While there were a number of Carlisle, PA, adventures with my friend and host, Patrick Bratton, among them were a few with other coaches and some of his students. As another example and proof for the value of cross-fertilization in fencing, I’d like to talk about the morning I spent watching a fantastic lesson by an Olympic coach, the excellent Tony Alvarez.
Excellence in Coaching: Tony Alvarez
I’ve known about Tony since the Pandemic–he worked with Patrick online in the epee class with Maitre Robert Handelman we all took–but this was the first time I had met him in person. Knowing my background, or at least my current focus, he was quick to remind me that the lesson sample I was about to watch was modern. While I cannot say I enjoy modern sabre, I do recognize that there is much to learn there despite the problems, if for no other reason than smart fencing coaches like Tony adapt well.
I’ll not lie–I have been quick to criticize modern sabre, and I likely still will, but this said I gained a new vantage point on it thanks to Tony and Patrick this past Monday morning, and I’m grateful for that. First, and to honor Tony’s skill, he showed very few actions, but actions used in different measures and tempi, in different set-ups.
He started with actions in the box, between the two en garde lines, then outside the box. Watching Patrick and Tony, both of whom know what they’re doing, made it seem as if very little had changed since the days of my early training save in one respect: speed. The modern game relies on speed in a way that one could mitigate more easily before the end of proper edge-alignment in sabre. There simply is not time to make some actions, most especially ripostes, in every instance.
Everything is a distance game played at the right time and correct speed. Here’s the pinch–that has always been true. What differs is method and tool. A lighter, fast weapon that can score with any part of the blade demands tighter timing. This is one reason the age of competitors has dropped so significantly in the past three decades.
I learned A LOT watching Tony teach, and his advice for working with children–the majority of his clientele–is invaluable.
Quick Studies-A Radaellian Lesson with one of Patrick’s Students, “J.”
One of the things I most looked forward to was working with Patrick’s folks. One student, a young high-schooler, wanted a sabre lesson and the last day at the fort we were able to have a short one. Important things to note: this young man started fencing last August; he is a big man, but super quick and flexible (day one in Justin’s Besnard class he dropped effortlessly into a de la Touche lunge…).
I gave him a very traditional outline, but with Radaellian elements, meaning we started with some point in line/disengage work, then some parry/riposte to warm up. Then, I took him through two set-ups with feints. Finally, as a cool down, we did a stop-cut/parry-riposte drill. He made all of it look easy.
I have adult students who struggle with some of these set-ups, but J. looked like he had been doing these drills for years. Even in the cool-down he opted to use an arrest half the time, an action that takes considerable point-control and timing. I was so impressed and told him so.
J. is as good as he is because he has a great coach, and, because J. is motivated, keen to fence, and found the right place to learn. I have written a lot about the importance of the universals in teaching, of starting with and honing fundamental actions, and J. is proof of how sound an approach that is. Moreover, J., and Patrick’s other students, are working within a mixed community, diverse in many senses but also in the sense of fencing styles and influences. It shows.
Why is this important? It’s important because it reveals another layer of diversity within Patrick’s club–put simply, his students are getting tools for their toolbox not only from different stores, but different lines of work. In the U.S. now there are people keen to erase diversity and downplay its importance. They do this out of fear and ignorance, for there is no science, reason, or morality behind any of their claims.
A diverse club is a healthy club, one guaranteed to push people and help them grow, and not just in terms of their ability to lunge or parry well. Exposure to people different from us, in large ways and small, reveals that they are people like us, just fellow humans trying to make their way through life.
Diversity fosters strength–it is harder to accept the idiocy of race-politics, for example, when one spends a lot of time with different “races” etc. and therefore knows what politician A or pundit B says is complete horseshit.
Working in Pennsylvania, and in an area rather “red” as it were, what Patrick has achieved at Sala della Spada is remarkable. Under his roof you will find not only the usual notions of diversity, but also political diversity. Now, like many of us, politics is not a topic there is time for in a salle, so they focus on fencing, but everyone in the club knows that they are working with people who see the world differently in key ways and work together nonetheless. In this there is hope. It is hard to remain divided when we spend with people ostensibly on the “other side” from us. We find our common humanity, we find common ground. If nothing else, we all love to fence.
Capitale Escrime Historical Fencing 