of the steps -- such as OBSERVE and DECIDE -- occur in parallel while the fencer is maneuvering and making preparations of their own. The fencer's own preparations and actions also impact the actions of the opponent. The fencer is constanctly acting, observing and digesting new information.

In a fencing bout, the physical relationship between a fencer and their opponent changes rapidly. Scoring against the opponent is determined by four separate steps (this time in order of occurrence):

  1. The fencer must recognize or anticipate the opportunity to score.
  2. The fencer must consider a list of possible responses to the opportunity.
  3. The fencer must then decide on the action they will use to score.
  4. Finally, the fencer must execute that movement before the opportunity has passed.3

It's useful to think of these steps much like a fencer trying to pass through a swinging door. The fencer watches the motions of the door, decides when and how to step through the door, and then moves in a timely manner before the door swings shut. If they time their movement badly, they do not pass through the doorway without getting hit.

In the lesson, the emphasis should not only be on "doing" but also on "seeing". This aspect of "seeing" in the lesson has both explicit and implicit aspects. Explicitly, your student will execute an action under certain conditions, such as dropping your hand, or stepping forward. Implicitly, your student is getting a lot of peripheral information that is independent of your commands, such as seeing the change in your center of gravity as you start an attack or the position of your hand as you move your blade.

Many of your actions will contain information from the context in which you put them as you give the lesson. This information hides in the "look and feel" of your cues. By using your body and arm to give proper fencing actions as cues gives your lesson emotion and content the student would not get otherwise. Correct cues make the lesson come "alive" and transforms you into a teacher of fencing, rather than an animated fencing dummy.Your attacks should be a faster speed than your maneuvering footwork, for example. A small fast beat cannot be avoided, but a slower search for the student's blade should be. The goal is to show your students the things they will see on the strip, even if it is in a modest way.

If your student can recognize the start of the opponent's movement, it is more likely that the student will be "ahead" of the opponent. This gives them the time to make correct decisions and then to execute the correct action at the right time. This "being ahead" can make up for a lack of mechanical speed of execution (movement time) by the student.


(Re)defining Cues

"I don't give cues. I make fencing actions" —Michael Marx

"Not to use real motions in teaching is stupid...but in épée, it is criminal!" —Zbigniew Czajkowski


The principals of giving a good cue are:

  1. Realistic motion—the cue must replicate the movement the student will see in the bout or replicated as well as you can perform them.
  2. Realistic distance—most fencing actions happen at specific distances (think of the differences in distance between a parry and riposte versus a counter-attack). The cue should match the action to the distance.
  3. The cue should facilitate the making of an additional actions/cues by you when called for in the lesson.
  4. The cue should carry the emotional context of the action as performed by a potential opponent.

Giving realistic cues does not mean fencing with the student. Nor does it mean that your actions in a lesson have to be fast. It does mean that your movements in the lesson should be as much like fencing actions as possible. Your point should be presented at the right time and in the right place. Your attacks against the student should be in such a way that they could score if the student doesn't take the appropriate action (such as a parry). Your defense should stop any half-hearted attacks that are not given in earnest by the student, and your arm and leg positions should reflect the ones that an opponent would use in the bout.

IMPORTANT NOTE: in this document, I'm describing a technical/tactical lesson for a student who has mastered the fundamental skills of the sport and is actively competing and training, even at a low level. If training a complete beginner, my lessons would be cued slightly differently than some of the examples given here. I'll talk about cues for a beginner at the end of the document.


Cuing Parameters—Blade Motion in the Lesson
(Or, "Opening" vs "Open")

Your mantra for giving lessons should be: "Attack into my opening line, feint into my open line". If the cue for an action is thought of as a "swinging door", then the student should be hitting as the door is moving. You should not be "holding the door open" for the student to make the hit. The "when" of an action is critical, and that should be reflected in your cues and the behavior of your students. The student should hit your target while your blade is still moving; interrupting your action. This may mean that for a less skilled fencer who has a longer recognition, decision, and execution time, your cue may have to be made slower—and occasionally slightly larger . Do not compensate for a student's lack of skill by making your blade action overly large. Distorting a cue for "clarity" removes the thing the student needs to see and understand: the connection between the start of the opponent's movement, where the opponent is going to end up at the end of that movement, and when that student's hit should occur.

Finally, don't "hold the door open for the student" to step through. Except for an absolute beginner learning a new action, there should be a finite time for the student to hit before you "close the door" on their action There should always be a sense of immediacy to your cue, appropriate for the level of the student.

Your point and blade placement is important. When you ask for an opposition, there should be a blade for the student to oppose. If you are holding your blade wide or too far away, it introduces both time and extra movement the student does not need. When you cue the student for a parry, your blade should be a threat to the student's target and not simply a suggestion of an attack that the student could ignore in a bout—or be as successful counter-attacking as parrying. Counter-attacks not have a huge target to hit, and again be presented with a realistic "window" of opportunity. In all your actions there should be a sense of "immediacy" on the part of the student, a feeling that if they do not do action at the proper time, the hit will fail.

