Customer Reviews

Fencing and the Master

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My Hungarian master Laszlo Jakab, a personal friend of Laszlo Szabo, introduced this book to me as "The fencer's Bible". He continued telling me that within its pages were common faults that Masters should look for and how to fix them. Master Szabo has in his book endeavoured to put in to writing his method of teaching. It a very thorough treatment of the subject matter. Within the scope of subjects covered is immense. Ranging from the master's obligations to his pupils, techniques for building the correct fencing mussels, giving individual and group lessons (where to stand, how to give signals etc), a complete tactical system all the way down to the basics of a correct guard stance.

My master can not speak highly enough of this book and has integrated many parts of the contents in to his own method of teaching and fencing. I myself feel that even though some of the methods explained are now outdated (e.g. training without masks) the book offers great insight in to fencing at all levels and should you wish to become a good coach this is the only book you will need.

As an aspiring coach, I have read through many different books on fencing and fencing instruction. Only one other book (Foil, Sabre and Epee Fencing, by Garret et. al.) approaches the breadth, detail and clarity of this remarkable work.

Szabo not only describes exercises, drills and lesson plans for the fencing instructor -- he describes *how* to teach them. His section on fencing theory, specifically the "tactical wheel" and "tactical tree," is indispensible -- it is simply not found in any other fencing book. Finally, the book is superbly illustrated: both with represenations of proper technique(and improper -- so that coaches can recognize common errors in their students) and diagrams showing the position of feet relative to the torso during footwork.

$30 may be kinda steep, but it is cheaper than taking a plane flight to Hungary for participation in a week-long fencing instruction seminar (the next best thing)

I did notice that a large portion of the book was dedicated to sabre, but then again, the author was primarily a sabre coach.

I could go on, but I think that if is suffice to say that any serious coach (i.e. hoping to have students with national results) should buy this book and commit it to memory. You won't be sorry.

The book is also available from major fencing equipment suppliers (e.g. blade)

My opinions do not reflect in anyway those of my employer, Vault Reports

There are faults in this book, but they are mostly of production, illustrations in the wrong place and some clumsiness in the translation.

However, the content is excellent. Each topic is considered in detail and there is a pleasing flow in development.

If you are intending to be a coach then this book is an essential adjunct to your coaching course. If you already are a coach then it offers a wealth of material to improve your coaching.

The Szabo text is one of the best instructor's guides to fencing. Calisthenics, drills, excercises, teaching methodologies and more are covered. It is exhaustive in its coverage of instruction and training topics but offers only a modest amount of information on tactics. A good companion book would be "Fencing" by Istvan Lukovich; for which I have also written a review.

This book has quite possibly the best and most comprehensive collection of sabre drills that I've ever come across in print. Also the discussions on the mental preparedness of both the student AND the master are extremely worthwhile. If you are going to teach anyone how to fence, read and understand this book. If you are going to teach anyone to fence sabre, read, understand and constantly refer to this book!

This is a useful volume -- for anyone contemplating a stint as a teacher of fencing. For the student of fencing, however, it will probably prove of little help. But, then, it is called FENCING AND THE MASTER, not FENCING AND THE FENCING STUDENT

Anybody who wants to learn fencing, as well as people who are looking for ways to become a coach should have this book in their library. It gives basic training techniques as well as tactics for combat situations.
Consider this "the bible" of fencing.