Fencing Wear and Tear

[Conde Koma]

I'm actually transferring the other way around; I learned a bit of eskrima from friends over the last year or so. i was hoping to use fencing to supplement the training, with acknowledgement that hand-targeting and footwork will be major differences.

just how bad is the stress on the knees? are there any precautions i can take to prevent injury?

[Permalost]

I'm actually transferring the other way around; I learned a bit of eskrima from friends over the last year or so. i was hoping to use fencing to supplement the training, with acknowledgement that hand-targeting and footwork will be major differences.

just how bad is the stress on the knees? are there any precautions i can take to prevent injury?

Learn to lunge with proper form, and how far you can realistically lunge. The explosive lunge is what'll put stress on the knees. The things you'll want to avoid are extending the right knee farther forward than the toes, having your left foot roll onto its side, and having your left knee flex towards the ground (assuming your left foot is pointed to the side). Here's some pics:

Here's a good lunge:



Here, the foot has rolled over from touching the ground with the sole, to touching the ground with the inside of the foot. This is bad alignment as I learned it, but you'll see it even in high level fencing because it can be used to lunge very far. That doesn't make it good for the joints, though.


Something like this can appear to be bad form because the back knee is bent, however, it's actually fine because the foot and knee are in alignment.


Notice the poor alignment of the back leg.

Don't do it like this:


Wushu FTW!:

[Epeeist]

The next to last picture looks like the fencer is fleching rather than lunging.

[Permalost]

The next to last picture looks like the fencer is fleching rather than lunging.

That's what I was thinking too.