Again, the emphasise, this does not mean that the student should have to act very quickly, or rush. Just that the line is not held open for them indefinately

A good example an unrealistic cue is the one given for a hit to the top of the hand. It's common to see coaches make a very deep low line (octave) parry with their weapon pointed down at the floor. This position is held for a considerable amount of time. Often a coach takes such a deep parry that their hand is going backwards while the student is extending. They solve this problem by punching their hand into the student's extension as it finishes, which is as ridiculous as it sounds.


Cuing Parameters—Distance

In fencing—as in the familiar word problems from grade school math—distance and time are closely related. The most valuable skill you can give your student is an understanding of the relationship between the distance to the opponent and how their timing, speed, and choice of actions allow them to score.

Showing your student skill appropriate timing and distance for their hits is vital. For example: if a student is just outside of their lunge distance to your chest, your choice to give small, foil-like cues for a lunge to the deep target is a mistake. The student's peers would be able to parry an attack made on that small of a with little difficulty. The small cue insures that the opponent's hand will have stopped moving well before the student's attack reaches the target. The opponent will have no difficulty in making a parry or counter-attacak. However, if you show a larger, more natural sweep for the student's blade, you've given the student a situation in which a direct attack might make sense. The student has time to hit in the window you've given them.

A student with a high level of skill (both physical and technical) is going to be able to score from a further distance with the same cue then someone with less skill. The implication here is that as the student grows in skill and understanding, your cuing in the lesson has to change to reflect the student's abilities to see sooner, to act sooner, and to execute with more speed.

Gary Copeland, past National Coach and an instructor at US Fencing's Coaches College for many years, has said:

"The trick is to simply determine how fast a student can attack and also defend and work within that time frame. And if any action or distance is greater than one-tempo, the student must make the appropriate subsequent actions for those extra tempos."

There is more discussion of this idea here in a more general perspective: Cues in Tempo

To complicate the use of time and distance in a lesson, épeé has two distances: the near target of the opponent's arm/hand and the deeper target of the thigh/body. A simple rule to begin your coaching career is that the deeper target is always an additional piece of footwork/handwork away from the near target. If your student can hit your hand with an extension, your chest is an advance or lunge away and may require an additional blade action as well, such as a disengage or a strong beat.

One final comment about distance. Your arm makes distance, just like your feet. When in an extended on guard, your hand/arm is close to the student, and your body is further away. If you pull your arm back so that your hand is only a few inches in front of the chest, you have presented the student only one target and one distance over which to score.


Cuing the Direct Thrusts to the Chest

Direct hits to the chest occur because the student is very close to the opponent and the opponent's hand/arm is not available as a target. The opponent's hand may not be available because they've moved it out of the way (either in response to an action from the student or as part of the their own preparations). The student may also hit an opponent in the body when the student has control of the opponent's blade and can "carry" the blade over the longer time/distance necessary to hit. In short, the opponent,s arm is either be too late—or in the wrong place—to defend when the student attacks a deep target.

Given this, your cues to the student to attack your chest must occur at a realistic distance, as a result of preparation or a "mistake" by you in simulating the opponent. It's true that attacks can come from out of distance against a distracted opponent that the student has lulled to sleep, or is simply not paying attention. For the most part, however, long, out of distance attacks to the deep are punished by the opponent

A beginning épée fencer may need your arm to be out of their line of sight before they feel comfortable attacking your chest. Often that results in a cue that is not very realistic: an arm that is far down and out of the way for no reason, or a tip that is high in the air. If a beginning fencer needs more encouragement, keep the arm in front of you, but move your hand and point more "off the line". You can further emphasize the body target by slightly leaning forward at the same time that you give a blade cue for the chest, or making a slight step forward. The student sees your point moving away from the path to the target and also "feels" that your chest is moving forward. In this cue, it might be possible for them to hit your arm, but the chest should be an easier target. If the student starts their blade motion at the beginning of your cue as they should (it's a mistake for them to wait until your arm is completely out of the way) their blade is moving forward while yours is moving away. They should feel that there is ample time to hit.

A more advanced student will need less encouragement before going to your deep target. The window a skilled fencer needs to hit is that much smaller, and they tend to fence closer. The skilled student will recognize the cue earlier, start sooner, and accelerate to the target. The student knows that if they start on time with decisive footwork and a good extension, they will beat you to the target, risking a double at the worst. Decisiveness is key. You should test that decisiveness at times: extend late into the student's attack to teach them to finish strong and high on your chest. That is what would happen in a bout.

Indirect attacks will occur when you sweep for the student's blade at the appropriate distance, and with the right sized motion. This will trigger an indirect attack to the deep target. You can give this cue starting from a neutral4 or low on guard, with your student in a high on guard. From this position, your hand moves up and slightly over. This semi-circular cue allows you to control the amount of time, the size of the"window" you are giving the student. You can raise the blade slower, or move the tip of your blade more to the outside. The faster (and smaller) the search, the smaller window the student will have to hit.

If you are starting from a high line position (and the student is in low line) your point travels down then left or right to find your student's blade. As the student deceives, your hand drops below the students' extending point. Again, the simulation is one of your attempting to seize or beat the student's blade, failing to find the blade, but continuing with a forward thrust from momentum. This action can be slow and "casual" with a beginner, but tighter and faster with a more advanced student. This encourages the student to act with some immediacy to finish their attack before your blade can come out. Again the emphasis is for the student not to wait until you finish your action, but learn to recognize the sitatuion and seise it early.

