Recommendations for good books on teaching fencing?

[KeithFarrell]

Hey guys, I would like to look at some textbooks about teaching fencing. In particular I am interested in teaching theories and models and woud like to see how other people believe these can be applied to the teaching of fencing. People keep saying that there are good books available that discuss this sort of thing and I would like to have a read at a couple. So, can anyone make some recommendations? Cheers!

[Richard Marsden]

There is a book called Teaching and Interpreting Historical Swordsmanship by Brian Price. I don't suggest it though, and my reviews of all the books I've read can be found here. The review on Price's book is the very last on the list.

http://www.worksofrichardmarsden.com/wmabookreviews.htm

I'm a High School history teacher by trade and have read plenty of books on 'how to teach', and found that it applies to teaching Western Martial Arts. I also took a few courses on coaching sports, and again there is plenty of stuff to use. I'm not certain you'd want to dig through such literature though. It's a lot about how the brain works, how to organize thoughts, how to assign tasks, manage classes and so on- but it isn't discipline specific and every few years the industry gets shaken up and a new guy comes along with repackaged material. Example.

Blooms Taxonomy = Organized tasks in relation to difficulty. Memorization and Repetition is 'low', while Evaluation is 'high'.
Marzano = Same thing! He just moved a few things around and added some definitions and he's the 'go to' guy till the next one comes along.
And someone else will come along and do the same thing. I believe right now the phrase 'rigor and relevance' is all the rage.

In terms of teaching swordsmanship the ideas can be applied.

Ask a student to repeat one task and its a low-level activity. Its the building blocks for higher level tasks.
Ask a student to combine two tasks and its higher level.
Ask a student to choose between tasks and its higher level still.
Ask a student to determine what is 'right and or wrong' with a decision and its even higher level.

I've seen some Historical Fencing teachers try to jump to 'Ask a student to determine what is 'right and or wrong' with a choice and get frustrated that the students don't know, or are flustered, or don't quite find the right solution. I think this is because the lower level tasks need to be completed first, but they don't need to be mastered- rather just understood.

Ask a student to copy you as you form a guard.
Ask a student to copy you as you cut.
Ask a student to form the guard, like you showed, then perform an attack like you showed together.
Ask a student to form one of several guards you showed earlier and perform their choice of attack.
Engage in low-level or slow sparring in which the above principles are applied.
Ask a student to determine what went right, what went wrong.

The little tasks lead up to the higher level and bring understanding. You can really get into the weeds if you want and there is educational theory on what low task should go where and why.

Example of Lower Level Tasks
Copy what I do.
Combine tasks.
Repeat instructions.
Identify techniques.

Example of Higher Level Tasks
Sparring.
Evaluation of technique or sparring.
Teaching. I try to eventually get all my students able to teach to others. This is great because as new people arrive to your group you can teach them, while the advanced students can work with rest of your group on tasks more fit to their level. Teaching isn't easy either. While my students hear and see me go over the same material over and over, they still have to find their own way to verbally and visually express it. This is a higher level task for sure.

All Higher Level tasks can go dreadfully wrong, hence a guide on the side helps, but over time will be needed less. At least, that's the educational theory!

I'm sure the sport and classical fencers have loads of books to suggest that will be more exciting than me ranting about 'education' knick-nacks.

Good luck!

[KeithFarrell]

I actually think that "Teaching and Interpreting Historical Swordsmanship" is not too bad. Don't get me wrong, it is not exactly an industry standard textbook by any stretch of the imagination, but for a beginner instructor without much idea of how to teach, it does contain a lot of good tips and information. I don't think it quite deserves the terrible reputation it seems to have.

I know what you mean about the various ways of teaching. I spent over a decade learning how to teach in a karate organisation, and my father has been a secondary school teacher since before I was born so I have learned a lot from him about general teaching practices. I regularly incorporate several teaching theories and models into how I run my lessons and it all works quite well.

What I'm looking for here is an insight into how the best coaches within sport fencing structure their teaching, with respect to group classes and one-to-one lessons. It seems that "The Science of Fencing" by William Gaugler is the book most recommended so far.

[Mike Ruhala]

I'm a fan of Laszlo Szabo's Fencing And The Master. It covers the kinds of things I wish the ancient masters included in their treatises.

[Clint_Schaaf]

I would look into other subjects like football, soccer, baseball, golf, Olympics, etc. Read memoirs written by successful coaches. There is a lot more money involved in these sports and way more study and literature because of it. If you're looking for teaching theory and not specifically swordsmanship this would be the way to go. How we teach and learn doesn't change between sports.

