This footwork DVD comes with a special device to help students learn footwork in the right way. A very simple DVD to follow that allows advanced and beginner fencers to develop proper footwork technique. Maestro Czaja has an amazing skill for finding the proper way to teach the correct footwork a fencer should learn. You will not be disappointed with this DVD. A must for every fencer.
| At a Glance... |
| Fencing quality: |
***** |
| Production quality: |
Professional |
| Duration: |
***** |
| Overall quality: |
***** |
This is a must-have footwork training product. While the DVD is short at under 15 minutes of video, it is everything a coach, club, or fencer is looking for on the topic of basic movement and keeping distance.
This DVD is not something to merely watch; you take the information, and then go to the club, and put it into use. It is essentially a "how-to guide" for the footwork training device which comes in the package.
The Personal Trainer© Footwork Tool
The personal trainer: Out of the bedroom, into the salle.
This DVD is primarily about how to use the footwork training tool, which comes in the package.
The idea of this product is that if you do the drills in the DVD with the training tool -- if you do any drills with the tool -- your stability and mobility will be enhanced. Coach Czaja hits the main points hard: Stability, mobility. His mantra is easy to remember and to believe.
The assertion is simple: If your feet are the proper distance, you will prosper. This rationale is laid out in the first two minutes, and then is reinforced with drills and games which look interesting and useful, including:
- The en garde, advance, and retreat
- The footwork training tool
- Simple distance
- The "distance" trainer (not included), a trainer for pair drills
- Pinned-glove bouting
- Basketball bouting
Good production values and cool on-screen graphics.
In fact, watch the footwork of the main fencer demonstrating the advance and retreat. The forward step -- begins with the front foot. The toe goes up, the heel lands -- the rest of the body is brought forward with the back foot. This is all so that the target moves last when the fencer is advancing, and the movement is not "committed" until the very end. Classic, and usually demonstrated by coaches in slow-motion. So to see a fencer moving at foot speed with the same skill is very gratifying.
Also notable -- if you're a coach or you've seen other training videos -- the Coach Czaja's line-up is nicely deep. There are several fencers, of different ages, all of them with nice technique. This is a coach who is getting his message across to more than just one or two camera-worthy fencers.
Does it work?
Armed with the video and the Personal Trainer©, we found several guinea pigs at the fencing club. With some quick adjustments (the DVD product has a special segment about how to adjust and put on the device), we connected the training tool to a several 12-year-olds, a 14-year-old, and then a 36- and a 40-year-old fencer.
It didn't matter whether the fencer was typically lazy or conscientious, the footwork tool brought their awareness down to the feet. The fencers soon began correcting the spacing between their feet -- and the corrections were echoed up the kinesthetic chain: The knees bent, the guard lowered, and the torso stabilized. You are able to feel when your feet are too far apart -- the tool grows tight, and when they're too close together -- the ball bounces and makes noise. You may have to master the urge to watch your feet.
This tool won't give a fencer perfect footwork -- they still have to want it and work for it, or pay a coach to scream at them. But it effectively provides a level of immediate feedback about the fencer's guard -- the position of the legs, and by relation, the balance of the body.
Actual application of this nifty tool will be left to the video. The "Personal Trainer" is Patent Pending, Waldek Czaja.
Summary
This is the footwork DVD every coach wishes he or she had created. Coach Czaja is on the map with this product. We will certainly watch for his future productions -- Coach Czaja reports that this is the first of three DVDs, and that he is presently working on the second one, which will be about bladework and footwork, "kind of a continuation of the first." He further promises that there will be other training devices in the series. If we had to choose between the length and quality of the production, we would choose quality.
Pros / Cons
Pros
- Excellent production value
- Excellent training methods
- Excellent example fencers
- This is the first in a series
Cons
- It's over too soon. The video content is under 15 minutes. While the drills and the footwork device will take months to master, you still want to see more. If only so you can live in that fencing world for a little longer.
About Coach Czaja
"Head coach Waldek Czaja has been fencing and coaching for over 25 years. He was a member of the Polish Junior and Senior National Teams and has been a finalist in numerous World Cup events. ...Coach Czaja is a highly rated national level Referee in all three weapons and has been awarded the degree of Moniteur L'Armes from the United States Fencing Coaches Association." -- From the Dallas Fencers website.
Coach Czaja is from the Polish school of fencing. He grew up in the school of Czajkowski, the Polish Maestro who is well-known in the States for his publications and frequent master classes.
Reviewed by Walter Flaschka
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