If the student is in the low line and you are starting in the high line, your cue mimics an attempt to engage/beat in octave or septime. Your point leads, with your hand going down and then sweeping to the right or left, depending. Again, with a less skilled student, your hand will stay low, and you can exaggerate the follow-through from your search to some degree: your hand can continue to travel to the outside or inside when you don't find the student's blade. With a skilled student your hand will remain low only long enough to finish the search, and then move again to make an second cue, or simulating a late parry or counter-attack.


Hitting the Thigh and Flank

Hitting the flank is rarely done (but it should be trained more often than it is), while the thigh is a natural target below the hand. I treat the thigh as a deep target for lesson purposes, though that is not always the case in a real bout.

Ask yourself why someone hits either of these targets in a bout. The thigh is a good target of misdirection against an opponent that has made an ill-conceived sweep for the fencer's blade. Rather than attack the chest, the fencer drops to the thigh. The same is true of the flank, except in the case of an opposite handed fencer, in which a direct thrust from the outside becomes an indirect thrust to the flank. The flank is also hit when the opponent makes a sudden closing of the space, and the student makes a hard action on the opponent's blade (such as a beat in the inside high line) and a short arm thrust to the nearest target. The flank can also be hit directly, such as when fencing an opponent of the opposite hand.

The best cue for the student to hit the flank or thigh is to make a half step forward with a slight withdrawal of your hand. Your arm withdraws slightly (move the elbow directly towards your ribs), while moving the point of your weapon up slightly. The student should see your arm is moving away, and the flank/thigh is opening and a viable target. For a student of the same hand, you can also collapse your hand to the inside somewhat to expose more of your flank as you step. If the student has a difficult time distinguishing between the flank and thigh hits, no laws are violated by simply telling the student to hit one or the other.

None of these cues need to be exaggerated. There is no need to raise your weapon up high to encourage the student to attack either the thigh or flank. Start with the smallest and slowest cue the student can distinguish and work on making window for the student to score realistic, but achievable. If the student is having a hard time seeing the cue, give the cue slower (rather than bigger) and use your voice to prompt them.


Cuing the Thrust to the Hand

The opponent's hand may be struck from the top, bottom, and both sides. It may be hit with a straight thrust, angled thrust, or flick. It is not important to make a different cue for the type of thrust you want the student to use (though an angled thrust is often done by the student a much closer distance than a straight thrust or flick). What is important is that the cue for the student to attack the hand reflect a situation that the student is likely to see. If you want a flick rather than a regular extension, simply tell the student.

Every hand hit is slightly different. In discussing the cue to hit the hand, we should ask why an opponent is hit in a particular way for each of the directions. For example, the opponent gets hit on the top of their hand when:

  1. The opponent is attempting to make a "dig" under the student's hand.
  2. The opponent is making an attack to the student's lower lines and is out of distance, is too slow, or telegraphs the attack.
  3. The opponent has tried to sweep or oppose the student's blade (moving their blade from the student's outside to inside), and has over-rotated their hand on the search, leaving it low and exposed. The opponent may be trying to make a thrust from this position anyway.
  4. The opponent is closing the space without having extended, and their reaction to the start of the student's attack is a late thrust while the student's point is still above their hand.

To cue the student in the first case, start your cue from a neutral on guard, lowering your épée from the elbow, and raising the point of your blade as if to score under the student's bell. Your blade should be parallel to the floor, your point within a few inches of the student's bell, but perhaps not directly lined up with their target. Pronating your hand in the cue will leave a pocket for the student to fix their point on. The student should hit you as you start your forward motion to "dig" under the student's arm. You are making a valid thrust, but the student has seen the start of your action, and you are slightly behind.

In the second case, try to hit your student in the upper thigh from slightly too far away. . The student's hit is successful hitting the top of your hand because you attempted to hit a "deep" target from the wrong space or because you've moved your hand and foot at the same time. The student is ready, sees the start of your attempt to hit, and intercepts you.

In the third case, start with a neutral on guard, with your bell slightly below the student's point. From this position, make an attempt to engage and capture the student's blade as if you were going to make an engagement in the high line to transfer the student's blade to the low line. As you fail to find the student's blade, let the momentum of your attempt carry your hand slightly down and forward. The student disengages from your attempt to take and hits the top of your hand.

Finally, in our fourth example, the cue is to get close to the student with your bell low. Your extension starts after the student's extension, encouraging them to accelerate to score to the forward target. This is also a good cue for a flick thrust to the top of the hand, but a normal extension is also correct.

Along similar lines, we can think of the times an opponent's hand is vulnerable. It is most likely to hit an opponent under the hand when:

  1. The opponent is attempting to reach over the top of the student's bell to score to the top of the student's hand/arm.
  2. The opponent has raised their hand in the process of making a flick or coupé attack.
  3. The opponent has tried to engage the student's blade in a high line and exposed the underneath of their hand while doing so.

