How to Lunge in Fencing

The lunge is the basic attack in fencing, as it keeps your defensive options open while maximizing your offense. A good lunge will push you a few feet (depending on your height and flexibility) in under a third of a second, and take another third to recover back to a proper guard position. A good lunge cannot be learned on paper; this guide will only help you correct common mistakes. To learn more, visit your local fencing club.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Stand at en garde.
2. Lift your front foot six inches off the ground, and hold it there. If you are properly balanced, you should be able to do this indefinitely.
3. When you’ve accomplished this, point your front toe towards the ceiling, and kick forward. Your goal is to have your back leg straight and your front leg in a backward “L”, with your front knee and front foot in a straight line.
4. Land heel first. As you’re kicking forward, keep your heel as close to the ground as possible. The goal is to go forward, not up. Minimize the vertical.
5. Check yourself. Do your front knee and heel make a straight line? Is your back leg straight?
6. Recover to en garde. See if you can recover with your front foot in the air, just like you started. It’s a great test of balance.
7. Once you’ve mastered this, you can move on to blade-work. Before you start moving your leg, start moving your arm forward (see note below).
8. Simultaneous to your front arm moving forward, throw your back arm backwards. This is for balance. Finish with your back palm facing the ceiling; this uncomfortable contortion will, remarkably, keep your head straight too. By keeping your head straight, you remove 15 to 20 pounds on the recovery.
9. Hit first, land second. Your legs provide the follow-through.
10. Your front arm should finish mostly straight, with your elbow very slightly bent. By keeping your elbow unlocked, you can immediately move into a parry-riposte if needed.

Tips & Warnings

• Some fencers say you must make perfectly straight line with your arm before lunging. That’s stupid and dangerous. Hyper-extending your arm (locking the elbow) compromises your blade-work, guarantees you’ll basically punch your opponent, lessens your range and isn’t even necessary by the rules. First, the rules. USFA rules state your hand must be moving towards your opponent to constitute an attack. That’s why “parry-riposte” calls make sense. You can hit your opponent without fully extending your arm and still have the attack, because your hand was moving towards their body. Second, you lose range with a perfectly straight line. Try locking your elbow and see how far you can reach. Now slowly extend. You’ll reach farther every time by extending. Third, a locked elbow basically guarantees you’ll hit your opponent full force in the chest, if you’re lucky. Fencing weapons are designed to bend in one direction; up, like a hill. To hit properly, your hand should always be lower than your tip. If your hand is higher than your tip when you hit, your weapon will bend down, like a valley. Do this enough times and you’ll break your weapon. Then you’ll be inches away from stabbing someone, having to unlock your elbow first (which takes time you won’t have).