This article series should give you a short summary of things you can work on during home-workout like in the corona pandemic as well as during the summer holidays of the off-season.
The article will discuss some aspects, of course their are much more you can work on. We decided to give you bite-size information and divided to 1o things you can work on in the off-season into two articles.
The off-season, so the time period between two seasons is great for recovery but also can be seen as a time of massive improvement.
Imagine yourself stronger, more confident with a better focus and stronger footwork starting your new season. How do you feel? What do you say to yourself? How would you look?
Lets start!
- Focus
The ability to focus during competitions is crucial for fencers, especially if you want to compete at the highest level. Focus can be trained in two dimensions. First the depth of the focus, so how deep you can concentrate yourself and second how long you can stay focused without getting distracted. Both dimensions are crucial for a fencing match. You can practice Yoga, mindfulness trainings, meditations, breathing, different types of visualizations, Qi-gong or something totally different.
- Strength
Training strength should always be in alignment with your fencing goals. Do you want to become stronger, have a stronger core, do you want to put on some muscles or do you want to work on your resistance. Most professional athletes work with a specialized coach in that. Of course there are always exercises you can do yourself in the gym, but if you have the opportunity to work with a professional coach in that field, then I would definitely work with him or her.
Tim Morehouse for example talks in an interview given to the Men’s Journal an overview over his weekly training sessions. It is an interesting article understanding how Olympic Medalists train during week. I also recommend the Instagram channels of Miles Chamley-Watson and for German speaking athletes Tobias Suess, who will be on an interview sharing his experiences with us in the following weeks.
- Technique
Working with your coach on technique is one of the most important aspects of fencing. If not, you will miss too many touches, your actions will be not precise enough or you will make to many mistakes.
Summer is a great time to work on small changes that will help you perform much better in your next season.
- Tactics
Fencing is like playing chess. It has a very strategic approach. You have to play with your opponent, have to guide him or her, you have to fake and prepare your action carefully. Working on that can mean, that you talk with your coach or take lessons to work in tactics. Also visualizing actions and preparations will help you a lot, to learn faster.
- Goal-setting
If we think of goal setting, we are always thinking of seeing us winning a competition, or wining a goal medal somewhere. Goal-setting is so important to achieve something in sports and life. If you don’t set yourself a goal, you will just go in one direction and then maybe in another one, but you will not work on one specific thing you do everything for.
Watch this video of Alexander and Greg Massialas, two heavyweights of fencing. Alexander is Silver-Medalist at the Olympics in Rio 2016. Greg is his father and coach, a 3-times Olympian himself. They talk about goal-setting and about pursuing their passion. Great example of goal-setting and vision.
Set yourself goals for every season, and have one big goal, a vision you want to achieve. This will keep you focused and motivated throughout the entire year and a long season.
You want to MASTER your Mental Game?
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On the 15th of July we will start our online High Performance Mindset Power Programm, giving you all the tools you need to be mentally strong and feel confident in your next competitions!