To replicate the first action, from a neutral on guard raise your hand slightly at the elbow to thrust over the top of your student's bell. Again, your point is near the student's bell, but not directly pointed at the student's target. You will often find yourself making a small "coupé-like" action when doing so, but this motion should be a simple up and down one. There is no need to lift the blade and hold it up while coming forward. This is not what happens in a bout.

The second cue is the one you see the most often from coaches cuing a hit under the hand: make a very small coupé against the student. There is nothing wrong with this as a cue, but your action should be fleeting, and the student should not have a large amount of time to make the hit. This cue is often exaggerated by some coaches who leave the weapon tip up in the air for an extended amount of time. If you need to give a novice student more time to hit, start the cue by pulling the hand back while still keeping the coupé small. This gives the student more time to see the start of the action, without "floating" your hand for too long.

In the third instance, make a lateral search for the students blade either to the outside or the inside, and let your hand drift high. Your point stays in front of you. The student makes a small disengage and hits under your hand, with or without pronation.

A note about making the hit under the hand: classical épée teachers often ask for a very strong, pronated "dig" from their students to make the hit under the hand. I don't feel that it's necessary to pronate the hand to make this hit, but I do feel it's important to keep the student's hand forward and in a position to make an immediate follow through action if the hit under the hand misses (as it often does). If you do want your students to pronate to make this hit, keep the angle shallow. This will facilitate a second action if necessary, and let the student make the hit at nearly their full extension. If the distance of the student is correct, the hit to the underneath the opponent's hand can be made mostly straight ahead, with little angulation.

A hit to the inside of the opponent's hand in a bout most often comes from:

  1. The opponent has approached to a close distance with their hand exposed, and their surprise reaction to an attack from the student is to extend.
  2. The opponent has made a circular search for the student's blade, and has left their hand open at the end of it.
  3. The opponent has poorly coordinated their hand and feet in an attack, and their hand is late in coming out on their attack, making them vulnerable to a counter-attack.

To give the first cue, simulate an opponent whose blade has drifted somewhat to their outside: exposing the inside of the hand. As you make a forward step, the student attacks the inside of the hand to score an opportunistic hit. Your reaction to their attack (done with an advance or a lunge) is to extend. Hits to the inside of the hand are also done with beats and presses (see further in this document).

For the second action, attempt to engage the student's blade with a counter-six motion. While making this search, let your weapon tip drift outside, exposing the inside of your hand as your blade comes around. The student should hit the inside of your hand with a disengage thrust. It can also be helpful make your extension slightly behind your forward step.

The third example is the triumph of the student's skill and acceleration over the opponent. This hit is a type of "counter-time" action, in which the student accelerates and increases the angle of their attack as the opponent makes a late attack into the student's preparation. Frankly, this is an action that doesn't work particularly well unless the student is very accurate. The student must be able to predict the path of the extension from the opponent. This is done all the time in bouting, but can be difficult for a beginner. You cue this hit by making responding to the student's initial feint with a poorly coordinate attack of your own, stepping and extending at the same time. The student's attack should interrupt your extension with a hit to your hand. Your hand and your foot should move forward at the same time to make this hit effective.

When hitting the inside of the opponent's hand, students may want to make a very strong angle to score. Simple geometry shows that if the student makes a strong angle to hit the opponent's hand, they are going to have to be closer to the opponent. Sometimes this is unavoidable, such as making a remise after a failed attack, or a counter-attack against a slower moving opponent. Fencers with cool nerves and excellant point control can make this hit consistently by letting distance collapse. But missing such a strongly angled hit means that often distance will be closing rapidly and the student will need to fight it out in close distance by finding and controlling the opponent's blade, much like using a "safety" in the Beck system.

To hit the outside of the opponent's hand:

  1. The opponent is attempting to engage the student's blade on the inside line and they expose the outside of their hand (again, assuming student and opponent of the same hand).
  2. The opponent has made a sweep to either find the student's blade, or to attempt a flick to the outside of the student's arm, and exposed the outside of their own arm.

The impression here is not one of making a take or beat (though you can certainly cue the hit with those two actions) but rather that you are trying to make an flick-like thrust to the outside of the student's arm. When giving this cue, try to keep your arm and weapon relatively flat. Raising your hand up will encourage the student to hit under the wrist instead—it's an easier hit and more likely to be successful.

The student is going to have to make an angle with their wrist to hit this target against a same handed opponent. This is a hit that lends itself to a flick from the student around the outside of the opponent's bell. This is a hit that can take some practice, but is a very effective tool once it's mastered.

A hit to the outside of the hand against a same handed opponent can rarely be done on the student's own initiative unless the opponent has a poorly covered guard, or falls for an easy feint to the inside of the hand. An opponent can be caught be surprise, however, by a student's change beat to open up the outside line, and an immediately angled thrust to hit. Effectively, the student's beat "bounces" the student's tip into the target. Again, this is a hit that requires some practice and the cue for this is more akin to an action against your blade than a thrust.

The hand, and to a lessor extent, the forearm, is very mobile and protected by the opponent's bell, amking it a difficult targe. Perhaps because of this, some coaches do not teach the hand as a the near target, but transfer that designation to the the elbow as the "near target". I disagree with this. I find that fencers who are deliberately attacking forearm and elbow invariably over close the distance and end up with their blade landing to the outside of the opponent's arm, with their tip pointing into empty space.

