Work Out

Hey guys! So everyone has their own personal workout, and for good reason too! What works for your best friend may not work for you. So after much trial and error, I came up with my own personal program to train my fencing. I have listed my summer program below and I hope this gives you guys some idea as to what may work for you! (I found that taking bits and pieces from different camp programs and techniques from coaches and high level fencers helped me to build a foundation for my own plan that I customized further from that point). I hope you enjoy and please leave your comments below! 


Monday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extensions
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists
Footwork

Fencing Practice

Tuesday

Run 5 miles
Footwork

Wednesday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extensions
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists

Thursday

Run 5 miles

Footwork
Fencing Practice


Friday

Bench Press
RDL Shrugs
Squats
Pull ups
MB Plate Punch
Shoulder Press
MB Wall Passes
Tricep Extension
Bicep Curls
Lunges-walking overhead & regular
Broad Jumps
Depth Jumps
Box Step ups
Back Extension
Supermans

MB Ab Twists
Footwork

Saturday

Run 5 miles

Footwork
Fencing Practice

Sunday

Video Analysis

Alliance Camp Footwork, Day 2/Week 2

Today was great, lots of intense fencing the entire morning! I got a lesson from Andre today as well during lunch. After some intense blade work (1 hour long), we moved on to super intense footwork. We spent 45 minutes drilling our legs and calf muscles.

Drills:

1) Squats-get into the engarde position and slowly lower your body down into a squat. X 10

2) Fire Feet Squats-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, making sure to keep good form. Drop into a squat every couple of seconds. X 10

3) Fire Feet Squat Jumps-get into engarde and pick up your feet quickly, make sure to keep good form during the exercise. Drop down into a squat, varying the time difference between squats. Once in squat, propel yourself upward in a jump and land softly back in engarde on the toes. X 10 

4) Lunge Jumps-get into a lunge and while staying low to the ground hop in and out of the lunge into the engarde. Make sure knee in the lunge is at a 90 degree angle.  X 15

5) High Knee Fire Feet-get into engarde and start alternating feet in fire feet workout. Every so often pick up your knees alternating knees 4 times then continue fire feet. Make sure to keep the back straight. X 10

6) Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can, landing softly on your front foot. Keeping your back foot in the air, push back as far as you can. This is one rep. X 15

7) Double Engarde Jumps-get into engarde and jump forward as far as you can just like before, except this time when you land hop in place once on your front foot before you hop back. On the back hop when you land also do another small in place hop on the toe. This is one rep. X 15

8) Engarde Jump Lunges-get into engarde and continue the exercise like above. This time though after the second back hop lunge forward then reset into engarde. X 15

9) Reaction Lunges-Find a partner and a tennis ball. Have your partner extend their arm with tennis ball in hand, when they drop the tennis ball lunge as quickly as possible. The point is to finish the lunge with clean form before the ball hits the ground. 1-2 minutes

10) Short/Long Reaction Lunge-Set up the exercise just like before, except your partner has two tennis balls. When they drop the ball in their left hand you are to do a double lunge before the ball hits the ground. When they drop the ball in the right hand just do a regular lunge. 1-2 minutes

11) Short/Long Hand Target Lunge-Find a partner and have them stand with one hand closer to you than the other. Have them randomly open one hand at a time and you must react quickly to lunge and hit it. The closer hand for the short lunge and the farther hand for the long lunge. X 20

12) Fencing Suicides-get into engarde and start at the very back of the strip. Go as quickly as possibly and keeping good form go to the 2 meter line and back, the engarde line and back, and so on.   

Strength Work

Strength work is very important for athlete's muscles. Strength work helps to prevent injuries as well as improve muscle capabilities. Today at the Alliance International Fencing Camp after our massive bladework and long day of epee fencing, we took 15-20 minutes to work on muscle strengthening activities. Below I have listed the exercises we worked on and their descriptions.

1) Squat Forward Jumps  X 15 (reps)
Go into a squat and jump forward and land softly on the heels. Slowly go back into a squat and immediately continue to the next hop forward.

2) Squat Backward Jumps X 15
Go into a squat and jump backward and land softly on your toes. Slowly go back into the squat and immediately continue to the next hop.

