I missed a few weeks of writng about class. We have several new fencers this past month, and they are taking to it well. A lot of the focus this past month has been on getting a better sense of how far away we can be and still launch a simple attack. Part of this is gettin gthe arm fully extended during the attack, and the other is getting the transition from one movement to the next to be smooth and continuous. Yesterday, we worked on a ballestra. This is a jump forward followed immediately with a lunge. First we worked on getting both feet to land at the same time on the jump. You can hear the difference between a quick advance and a jump. Both are used frequently in fencing, and the more that we can make them distinct, the better we can take advantage of their different tempos to confuse or opponents. The next part was to jump and then use the forward momentum to continue into a lunge. Being balanced at the end of the jump is a must to insure that the lunge is also balanced and effective. Finally, we worked out the distance that this attack covers so that we can better know when to use it. Next week we will put this together with some prepatory footwork so we can start to come up with ways to use it in a bout.