I teach students to hit the hand—not much deeper than the cuff of the glove—and if the student misses the hand (and they often will) they have not over committed on the distance and can remise, parry, or stop-hit to a variety of targets, depending on the actions of the opponent. If they make a small mistake on the distance, or the opponent "moves into the hit" then the student will invariably hit the elbow or the forearm anyway on a remise, so the emphasis is not to be "hand-happy" and always be prepared for a second action after the initial attack to the hand.

I think it is important that you, as a coach, have an appreciation for how to cue hits to your hand from various angles. In the of day-to-day lessons, however, very fine distinctions between the top, bottom, inside, or outside of your hand tend to be lost. Past pursing technique for technique's sake, it is more important to focus on preparation and proper distance than the fine points of whether the student should have hit you in the top of the hand, the inside of the hand, or something in between. Emphasize the basics of making a good thrust: relaxed shoulder, working from the fingers, and the hand high. From the basics let the hand hit take care of itself, unless the posiiton of a the hit is part of a bigger preparation/follow-through.


Cuing the Thrust to the Foot

It is possible to cue a student to attack your foot without saying a word using body language. To me, this seems to be an unnecessary bother. Give your students the freedom to attack the foot it makes sense to do so. I would never punish a student if, after making successive hits to my hand, they simply drop down onto my foot instead, catching me unawares and distracted.

If this lack of cuing rigor troubles you, you can cue to the foot by giving the same cue as for hitting the thigh. Lean your torso backwards slightly to expose the foot, leaving the foot "hanging" out to be hit. You could also raise the point of your weapon slightly higher than a normal on guard. The student should see that you do not have enough time to bring your blade back to make a counter-attack or a parry and that the foot is open. This is a great cue for passing a coaching exam, but it does not really happen in a fencing bout.


Cues with Movement

There are three specific times to give a cue:

  • Give a cue without movement
  • Give a cue at the same time as making a step (forward or backward)
  • Give the cue after you've completed a step (forward or backward)

Even if the same cue is being given, these are three different situations (for the student and demand three different answers. Students are very Pavlovian: opening a line is a signal to most students that they should lunge, no matter what is happening with the distance. This is what your lessons should be using time and distance awareness to correct. Giving an opening and stepping back is a good way to test this. Does the student advance and then feint (because they are late to the space)? Or do they simply try to lunge further to hit you? Student's see the blade work you are doing, but they also have to see the space that you are doing it in.

Hitting an opponent usually requires that two problems be solved: a blade "problem" and a distance "problem". These two problems are usually solved in the order they are presented. For example, if my student is an advance away from hitting my hand (starting distance) and I sweep for the blade and step forward, the student should disengage and then extend to hit my hand. I first gave them a blade problem to solve (attempting to engage their blade) and then solved the distance problem for them (by stepping in). If I give the same cue standing still, the student should disengage (blade problem) and then advance (distance problem) to hit my hand. And finally, if I step back while searching for the blade, the student should protect their blade and lunge for my hand—or come forward (distance problem) with a feint (blade problem), disengage my parry (blade problem again) and lunge (distance problem).

In a beginning lessen you should manage the distance carefully and give your student's distance problems in a simple (and often sequential) manner.The blade problems reflect the result of solving (or attempting to solve) the distance problem you've presented. Don't ask a beginner student to solve two many combined blade and distance problems at the same time. A more skilled student will be making adjustments based on the theme of the lesson and their intended action, often solving both blade problems and distance problems simultaneously.

Earlier I discussed distance and its role in target selection and actions. Obviously, you can't replicate every distance situation in your lessons. You can make some simplifications based on individual movements of you and your student, and cover a number of possible situations. Assume that the lesson starts with the student an advance away from hitting your hand. The student initiates the movement and you respond with standing still, advancing, or retreating:

(Student starts movement) ...and you stand still ...and you advance.. ...and you retreat...
Student advances... Student attacks your hand (distance has closed once) Student attacks your body (distance has closed twice) No attack possible, you have reopened distance
Student retreats... No attack possible, the student has opened the space. Student attacks your hand. No attack possible

From this simple table we can structure a lesson around various distances and changes in distance (see Four Épée Templates for a deeper look at this concept), including following through actions based on additional changes in distance.


Actions on the Blade

Beats, parries, and oppositions (along with the transports associated with oppositions) are all actions by the student to contact your blade and to control it. These three classes of actions have different characteristics, and those characteristics determine how you cue those actions.

Two factors distinguish between the actions:

  • The depth of penetration of your blade to the student's target when you make the cue, and...
  • How close your point is to the student's bell.

These two factors combine together to tell the student to beat, oppose, or parry your blade:

  • Parry: deep penetration to the student's target (5 inches or more past the bell) and your blade close to the student's bell. Your blade is about to score against the student's target unless it is controlled and stopped.
  • Opposition: Shallow penetration (3-5 inches past the students bell) and within a dinner-plate sized circle around the student's bell. Your blade is threatening and may be moving forward, but is not about to hit the student. Your blade is within easy capture distance by the student.
  • Beat or press: no penetration to the student's target (your point is in front of the student's bell) and your tip is not threatening, but there is no obvious opening for a thrust to any target. Your blade is close enough to the student's to be struck or touched, but not taken.

