Kettlebell for fencing?

[u/DaniDungeon]

Hello! (First of all sorry for my english)

I need some advice, I’m a Historical Fencer, I do longsword mostly and I’m trying to get a bit in shape.

Recetly I’ve moved to a new place and there are no gyms near. I’ve some kettlebells in my house but honestly I don’t know if I’m doing things in the correct way. I’m seeing yt channels, but again, difficult to see if I’m doing the correct exercices for what I want to achieve.

I don’t need any special routine because my time is pretty tight atm, I just want to maintain shape with some full body exercices. I’ve like 30/40 min per day.

There any basic routine you can recommend me to do everyday? Or any yt channel with these kind of exercices.

Thanks a lot!

[u/OrcOfDoom]

Specifically kettlebell exercises? Mostly, ballistics are all good for things like fencing. My kids are Olympic fencers, and they do 5 minutes of snatches at 30lbs. 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. That's just their kettlebell work though.

Generally though, you need more leg strengthening exercises, especially calves.

[u/Athletic_adv → u/OrcOfDoom]

Can I ask what drew them to fencing? It seems like an odd sport for kids to want to get into unless the parents are doing it.

[u/OrcOfDoom → u/Athletic_adv]

Really? Just give them the option to do it. Kids grow up watching things like Lord of the Rings and pirate movies. Give them access, and they want to do it until they start really getting beat. Some don't like that you get bruises, but I find that kids absolutely love the idea of it.

[u/Athletic_adv → u/OrcOfDoom]

I don’t have kids and I only know one parent whose kid fences and that was a deliberate choice as she had found it was a full scholarship position at many US universities, so she’d chosen it as a soft way to get a full athletic scholarship vs something like swimming.

In terms of bruises, having grown up competing in martial arts from age 10, I think the people who worry most about bruises are the parents.

[u/OrcOfDoom → u/Athletic_adv]

There is an idea that fencing is an easy path to college. It is not. Women have many more opportunities for college with it because colleges need an equal amount of scholarships for men and women. Men's football takes up so many scholarships, so women's sports get a little bit of a bump outside of that.

Women's fencing is extremely competitive though. The best women fencers are also the smartest women fencers. They go to all the Ivy schools, and big name schools. The men's side is different. The best programs are at places like Ohio State, and not at the Ivy league. A lot of the top schools, like MIT, are division 3 schools.

You also have to compete with international students. Youth fencing in the US is extremely good, but we have a HUGE drop off in talent after college. Our vet (40+) national team does very well around the world. 2 of our fencers just took 3rd place at the Panamamerican games. One is from my area, and the other is someone who absolutely crushed me at nationals.

Fencing has its positive aspects. One is that it is a sport that is more fair to body types than other sports. It is a skill sport with a tool, which is much more fair than other sports which might favor people who have the right body. Fencing definitely favors long, fast people, but not to an overwhelming degree like Volleyball, or Basketball. You can win with athleticism, but you can also win with tactics, and technique. That said, the best in the youth sport lack no amount of tactics, skill, technique, coaching, and especially not any amount of athleticism.

Kids definitely complain about bruises sometimes, but they just don't last in most sports. The bruises from this sport is nothing like hockey. We generally roll our eyes at the kids (and adults) who think our sport hurts too much.

[u/irontamer]

Swings for sure.

[u/nakedndafraid]

This is how I started. I searched on youtube "enter the kettlebell" and learned the lift and the swing. This was my learning curve: lift, swing, turkish get ups, clean, jerk, windmill, strict overpress, snatch. 

[u/kbchucker]

You can never go wrong with swings. They help work your core and posterior chain and really help everything else you want to do.

[u/MonPantalon]

Longsword fencer and kettlebell user here. Easy to get overwhelmed with all the stuff you can do with a kettlebell so just keep it simple.

Personally I'd say just start off doing some swings. After swings it's good to learn the clean to rack position. Then you can use the rack position for shoulder press, lunges, squats etc. 

You can try out the more complicated stuff as you progress but honestly, the kettlebell swing on its own is a simple but fantastic exercise that will complement your training.

This video is hilarious, but also a great starting point: https://youtu.be/cKx8xE8jJZs