Marx Clinic Review
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008This past weekend I had the privilege of attending a fencing clinic with five-time Olympian and coach Michael Marx, hosted by Raleigh Fencers Club. Michael recently left Oregon to take on a coaching position with Alex Beguinet at Duke University here in North Carolina.
Glove distance demonstration
The weekend started with a night of casual bouting. In addition to regulars from RFC, we were lucky enough to have two outstanding epeeists down from Northwest Fencing Center, Adam Maczik and Helen Jolley. Following the bouting we sat down for a discussion about our goals for the weekend, mine being primarily to take back as many training ideas as possible to our small club.
The following day started at 9 am with another discussion. Topics included:
- The importance of a proper and consistent warmup routine
- Terminology
- Weight distribution while on guard
- Footwork drills
The footwork drills were particularly enlightening, and introduced three maneuvers that were completely new to me: check forward, check back, and forward slide. All three are strategic moves which effectively mask your intentions, and will make a welcome addition to my classes and personal repertoire. Michael’s method of leading the footwork was as entertaining as it was educational, and made what is usually the most dreaded part of fencing practice much less of a chore.
After a bouting session and then lunch at a local pizza joint, we returned to discuss the morning session and introduced new topics.
- Individual motivation
- Weapon-specific drills
- Proper attack distance
- Bout problem solving
- Developmental drills with beanbags
The beanbag drills were simply outstanding. I had heard of a few of them, but there were many new ones as well, and he only scratched the surface of all of the possibilities. I frantically scribbled descriptions in my notebook to take back to my club. If he comes through on his intentions to publish a video of these drills, I’ll be first in line for a copy.
Sunday began another day with more bouting and new topics of discussion:
- Situational bouting
- Footwork training methods
- Making each drill action count
- Finger development Exercises
- Decision making drills
It became clear that many of the drills are designed to develop the elusive skill of split-second decision making. By the end of the clinic my head was spinning with information and my body was starting to catch up with me. But I have a full notebook of ideas and renewed inspiration for both fencing and teaching!
In summary, a clinic like this would be well worth your time and money if you have a free weekend and hope to improve either your fencing or your coaching methods. Michael is a welcome addition to the fencing talent already present in North Carolina, and I hope there will be future opportunities like this one. Keep your eyes glued to Ask Fred!
Update 1: For the needle-and-thread challenged, here’s a quick way to construct your own beanbags: Fill party balloons with 1/4 cup of rice or dry beans using a kitchen funnel and tie off. To make these more durable, cut the necks off of 2 to 3 more balloons and stretch over the first. Voilà! Your own beanbags!
Update 2: Picture added.
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