Technique & Tactics

Beat Attacks and Timing

How to time a beat attack with your footwork so it lands as your back foot hits the floor, cutting your opponent's parry reaction time, with a partner drill.

Compound Footwork: The Next Step

How to execute compound footwork like advance-lunge and jump-lunge as smooth technical units while keeping each step tactically open as distance changes.

Decision Point Exercises

Footwork and blade-engagement drills that train fencers to read the decision point at the end of an advance and choose whether to attack, retreat, or hold.

Decision Point Exercises Part II

Partner drills for training decision-making mid-preparation: reading your opponent's blade and footwork before committing to an attack, retreat, or parry.

Distance Control - Glove Game

How to run the glove game: an advance-lunge drill using a glove as target to train distance control, tempo changes, and false attacks, plus a full-gear variant.

Fencing Footwork Training Part 1 (Video)

How to build fencing footwork: a USFA Coaches College video covering previewing, the en garde stance, advances, retreats, half-steps, and the lunge.

Fencing with Ease

Alexander Technique applied to fencing: releasing excess tension in the on guard, advance, lunge and extension, with exercises for each.

General Footwork Exercises

Twelve fencing footwork drills that train quick changes of direction — advance-lunge, jump-lunge, fleche and reprise combinations, with a notation key.

How to Watch Fencing on YouTube: a Basic Guide

How to analyze fencing video on YouTube: watch for tempo, preparation, distance, and strategy shifts to scout opponents and sharpen your own tactical reading.

How to use Video to Improve your Fencing

How to use match video to improve your fencing: practical tips for reviewing your own footage to spot what works and correct technique flaws.

Preparations of Attacks - Beats

How to use hard and soft blade beats in fencing: setting up attacks, disrupting an opponent's timing, and drills for practicing each type.

Simple Attack Drills

Foil attack drills for practicing tempo: preinitiative, initiative, simultaneous, saved, and lost timing, with partner exercises for each.

The FIE Coaching Academy: Fencing Systems

What a fencing system really is: how FIE Coaching Academy training reveals it as an ordered, tactical progression of actions, not just technique.

The FIE Coaching Academy: Quick Coaching Tips

Five quick FIE Coaching Academy tips for foil coaches: lesson distance, timing parries and retreats, and basing actions on real refereeing calls.

The Tactical Wheel: First Intention Attacks

How to drill first-intention attacks: paired leader/pupil exercises for simple lunges and compound feint-attacks, building to mixed sparring drills.

The Tactical Wheel: First Intention Counter-Offense

How to drill counter-offense: stop-thrusts, time-thrusts, and attacks on preparation for foil, epee, and saber, with paired leader/pupil timing exercises.

The Tactical Wheel: First Intention Defense

How to drill parry-riposte defense: paired leader/pupil exercises building from simple lateral parries to compound riposte sequences in foil.

The Tactical Wheel: Second Intention Defense

What second-intention defense means: using a false parry-riposte as bait, then landing the real parry, counter-riposte, or remise once your opponent reacts.

The Tactical Wheel: Second Intention Offense

What second-intention offense means: deliberately falling short on an attack to draw a riposte, then scoring with a counter-riposte, remise, or redoublement.

The Tactical Wheel: Tactical Progression of the Bout

The Tactical Wheel explained: how a bout progresses from first intention attacks and defense to second intention tactics, and when to spin the wheel.

Tying It All Together--The Hungarian Methodology

What the Hungarian coaching system teaches: hand tempo, foot tempo, accelerated attacks, and taking over the attack, with drills for combining them.

Use of the French Grip in Epee

What the French grip offers in epee: power, intermediate, and pommel hand positions that trade blade strength for reach, favoring tempo and distance.

Zone Theory - Physical Zones on the Fencing Piste

What the fencing strip's three zones mean: how comfort and mistakes shift from center to the back of the strip, and tactics for exploiting each zone.

Zone Theory II - Attack Zones

What the three attack zones mean: how first attacks, renewed attacks (redoublement), and "the chase" each carry different risks and common tactical mistakes.