These characteristics outline the differences for cuing to the student. Additional body language by you, as well as the circumstances of the cue, will help the student make the right choice and facilitate the action.


Cuing Parries and Ripostes

It is obvious that for the student to parry, you must attack. In the beginning, it is a good idea to give the student a preparation (an engagement or a search) that invites you to attack. This teaches the student to create a tactical situation in which they can expect to parry and control the time of doing so. Later, other preparations can be used to encourage you to attack and create opportunites for the student to parry.

Different schools of fencing differentiate between "short", or "bell" parries, and "long", or "blade" parries. For me, a "long parry" is more of a counter-attack with opposition, or a "close out" thrust, with short or bell parries resembling the classic parry in two motions (parry and ripsote) much like in foil. Again, the often duel nature of épeé has one action being both offensive/counter-offensive and defensive, depending on the context. My discussion in this section is about the short, or bell parry, and I'll touch upon the long or blade parry at the end.

On your attack, extend your arm and make sure that your hand is well covered. The student should not see an opportunity to make a counter-attack to your hand. You can start your attack from any distance, but the critical idea is that you are making good penetration against the student. Your tip should extend past their guard at the end of your attack. You can help the student "see" the need to parry by putting your weight slightly forward and use a small lunge or an aggressive step to make the attack. This shows commitment from you as the simulated opponent and reminds the student that attacks by the opponent will be faster than their manuevering footwork. Make sure to point your weapon at the target you intend to hit. If the student doesn't parry, you should hit that target, or at least get very close to it. Do not cheat the student by extending the blade in some general area and asking the student to make a big motion to find your blade. On the strip, this will almost guarantee that the student's parries will be too big and too early to be effective.

A the end of the parry, the student should have clear control over your blade when they thrust, and the riposte is made with simple opposition in the line of the parry. If the student is making the parry with a retreat, the parry should be made on the front foot, as the retreat ends, and the riposte is made standing (or with additional forward footwork, as demanded).

The riposte you want from the student can be communicated by what you do with your blade and with the distance after the student makes a parry. If your immediate response on the student's parry is to relax your arm and with draw it slightly while staying in distance (or leaving the distance very late, after the riposte starts), their riposte will be direct, with simple opposition. If instead, your response to the parry is to push against the student's parry with pressure and to attempt to leave the space before (or as) the riposte starts, the student should make a riposte with a disengage. If you expand the distance as the student makes the parry, they should riposte with any appropriate blade work for the space, either with a disengage (because you have pressed against the student's blade) or with a compound riposte. In some cases, a transport first and then an opposition riposte is in order.

In the case of a very fast, very close direct attack, the student may make a beat parry and a detached riposte, just like in foil. Their beat should clear your blade and the riposte is delivered with a short, quick extension. You should remise against these sorts of parries to remind the student the risk of leaving the blade on the hit.

Long, or blade parries are different animals than short parries. Rather than making an extension with a well covered hand, it is best for you to cue these actions with an aggressive step, but with your arm starting slightly bent, and extending out of time with the motion of your front foot. Your point is traveling to the student, but poorly coordinated with the step. The student parries and ripostes in the same motion, blocking out your blade with their bell while extending. As I mentioned, these are more like counter-attacks with opposition, but some coaches will call this a parry-riposte because of the defensive nature of the action. The distance for this riposte is slightly closer than counter-attack distance (the student's riposte will often land on the deep target of the chest or upper arm), and because the student is actively seeking to control the attacking blade.

I'm not going to quibble over terminology with other coaches, so call these parries what you will, and understand what another coach may be talking about when they are talking about "long blade parries", though given the hodge-podge nature of American Coaching education, a coach using this term may in fact mean even something else.


Cuing Oppositions and Transports

Two criteria must be met for the student to make an opposition:

  1. Your arm must be extended or extend-ing
  2. Your point must be slightly past the student's bell, and within a few inches of the bell (roughly an area the size of a dinner plate)

An example: the student has made a preparation and you have responded with a counter-attack to the student's forward target. Your extension on the counter-attack should put your point close to the student's bell to simulate a stop to the student's hand/arm. Your weapon tip will be past past the student's bell, some three to five inches deep. At this point, the student can engage your blade and control it. Once the student controls your blade, they can make a simple opposition, or transport your blade into a different line.

The most common mistake I see in teaching opposition is a coach extending their point far away from the student's bell. This forces the student to reach out to find the coach's blade. When the student is taught to reach for a blade that far away, there is a high chance of an opponent avoiding the take, or "rolling off" once the student engages.

For a beginning to intermediate student, your arm will often be almost fully extended before the student engages to make the opposition. At the higher levels of épeé the student should intercept the arm as it is coming out, "gathering" up your thrust and letting their bell leverage your tip out of the way. In the classical French school you will often see coaches give this cue with a strongly bent arm, extending only after the student has made the engagement and started their thrust. Essentially the difference is almost one of two blade actions (engage, then opposition) verses a single blade action in an opposition thrust, much like the difference between a parry and riposte with opposition and a counter-attack with opposition.