[Dustin Reagan]

I can recommend Ken Mondschein's book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Two-Handed-Sword-Mondschein-Ph-D/dp/0978902289/ref=la_B003201YLO_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1342031931&sr=1-3.

It has several sections that are a good resource for teaching historical fencing.

[Kevin Murakoshi]

So I'm going to focus mainly on books about coaching fencing. I've included links in the US and from Leon Paul in the UK.

If you're looking at books that describe a system of fencing (these are the simple attacks, the simple parries, this is a counterattack. etc). I can give you titles for those too. In general, anything from SKA Swordplay Books is worth a read.
http://www.swordplaybooks.com/

The classic text for fencing coaching is Fencing and the Master by Lazlo Szabo. Instead of focusing on fencing theory and technique, it focuses instead on how to teach fencing. It moves from positions of the instructor in running group classes, to aids for the proper teaching of fingering, to identification and correction of faults. It's is, however pretty old (1977), so it may not include the most modern sport science based material. If you only buy one coaching book, this probably should be the one.
http://www.shop.swordplaybooks.com/product.sc?productId=4
http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/Fencing_And_The_Master.html

Understanding Fencing by Zbigniew Czajkowski is an excellent book. Every time I read this I get something new out of it. It's considerably more focused on modern fencing, but the theory that he develops for fencing is applicable to HEMA as well. The author is a Fencing Master, MD and former Olympic coach, so he knows what he's talking about. An interesting side note is that he's clearly familiar with HEMA texts. He quotes from them throughout the book.
http://shop.swordplaybooks.com/product.sc;jsessionid=07D28693D6931CC0C91D14343AF22607.qscstrfrnt06?productId=1&categoryId=1
http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/Understanding_Fencing.html

Fencing: A Practical Guide for Training Young Athletes By Rob Handelman and Connie Louie is an excellent book written mostly about teaching saber to youth fencers. Despite this, it has excellent chapters on sports psychology (Dr Louie is a sports psychologist), training cycles, and lesson planning. It's also considerably easier to read than either of the books above.
http://www.absolutefencinggear.com/shopping/product_info.php/products_id/1082/cPath/56_57
http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/Fencing--A-Practial-Guide-to-Training-Young-Athletes.html

If you can get a copy of it, The Methodology of Sabre Fencing is an amazing text. While it's mainly focused on saber fencing, the first 4 chapters are a great examination of training cycles as they pertain to training fencing athletes. Sadly, it's out of print and copies go for a lot. If you can find it through ILL, it's really cool.

Some other books:

One Touch at a Time by Aladair Kolgar is a great book about sports psychology and fencing.
http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/One_Touch_At_A_Time.html

Epee 2.0: The New Fencing Paradigm by Johan Harmenberg is a short book that is a really interesting look at breaking down fencing into "Areas of Excellence". It's mostly a biography, but it's a quick and entertaining read.
http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/Epee_2.0.html

Maestro Gaugler's book is, in may ways, a description of a system of fencing. There are a lot of lessons in it, but you have to infer the theory behind it. That's less useful when you want to apply the theory to a different weapon and aren't in it for the classical fencing. I get the sense that the coaching training was supposed to come through the practical classes at the San Jose State Fencing Masters Program. As a result I'm not sure it's quite what you're looking for. It's also pretty dated, given that it tries to codify a system that dates to the 1930s-50s. (Note 1)

Note 1: As a FMP graduate, I love Maestro Gaugler's book, and feel that it's an increadibly important text. (my Exams are based on it) However, if you're looking at books about how to teach modern fencing, it's probably not quite what you're interested in.

[Kevin Murakoshi]

As a follow up, here are some really interesting articles (and forum threads) about modern fencing that I think have some application to HEMA training.

These are a series of articles about initiative based fencing from the Italian Maestri di Scherma. (interesting to see the vor in a modern context, nothing new under the sun).
http://www.accademiadellascherma.it/educazione-e-formazione/on-the-primacy-of-fundamentals.html
http://www.accademiadellascherma.it/educazione-e-formazione/initiative-in-fencing.html

An article on coaching cues in tempo:
http://www.coachescompendium.org/CUES_IN_TEMPO.HTML

Some thoughts on the student controlled private lesson:
http://www.coachescompendium.org/STUDENTCONTROL.HTML

"Preparation" is a specific term for modern fencers, but we all use bladwork/footwork to set up actions while fencing:
http://www.coachescompendium.org/PREPARATION.HTML

[KeithFarrell]

Wow Kevin, that is some superb information! Thank you very much

[Mark T]

Hi Keith, I posted this over at Schola Forum, but for completeness here - The Learning Process DVD by Charles Selberg might have some of what you're looking for.

Mark T