Hey Sabre Crew!! Here’s a brief rundown of what we worked on this week:

We did some great footwork following, bean bag tossing, and a round of the glove game. We’re always using our feet and hands in fencing, and all of these exercises worked both.

The glove game, with its emphasis on distance and controlled footwork, went particular well. You guys were really focused, and seemed to get the most out of the game.

The drills focused on small blade movement. We discussed a “proper” grip, and how the blade movement should come from the wrist, and your thumb and forefinger (or “pointer” finger).

With arms fully extended, blade pointed straight ahead, we drew small circles with the tips of our blades, wrote our names, etc., moving only our wrists and keeping a loose grip on the weapon.

Then we moved on to simple paired drills in which you took turns extending to your opponent’s 5 (the head), and moving only from the wrist, cut to 3 (the weapon arm side). We then moved on to the “Around the World” drill where you extended to 5, and using only your wrist, cut to 3, back to 5, 4, back to 5, and so on.

I know it hurts a little bit to have your arms extended, holding the sabre like that for that long, but you guys all did a great job. And the hard work showed when we were bouting. The walls were attacked only a few times that I saw! Great job, Guys!!!