Coaches teach footwork. Coaches talk about footwork. Coaches point out good footwork to students while at competitions and in practice. Coaches occasionally punish students with footwork. But few coaches USE footwork in lessons. A majority of lessons are static (or with an advance or retreat at most) or the coach does random footwork while the student tries to keep pace. At random points in the lesson the coach stops cues an action from the student. The student scores (or does not), and the coach returns to making random advances and retreats with the student gamely trying to keep some arbitrary distance.

There is a better, smarter way to use footwork in the lesson. By building a lesson around patterns of footwork, the coach accomplishes several things:

• Patterning footwork makes advanced lessons easier for the coach to teach.
• The student learns to integrate footwork with attacking and defending actions.
• The student practices footwork - something they will often not do on their own.

"...purists can argue that one advance is not a 'pattern'... "

Consider a simple example: the student's pattern is to make a single advance. The student starts slightly out of distance from the coach. The student makes an advance in preparation. The coach decides to retreat - to deny the student the proper distance to attack - or to remain standing. If the coach remains standing, the student must be ready to make an immediate lunge or fleche to hit. If the coach retreats out of distance, the student ends the advance without attacking the coach. This simple footwork pattern (purists can argue that one advance is not a "pattern", but that discussion misses the point) has all the ideas needed to use footwork patterns in a lesson:

• The pattern is known to both the student and coach.
• The pattern is initiated by the student.
• The student makes a decision during the execution of the pattern to attack or defend.
• The coach retains control over the lesson by their choice of responses to the pattern, or actions in the pattern.

At the start of a lesson, the coach sets a pattern of footwork for the student to follow. This enables the coach to plan his or her reactions ahead of time, and to respond to the student in a pre-meditated manner. This can allow a coach to simulate a much better opponent for the student. By knowing the footwork pattern, the coach can "stay ahead" of the student. For the student, using a pre-set pattern in the lesson means that the student doesn't spend time trying to think of "which direction/what footwork" to do next. Advanced fencers use footwork automatically as part of their actions. In a sense, using a pattern in the lesson creates that ability in a beginning or intermediate student.

To win bouts, fencers must control tempo, which means controlling footwork and distance. Too often in lessons, the student follows the coach while the coach does a series of random advances and retreats. Later, in competition, the coach wonders why the student does not control the tempo and momentum of the bout. Why? Because the student has never been taught how! This teaching must begin at the start of the fencers career. Students MUST feel what it is like to be in control of a bout and to initiate footwork actions while gauging the response of the opponent. Without practice in lesson, the student is forced to learn this on the strip: perhaps a valuable place for lessons, but an expensive one.

In the example of the advance in preparation, the student will make the decision on whether the coach will be within the one-tempo distance to make an attack. If the coach denies the student the distance necessary to finish with an attack, the student must remain poised, composed, and (eventually) ready to make an additional footwork phrase to escape the coaches' attack or to follow the coach and renew the attack. This gives the student a level of control which is more bout-like. Rather than relying on the coach to control the tempo of the footwork, stop, and "open" a line to provoke the attack by the student, the student is deciding to attack without prompting by the coach. If the distance is correct (because the student has made it so, or the coach has allowed it to become so) the student attacks.

The student initiates and "leads" the footwork but the student does not control ALL of the lesson. The coach still has choices on whether the student's footwork is "successful" or not. By choosing to open the space or to let space collapse, the coach retains control of the lesson. If the coach does not control some aspects of the lesson, the lesson becomes simply bouting. There are times when this might be appropriate, but with a beginning to intermediate student, there is a need to channel the lesson into specific skill areas. Learning specific skills will not occur if the student and coach simply fence each other.

From the idea of making one advance as a footwork pattern, we can expand the concept to include more than one step, and steps in different directions. If a retreat is added into the example above, the pattern is: "advance, retreat". Adding the retreat opens many tactical lesson opportunities. Now the student advances and retreats, while the coach follows. The student is still leading the footwork and looking for an opportunity to attack the coach. The coach is still in control of the lesson by deciding how far to advance and retreat and how late or early to advance and retreat. By changing each of the parameters - for example, by retreating late on the student's advance - the coach can still "cue" the attack. The coach can "cue" the defense by making a deep advance with an extension on the student's retreat. The student must control the distance going backwards and make a parry and riposte against the attack. If the coach advances late, and the distance is right, the student may be in position for an attack into the coach's "preparation".

Using footwork patterns allows the coach to build more advanced concepts of footwork tempo into a lesson. In the "advance, retreat" pattern above, the coach can tell the student to make several repetitions of the pattern at a constant tempo. Then the coach can instruct the student to make a retreat very short and start the next advance very quickly. The coach will then be "caught" in the wrong space, and should be scored against by the student. Exercises like this teach the student tactical tempo changes in the footwork in the bout. The coach can add more difficulty by sometimes being "unaware" of the tempo change and getting hit, or paying close attention to the student and "escaping" the tempo change, requiring the student to not over commit in the acceleration of his or her footwork and to be aware of the distance at all times.

Simple patterns that include a change of direction, or multiple changes of direction can build more complexity into a lesson. Consider one example: "advance, advance, retreat". A number of actions can be built into this pattern. Each action will give the pattern a different character. For instance: the student makes the first advance at one tempo and then makes the second advance very quickly. The student adds an extension at the end of the second advance (when the student's back foot touches the ground). This "stepping" on the coach's retreat - along with the blade extension - threatens the coach, who parries the student's extension and ripostes with lunge. The student, whose attack was a false one, is already retreating and makes parry and counter-riposte to score. Here the pattern incorporates preparation and defending footwork.

Finally, the student may "break out" of a pattern to steal time against the coach and score. The "break out" occurs when the attacking footwork is added to the "maneuvering" or "base pattern" that the student and coach are already doing. The student can also be encouraged to add variations to create opportunities to attack, such as changing the pattern "advance, retreat, retreat" into "advance, retreat, advance". The student gains more control by being able to surprise the coach, who may know what action will be done by the student (the change of direction of the final step of the pattern) but not when the change will take place.

Resist the urge to make complicated patterns: "advance, retreat, double advance, check, double retreat" is a wonderful pattern, but who could remember all that? The student should be focusing on executing simple patterns in footwork without having to keep a running tally of the number of steps and their direction. Patterns of more than two or three steps are probably more harmful than helpful.

KEEP IT SIMPLE! Resist the urge to give hugely complicated lessons of preparation and attack to the student, using long chains of footwork. Once movement is added to blade mechanics, the lesson becomes difficult for the student, very quickly. Start with simple patterns of one or two steps with simple blade work. The example of using the advance in preparation is worth a month of lessons all on its own. Advance fencers score with simple actions at the right time and the right place. That should be the guiding principal of the construction of the lessons.

It is never too early (or too late) to integrate footwork patterns in a fencers training. Any blade action new to the student can be introduced while the coach and student are standing still. Once roughly mastered, it should be incorporated into the footwork pattern best suited for it. The integration will be poor at first, but will improve with practice.

Modern fencing is defined by movement. Add this component early in the student's career. The benefits will be substantial!

Written: October 2005