*After these two exercises you should feel really sore in your legs*


3) Wall Jumps 1 minute
Find a spot on the wall that is challenging to jump to and reach with your fingers. Jump up continuously, landing on your toes, for 1 minute straight. This exercise works the calf muscles.

4) Forward Crawls X 5
Start from bending to reach your toes with feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Crawl out to the push up distance and crawl backward staying low to the ground. Keep your legs straight during this exercise.

5) Caterpillars X 5
Start from bending to reach the toes position with the feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Hop forward on the hands 4 times to push up length distance and then hop back 4 times.

6) Push up Hops X 5
Get into the push up position with arms extended and feet a little less than shoulder length apart. Hop on hands and toes to the right 3 times, then back to the left 3 times.

7) Push up Circles 1 clockwise, 1 counter clockwise
With feet together, get into the push up position with extended arms. Walk your body with your hands clockwise in a full circle with the back straight. Then do the same counter clockwise.

8) Kick Turns 1 minute
Start by picking the right leg up into the air and kick up with the left leg so that you are now balanced on your right leg. Hop turn counter clockwise so that you are now balanced on the left leg. Continue the hopping and switching of legs. Works balance and coordination.

Alliance International Fencing Camp Week 1

Well week one is in the books. The Alliance International Fencing Camp has been fantastic! There was over 40 fencers, men and women, this first week and I have been fencing non-stop. This whole week was inconstant motion, everyone was always on the go doing things. Whether it be fencing at camp or going to the movies, shopping mall, frozen yogurt, we were always moving both during practice and afterwards.

I met all new people too. The Russian and Israel National teams are here as well as some French fencers. It has been a little difficult communicating with them, but still fun as well.

Almost every day we began with warm ups and stretching. One day we even learned this funny train dance that worked our coordination skills. We had to kick right twice, kick left twice, hop forward, hop backwards, then forward forward forward. Then the next time we would do the three hops backwards instead of forwards and so on. It was a bit confusing and difficult to coordinate with over 40 people to say the least :P

Every day the camp was divided into two groups, one would do footwork while the other fenced in a giant pool and we would switch at lunch time. Oh and speaking of lunch-we didn't let a day go by without playing an epic game of Egyptian Rat Screw (if you don't know the card game finish reading then IMMEDIATELY google it! best game ever!).

By the end of the week everyone was sore and tired, but pressed on. We held a giant mixed tournament on Friday. It was tough. The tournament was mixed and took all day in the unforgiving heat. Pools were in the morning and we had a shortened lunch in order to have enough time to finish the direct elimination bouts. (I finished 17th).

All in all the week was great. I learned some new great footwork, part of which I included in the footwork page of the blog, and focused on my game's week points while competing with top-notch fencers. We had great bonding activities after practice with camp parties, movies, and shopping nights. I got to know some of the Russian fencers pretty well-Tanya and Nastia. They would teach me some Russian and I taught them some English-there definitely some stumbles on the parts of both parties hahaha. For instance I could not for the life of me pronounce the word for the number 4. It was impossible! I really truly can't wait for the fun to continue this upcoming week!

Alliance Fencing Camp Anticipation

During the next two weeks I'm going to be spending my time training in sunny Houston, Texas. Alliance Fencing Academy is holding a two week international training camp that will have strong United States fencers as well as international fencers in attendance. I'm so excited! This camp promises to have top notch competition and coaching.

I will be battling it out with top fencers from the US and the international community. Fencers are coming from Russia, Israel, and France just to name a few places. The camp runs from 10AM to 4PM every day of the week with a minimum of 30 competitive bouts for each fencer.

We will be training our footwork and bladework along with our fencing technique. I'm looking forward to this camp as a step towards greater fencing and experience in my journey towards becoming the best fencer I can be.

I truly believe camps are a great way to train, in any sport. Camps allow us to gain new and important experience as well as friendships. The more practice we get the better! Camps can really help to focus the mind and body towards the goal of increasing skill and determination. They bring new faces and with that, new challenges that we must overcome.

I leave tomorrow at 8:50AM for Houston and can't wait to see some old friends and meet some new ones!

Courtney Dumas