There is a saying that you "oppose a stiff arm and parry a soft arm". This is not completely true. You do want to give the student slight pressure as they oppose, but you do not want to lock your arm completely. Instead, you should accept the opposition by slightly bending your elbow, as if you intended to start a receding parry, but are too slow or too late. Failing to relax your arm slightly when asking for a simple opposition will almost always mean that the student's bell guard will bang into yours as your stiff arm directs the student's point away. If you give the student a fully locked arm, the student should transport your blade to a weaker line (usually low line) and use superior leverage to oppose your stiff arm and hit.

Beginning and intermediate épeé fencers do lock their arms against simple opposition, and this should be handled in later lessons by teaching the student to make a roll off remise, or to "carry" your blade to the outside, close distance quickly, and then score with a detached riposte once they are safely past your point. These are advanced options for a student making an opposition, and should be left until later.


Cues for Beats, Presses, and Engagements

Beats, presses, and engagements7 are actions against an opponent's blade that may be accessible, but outside the normal "control zone" for a parry or an opposition. In a normal, high line on guard by both fencers, "accessible" is primarily a function of distance. It is not necessary for the opponent to be extended for their blade to be vulnerable to a beat or engagement/press. The accessible blade is more than 5-6 inches away from my bell and held in an on guard that puts the tip of the opponent's weapon inside a volume formed by drawing a line between our respective shoulders.

Making a cue for a beat/press/engagement is simple: your arm should be out (not held back or hidden), and your point put out of the control area for an opposition, but still accessible to the student without them distorting their on guard significantly. A good rule of thumb is that your point should be more than 6-8 inches away from your students bell, but not far outside the line of their shoulder. With your blade in this position (and your tip above or below the student's bell) the student can make a beat at their own time. If you want more control over when the beat or press happens, as the student to execute it when you make a change of line with your blade (moving from the low line to the high line or the reverse).


After the Hit

Épée is unique amoung the three fencing weapons for encouraging multiple hits in the same phrase. Whether you initially cue for the body, arm, or leg, you should be ready to cue for an additional action(s) from the student. Avoiding very large or extreme arm motions when giving the initial cue enables you to put your blade back in play with a minimum of fuss and—more importantly—stay "in front" of the student's time.

Being in the right space for the first action is important when asking for additional actions. Suppose you want your student to attack your hand. Your plan is to step back and give them a partially extended blade, so that the student makes a second beat attack to your hand. However, If your step backwards is not very large or is too late, the student will be tempted to make a beat attack to your chest, and they are not be wrong to do so. If you are contributing to the distance for the second action (by either closing or opening the space) your change of distance must introduce (or remove) an appreciable amount of time. Simply leaning back or making a very small step may not be enough. The exception might be for cuing a remise from the initial attack to a similar target (hand to foot, or body to thigh, for instance)

Cues that Don't Use the Blade

Besides just using your blade, you have other methods to generate actions from the student. Use all the tools at your disposal to give the student additional information when giving a lesson:

I don't hesitate to talk to my students while we are working (not stopping to talk, but talking while moving). Your voice is a way to guide them in recognizing a cue (the ever famous "Wait for it...") or to give them specific feedback ("Slow down", "hand higher", and so on). The silent lesson is a great skill, but the goal of the lesson is to transfer information from you to the student, and talking to the student makes sense.

Footwork is an important cuing action. On your forward step, the student can attack. Or the student can attack on your second advance. Or a footwork pattern can be given to the student, and the student told to attack at a specific moment in the pattern. Giving the student a footwork cue instructs them in using the entire environment of a fencing bout. Changes of speed and size in footwork mean something. Don't hesitate to use footwork patterns in your lesson.

Sometimes simply stopping your movement is a cue. From slow, measured movement, you simply stop. If you were moving backward, this is a cue for the student to begin to make an attack. If you were moving forward, this is the time for the student to take over and either begin aggressively maneuvering to make an attack, or to start an attack.

While not all of these coaching techniques can be used for every level of lesson, they should be used at some point in the fencers career.


Student Controlled Versus Coach Controlled Lessons7

The classic fencing lesson is you moving and the student following. You stop, give a cue, and the student responds to the cue. This is a very appropriate lesson when teaching a new action, or working with a beginning student. However, in a bout we want student to lead the opponent, and not the other way around! For a student to learn that behavior, we have to teach it in the lesson.

There is an evolution of control that happens in lessons in which gradually the student should take control of the lesson. This escalation follows this path:

  1. Coach controlled
  2. Partially coach controlled
  3. Partially student controlled
  4. Student controlled

In a "Coach controlled" lesson, you, the coach, set all the parameters of the lesson. You control the distance (you move, then the student follows) and you make a cue for every action. This is useful when the lesson is very technical or the student is learning a new action. Coach controlled lessons can also be useful with slowing down an impatient student who doesn't take the time to prepare, but rushes into every potential hit.

In a "Partially coach controlled" lesson, you control the footwork and the student follows. You are still giving cues, but now the student has the choice to act on the cue or not. You can give cues at the wrong time, in the wrong space, or give the wrong cue (showing the blade in the wrong line, for example). Giving the student choices, incorrect cues, or the wrong cues prevents the student from becoming "Pavlovian" in their responses to the actions of the opponent: lunging every time the opponent lowers their blade, for example. This discrimination is important to teach the student to filter out unnecessary or confusing information in a bout.

