Fencing lesson, Adam Blight & Iris Rau 2

Another 'lockdown lesson' with my partner Iris and myself. Iris and I count as a 'household' in these corona lockdown times, so we can still do training. We used a local community centre and British Fencing confirmed that we were ok doing lessons here. With no events to train for, we were having a bit of fun at times and, I suppose, both a bit out of practice. Also, it was bloody cold and this time the floor was a bit slippery as they had been installing new windows. I have been experimenting with using two cameras with wide angle lenses to take in the full range of the lesson area.

[@fred5399]

after watching your lessons for years I think these lessons with Iris are your best. They have helped me a great deal in my foil cueing. Thanks Adam and keep em coming.

[@AdamBlight]

Thanks very much, what with covid neither of us have been able to do much and there are no competitions to focus on. I've been experimenting here with having 2 cameras with wide angle lenses to cover the length of the space in addition to separate audio recording and editing using both videos, that way not needing someone else to do the camera work. Hopefully this will enable more videoing of lessons going forward.

[@averagerainfall]

Hey Adam, I really enjoy watching your lessons. They are very clean and look like a lot of fun for the student as well. Im glad you are able to put out a video or two!
Since Iris was having some trouble in the beginning with breaking her time on her attack. I wondered if teaching them would be a good idea. It seems to work in certain situations and maybe the student would learn to choose a regular lunge or to do a 'broken time attack' - if you were going to teach it, how would you do it and under what circumstances would you think it an appropriate move? or, would you not teach it at all?
Great lesson and well done Iris, She killed it! looked like fun.

[@AdamBlight]

Hi Cory, Thanks very much. Yes, I teach broken time in a number of contexts, most particularly where an opponent takes a late and more competitive parry. In this lesson the break in time wasn't such an error but I wanted the use of second intention, fencers can often forget about second intention options. Contexts where broken time can be used are where the opponent is doing something else (e.g parrying, stepping back, searching for the blade) so can't very readily make an attempt to hit, I have a number of lessons exploiting this. The risk is of course, as with counter-attacks, that it becomes a habit.