Plyometrics

Everyone once in awhile I get asked about the fitness side of swordplay. Diving deep into the academic side of things is fine and dandy, but if you’re trying to win a fight, you’re going to need more than a high level understanding of what’s going on. In the same way that you benefit from a good sword, have a body that can react the way you want it to when you need it can be the difference between whether or not you eat a blade to the face or not.

My general fencing fitness advice comes in three parts. Cardio for your heart and lungs, isometrics for your arms, and plyometrics for your legs. Cardio is fairly straightforward, fights tend to go for awhile and if you don’t have the gas to stay in the fight, nothing much else is going to matter. Isometrics are just exercises that involve staying still for awhile. A plank is an isometric whereas a pushup is a dynamic exercise. In fencing, more so than pretty much any other art, we hold a weight really far away from our body for a long time. A sword might not weigh all that much on it’s own, but this isn’t a field where your one rep max is what really matters. I can get pretty far with footwork, but every once in awhile I am going to need to hold my sword out in front of me in order not to get hit.

Plyometrics are explosive exercises. While you might have to just stand there for awhile, you’re also going to benefit from legs that can go from 0 to 60 in under a second and back again. Fencing is full of quick, explosive movements. Being able to get in and out of measure at the drop of a hat gives you a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the rest of your fight.

Earlier this week one of my personal students asked, on his own for some plyometric exercises he could do at home. While being able to demonstrate things in person is always preferable, sometimes you don’t have that luxury. Other times, just like with a book, it can be nice to have reference material you can go back to whenever you feel like it. In that spirit, I put together a short video of the plyometrics I use when I’m really serious about working on my footwork.

Not every fencer will be able to perform all of these, or even to the degree I’m showing here and that’s fine. The goal is not necessarily for everyone on this newsletter to have the knees of a 30 year old professionally trained circus performer. Instead, treat these exercises as a jumping off point. If you can do all of them, great! What some similar movements you can create? If you can’t do all of these, that’s also alright. How can you modify these to fit with what you can do?