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Lesson one: Basic footwork

"People think I catch the ball with my hands. They're wrong. I catch the ball with my feet. My feet get me to the ball."
-- Chris Carter, NFL Hall of Fame Wide Receiver

Fencing begins with movement. Movement, is about balance and speed. You need more than just speed to be a good fencer. You need balance to control your speed. Without balance your speed can easily be used against you.
To maintain balance you should practice your footwork every day. After your skill with the blade becomes acceptable, you will still need to focus a great deal of your training time on your footwork. You will never get enough footwork. Get used to that idea. You will never reach the point when your footwork is good enough.
Proper footwork is the difference between having the correct distance and timing to make a hard point look easy, and having the wrong distance and timing and making an easy point look hard.

Your "on guard" stance may seem odd at first, but simply keeping the knees bent and the weight on the balls of your feet should be the most natural thing for any athlete. Basketball players, baseball players, tennis players, football players all have an "on guard" stance that is similar if not identical the that of fencers. Knees bent, body upright but slightly forward. Anyone who needs to move suddenly in any direction should be "on guard." Get comfortable in your on guard stance and you will quickly see the payoff.

"Getting a proper foundation in footwork early is critical to your long-term fencing success."

Never fence sideways.
Fencers of old appeared to stand with their hips facing across the strip to hide their target area from their opponent's view. With the advent of the flick this theory became obsolete. Your opponent is just as likely to score on your back or side as he is on your front. (This is more true for men than for women, but true for both.)
Human legs are designed to bear our weight and move us in certain ways. The most efficient of these is forward. Our hips are capable of carrying us along sideways, but the limited speed and agility we can achieve in this position is nothing compared to our power when moving forward and backward.
While moving our target area is a valuable option, we can acheive this even more effectively by facing the opponent, and turning quickly in response to an over-committed attack. In this way we do not inhibit our mobility by trying to move around the strip with hips turned out at unnatural angles.

Never allow your back foot to point any further than 90 degrees away from your opponent. Hungarian as well as many other schools of fencing are now teaching their students to place their rear foot pointing inward as much as 45 degrees. This facilitates todays faster, more athletic game. The weight still shifts to the heel for increased power during the lunge so in the moment of the lunge, the rear foot faces straight across the strip. Thus not affecting the fencers ability to recover

Basic terminology:

On Guard: (aka "en garde") The ready position. The position from which a fencer or any athlete can attack or defend with minimum delay. In fencing, keep your knees bent and at proper spacing. Keep you hand in front of you with the elbow bent. Your point threatening your opponent, and your legs ready to lunge or retreat.
Advance: Lifting your forwardmost foot slightly off the ground move it forward an appropriate distance (usually less than 12 inches) before setting it down, heel first, then immediately and always immediately following with the rear foot.
Retreat: Lift the rear foot slightly reach back an appropriate distance, then immediately follow suit with the forward foot.
With advance and retreat, remember smaller steps are better in almost all cases. The benefits of taking small steps on most occasions far outweigh the occasional success of taking larger, more powerful steps. The larger the step, the more time your spend off-balance.
Lunge: Quickly extend both the weapon bearing arm and the the forward leg. Immediately after this extension has begun extend the rear arm and leg simultaniously propelling yourself forward. Land with the forward heel and then bend the forward leg to absorb the force of movement.
The point should be scored before the forward heel touches the ground.
Recovery: Immediately after executing a lunge always recover either forward, backward or neutrally. Never remain in a lunge position for any amount of time. Backward recovery: Simlutaniously bend the rear leg and straighten the front leg, this should be used in almost all cases until your opponent's reaction has been carefully gauged, as a forward recovery is considered a remise of action and so is a calculated risk. Forward recovery: with arm still extended quickly pull the rear foot forward into a slightly crouched on guard position.
Parry: One of eight defensive actions with the blade. Striking your opponent's attacking blade aside and out of the line it threatened with your own blade. The rear foot should be slightly off the ground during the parry as part of the retreat, if the parry is deceived, you can still extend you retreat and avoid getting hit.
Riposte: Immediately after executing a parry, extend with the intent to hit the opponent's target.
Circular parry: A more powerful, yet more time consuming method of parrying. Ignoring the shortest path to the blade, rotate your blade around to strike it from the other side.
Flying parry: or 'grazing parry', pulling your blade back toward your body while striking, or taking your opponent's blade.
Prise d' fer: French for 'take the steel.' ('Prise d' lame' translates to 'take the blade') It refers to any number of different ways of taking the blade other than a simple beat or parry. Either under the dictates of right of way where any uncontested striking of the blade gains one the right to attack, or under more practical situations where both fencers press for control of the blades but one "takes" it through leverage or superior physical strength.
Flick: Using the flexibility of the blade and a snap of the wrist to hit targets not accessible with a straight blade. Usually the back.
Cross-over advance: The method of advancing by bringing your rear foot past your front foot during attack to increase speed and distance. It is illegal to make any forward crossover actions when fencing sabre. Cross-over retreats however, are legal.
Balestra, or hop-lunge: A preparatory action that builds an attacking fencers momentum prior to his lunge. Throw the front foot out while making a small hop. Pull the front foot back sharply and the rear foot and the entire body is brought up near the front foot. While the distance to the opponent is unchanged, the attacking fencer has an improved position resulting in a longer, faster lunge. Much like the way a long-jumper shortens his steps as he approaches the jump, converting his vertical momentum into horizontal energy.

Lessons:

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Strydermike

Galleries!

Old way = Bad.
Notice the feet, they face away from one another impeding his movement and limiting his power.

New way = Good.
His shoulders and hips face more toward his opponent, increasing range of motion and power.

Advancing and retreating:
Move your forward foot first when you want to move forward. Keep it close to the ground and minimize the time that your foot is in the air. While your foot is in the air, you are off balance and vulnerable. Make your advances and retreats take as little time as possible, even if this means taking shorter steps. A common mistake is taking steps that are too large. While this does serve to get you closer to your opponent, this is often a bad thing. A large step takes a long time, your opponent has ample time to see you coming and when you finally put your foot down, you will be the victim of his fast attack.

A small step plus a lunge will get you as far or farther than a large step plus a lunge. But without the risk.

Smaller, more controlled steps = bigger, more powerful lunges!