In a "Partially student controlled" lesson the student controls the footwork, either maneuvering freely, or through a proscribed pattern that matches the actions they are doing. Now the student initiates footwork and controls the distance. The student attacks when they have the correct distance, either made by their actions or when you have "fallen" for a distance trap the student has set. You are still giving cues, and the student is free to respond. You can give cues when the student is in the proper distance, balanced, and is ready to act. The student should execute the necessary action at those times. You can also give cues when the student is not in distance, is unbalanced, and is unready to act. The student should not act on these cues. This is a very similar situation to the partially coach controlled lesson, except now you are following the student.

In a "Student controlled" lesson the student is doing all the work. They are picking the footwork, the distance, and the response to the cue. Your job is to hover almost at the correct distance and feed the student actions. You should be uncooperative (the student has to take the distance from you) and feel free to add noise to the lesson. The student is hunting for the time and place to make a specified action. You are frustrating and attempting to surprise them. This is a very physical lesson to give, and generally, the blade work and tactics should be simple. You see these sorts of lessons on You Tube by French coach Micheal Sicard (an example is here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h-gUkjEELQ.

Letting the student control more and more of the lesson shows if you have been doing your job as a coach. Can the student take the initiative? Can they respond correctly to both the correct cues and the wrong cues (often simply by ignoring the incorrect ones)? Often a student that performs very well in a completely coach controlled environment will completely fall apart when having the control the lesson themselves. Start slowly, but let the student assume control of your lessons.


Cues For a Beginning Fencer

For an experienced student, a fencing lesson is a blend of technical and tactical ideas. A lesson should blend both the "how" of an action and the "when" of an action. For the beginning student, the emphasis might be more on the "how" than the "when". Though the "when" should always be a part of the lesson and it is critically important not to ignore the "when" in the lesson for a beginner,The "when" should be very straightforward and distinct at this level.

The idea of using "actions" rather than "cues" is still important when teaching a beginner. At the same time, you want your actions in the lesson to be on a continuum that will change as the student improves. What changes in this continum occur?

  • In a lesson for beginning fencers, motions are slower, cues might be slightly larger where necessary.
  • The "window" for the beginning student to hit is larger because the cues are slower. To use my earlier analogy, the door is still swinging, but it is now swinging much slower. Exaggeration of the cues is kept to a minimum.
  • You will lead the footwork the majority of the time, but the student should be—from the first lesson—doing some student initiated actions at a simple level. For the beginner it might be the same lesson first initiated by you, and then student initiated for several repetiions before returning back to you for a new action.
  • You will control the distance, even on student initiated actions. This means being aware of the starting distance, how far the student will travel on a step, and putting yourself in the right place for the action to be successful. At the beginning level, you should be more cooperative with the student than not.
  • You may guide the student more often with your voice.
  • At times you may have to break down the action you are teaching into very basic and slightly unnatural cues on your part, re-integrating the action in the same lesson in a more realistic way. This is the idea of "Whole-Part-Whole" teaching.

    • Conclusion

    Giving an individual lesson is only a small part of the work of a professional coach. Yet, the ability to give a lesson is the metric by which we judge most coaches. The greater your ability to give good, recognizable cues at the correct distance and in the correct time means that you have the ability to work with students beyond the ones who are simply "used to" you lessons at your club. Your communication with students is through your ability to cue, and the more "fluent" you are, the more types and levels of students you can teach.

    1 I have used the word "cue" throughout this document. As I get older, I am less happy with the word "cue". It sounds artificial, like the habit of Tauberbishostein coaches to literally kick their student's points when asking for toe touches. However, I understand that this word is a familiar one to many coaches, and that constantly finding a synonym for the word "cue" was going to be both time consuming and awkward. With some reluctance, I have used the word "cue" throughout the text to describe actions by a coach.⏎

    2Magill, Richard. 2007 MCGraw-Hill From Motor Learning and Control: A motor skill that involves a non-stable unpredicted environment where an object or environmental context is in motion and determines when to begin the action"⏎

    3It's important to note that these steps are from the perspective of a fencer responding to an opponent when the opponent's actions are not anticipated. Obviously there are ways to prepare and control the opponent to create foreseen situations in which the fencer has a pre-planned response, such as making an invitation to the opponent, and then parrying the subsequent attack.⏎

    4A "neutral on guard" is one in which you are on guard and your blade is flat, neither showing a high tip or a low tip. From this position you may move your weapon to engage in any line.⏎

    5Note that in very close distance situations, a strong beat is a last ditch defensive actions against an opponent who has penetrated deep to the student's target and is crushing the space. The beat in this case should be forceful to keep the opponent from scoring a double touch on the remise. For purposes of "cuing" you should make a strong attack from relatively close distance⏎

    6 Just to be clear, a press should always be taught as two actions: an engagement first, and then a subsequent press. You can also think of a beat as being a very violent and temporary type of engagement.⏎

    7 I go into more detail about student and coach controlled lessons here:http://www.coachescompendium.org/STUDENTCONTROL.HTML⏎

    Copyright © 2018 by Allen Evans.