By Nick Evangelista
fencer’s side. The French call it the "elephant’s trunk". Once upon a time,
fencers held the back arm up, straight out from the shoulder at a forty-five
degree angle, and then straight up at the elbow. The hand was held limply.
Beginning fencers tend to think this looks dumb or silly. I’ve heard one
explanation that swordsmen used to hold their hand this way because they
were holding a lantern in their free hand. This is erroneous. They did
occasionally employ lanterns. They also used daggers, cloaks, mailed
gloves, and extra swords. But in those cases, the free hand was held
forward, not back, as it had a role in offensive-defensive maneuvering.
So-called "advanced" sport fencers think of holding the free arm up as an
affectation of another age, a useless holdover of polite, artsy, eighteenth-
nineteenth century fencing, a kind of ballet with swords. Moreover, it is
asserted by many modern teachers that holding the free arm up cause the
shoulders to become tense. Their thought is that dropping the arm "keeps
the shoulders relaxed, and so promotes freer movement". Sounds
reasonable, huh? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
The free arm does have a purpose in fencing. Actually, it has a number of
purposes, all of which are totally lost when the arm is allowed to drop
downward. Certainly, there is some initial tension in the shoulders when one
assumes the classical fencing position during the early stages of fencing
training, but it passes as the fencing student learns to relax with fencing in
general. I have been fencing for thirty-three years, and I can assure you that
the initial tension is replaced by relaxation, if the student perseveres. So, in
actuality, dropping the free arm has become a short-term fix for lazy fencers.
absence of the free arm’s counterbalance
places the fencer’s balance forward, putting
more weight on his front foot. This slows
movement responses, and the fencer is
reduced from smooth accelerations and
retreats to uncontrolled stepping and running.
free arm held up acts as a counter-balance. It keeps you upright,
promoting a balanced position whereby your body weight remains
distributed equally on both legs. This is a good thing for fencers who don’t
want to fall down. Holding the arm at a forty-five degree angle from your
torso, keeps your body angled in relationship to your opponents, giving
them as little straight-on target area as possible.
When the bent arm is snapped straight back from our classical position, it
adds to the acceleration of the lunge ("for every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction"). Once you are in the lunge, the straight arm held
behind you, with the free hand held palm-up in supination, helps you to
remain balanced. In simple language, it keeps your backside from sticking
out. Then, when you come back on guard from the lunge, pulling the back
arm up quickly aids in the recovery.
Keeping the free arm up when you are on guard keeps your arm out of the
line of fire, as well. Consider this: fencers receive calls against them for
"covering a valid target area" with the free arm -- this simply could not
happen if the arm was held correctly behind them. Finally, your back arm
serves as a rudder, like the steering pole on the rear of a boat. If you use it
properly, it will steer you straight ahead, enhancing your point control. As
far as I can tell, all these are positive things.
Now, let’s look at the fencer who has been seduced to the dark side of the
force. He drops his sword arm because this is what he was taught to do.
Oops! He loses balance. Without a counter-balance, his weight shifts to his
front leg. Now, all he can do is step or run or jump at his opponent. He is
constantly off balance. If he has fenced for a while, he probably has, or will,
hurt his front knee or ankle since his weight constantly shifts unevenly as
he moves. When he drops his free arm to his side, his sword arm shifts
sideways toward the outside line (opening his inside line), and his chest
squares to his opponent, exposing his entire chest to an easy attack.
When his sword arm moves to the outside when he is on guard, he will
automatically make wider parries. And, to be sure, hanging at his side like
a wet noodle, his free arm will not help him with his lunge, his balance, or
his recovery.
But, he will have relaxed shoulders. Nice trade-off.
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