| Lesson two: Lunging |
| Lunging is the action that scores points. When all is said and done, when all the strategy has been played and your opponent has been fooled and the opening is there for you to hit, you still have lunge and lunge well to score. The quality of your lunge determines your opponent's reaction to your attacks, which determines the effecivness of your strategy. The importance of your lunge cannot be stressed enough. Nor can the importance of practicing your lunge. |
| Fencers often lose control of their energy and move their bodies before their hands. This will occasionally cause the referee to call you in preperation, it will more often cause you to miss an otherwise hittable attack. Train yourself to lead with your hand. If your point precedes your hand, and your hand precedes your lunge, you will rarely miss. You will have to recover a lot after being parried, but if you can recover promptly, you will not be scored on. |
| Remember: The right hand and foot move as one, then the left hand and foot. (right-hander) All four limbs should extend fully for maximum distance. Extending your rear arm, up and away, pushes you toward your opponent as well as toward the floor, improving your recovery time. Extending your forward leg not only increases the distance traveled by reaching, the weight of your forward leg holds you down. Enabling you to add even more power to your lunge without lifting your head and hand up or "stalling". |
| You do not score touches with your arm. Your arm is extended and it's job done long before you score the touch. You score touches with the strength of your rear leg. |
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| Care and feeding of lunging muscles. Will your lunge be a thing to be feared by your opponents or by you? Specialized exercises will take lunging from your most dreaded chore, to your favorite past time. Give yourself a number of lunges to do each day. Start low, ten or so depending on your ambition. Just be sure to beat that number by at least one each day. If you can really push yourself and keep raising the bar, by just one little lunge per day, you will have all the work you need for a while. Lunging alone is great exercise, but after a certain point, you will want to increase your power even further. To do this you will need to work with added resistance to each part of your lunge. Components of your lunge: Quadraceps: The rear quad' is the workhorse of your lunge. Technique can be good or bad but unless you have the strength needed within your rear quad, your lunge will not be effective. Squats and leg extensions are the most commonly used way to strengthen theses muscles. Standing knee bends for beginners. Calves: Your calves are more important for setting up a lunge and recovering from it. When the time comes to lunge, your heels should both be down and so your claf muscles are out of the game. They are critical to recovery however, so don't spare the reps when you are doing simple calf raises on a step or when you are working the muscle that opposes the calves, the anterior tibialis. Anterior tibialis: The often overlooked muscle on the front of the shin area is the one that pulls you back from a lunge. It also catches your weight when you land. Stand on a small step facing downstairs with your feet 75% off the step. Stretch your toes down as far as they will go and then bring them up as high as you can. High reps with no weight other than your own big butt, and you will start to respect what these muscles do for you. Hamstrings: These govern your speed when running and your recovery when lunging. Leg curls are the best way, but make sure you spend extra time stretching these muscles out. Gluteus: Deep squats and lots of stretching. The gluts are the powerhouse, they are what hold your thighs in place when your quads dig in and lunge. If you want to move fast, work your gluts. |
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| "It should take longer to say "Lunge" than it does to complete a lunge." -Mike! |
| Be wary of developing "fencers leg" the condition of a disproportionately developed forward leg. Fencing a lot will strengthen your forward leg, but if your rear leg is not developing as well your are just playing, not training.Your rear leg is where the speed and power of your lunge come from, your forward leg is the brakes and recovery. You must exercise your rear leg seperate from fencing if your want to increase your speed. |
| There is a cool pic of a lunge happening here, if you can't see it, try back later. |
