Saturday training at the Gloria Park fencing nets

Last Saturday, 6 June, we held our first outdoor, all-ages, fencing sessions at Gloria Park Fencing Nets (formerly known as cricket nets). It was great to catch up with our fencers again, young and old(er), and to get back into some socially distanced fencing work. While it is unfortunate that the strict social distancing measures we are implementing do not permit us to actually bout with one another, we still managed to have a good time and improve our fencing abilities, through a programme of familiar and novel activities.

Our first session, with our under-14 fencers and Jo W. (me, the fun Jo), focused on participation and enjoyment, with some warm-up games, footwork challenges, and a penalty shootout-style target practice competition. With the aid of some familiar props from the Lawson fencing hall, as well as some new additions specifically for outdoor training (including stand-mounted punching balls donated by Alessandra, and swinging soccer and tennis ball targets, hand crafted by Imogen), we had more than enough activities to keep us busy for the whole one-hour session.

We are all still pretty new at this, and we are learning about which games and activities work better than others, as we go. There were no disasters, but we probably won't practice parry transitions with the social distancing-length fencing stick again with this young group. Instead, we'll move ahead with the station-based activities, which turned out be very effective in keeping everyone active and minimising wait periods.

Our second session, with the over-14 fencers and Joe R. (the serious Joe), was also a great success, featuring a dynamic warm-up, footwork exercises, a strength and conditioning obstacle course, battle ropes and target challenges. Joe's sport science expertise came to the fore in this session, to the benefit of our fencers (myself included), as we learned about the way coordination, balance, and muscle activation exercises can improve our performance on the piste. His ensemble of strength and conditioning props - including ladders, hurdles and battle ropes - was a great asset in this new, outdoor training environment. 

On the whole, training was a great success, and it only promises to get better, as we become more familiar with fencing en plein air. If you plan on joining our next sessions, don't forget to REGISTER beforehand, as, with our 10 person per group limit, you won't be guaranteed a place otherwise.