Three Corners of Teaching Fencing

Whenever historical fencing is taught, three elements are present: the teacher, the student, and the subject. In each lesson, all three should experience change and improvement. The student should undergo the greatest transformation and remain the focus. In fact, the student need not worry about, or even notice, change in the other two.

The teacher, however, should remain aware of all three, constantly monitoring and balancing between emphasising the source material, their own instruction or example, and how the subject is presented. Change in the student is the ultimate indicator, and the teacher only has direct control over the other two.

Even the model the teacher works from, whether fixed in some permanent form or held as an idea in the mind, should be allowed to evolve. If not immediately (to avoid inconsistency or incoherence), then over time.

We could argue there is a fourth element: the environment in which the lesson occurs. Not only the physical surroundings, but the intent and purpose behind the lesson. But we can generalise and remain with our triangle.

Change, or learning, happens within the student at varying levels of consciousness. Forced learning rarely yields resilient, applicable, and permanent results, so the teacher, while guiding the lesson, should view it as a system whose parts settle in such a way that the student is motivated and learns through positive experience.

Planning ahead is valuable, but perhaps more so for the corners of teacher and subject. The way the student learns on any given day should determine the course of the lesson, and an experienced teacher will know this, conducting the lesson and applying the subject in whatever way best supports that growth.

The challenge arises when the teacher detects an area where they believe the student needs to develop, but the student naturally avoids entering it. Then the teacher must read the cues carefully and help the student discover this area themselves—not by forcing them there, but by gently introducing it, or by letting them realise its inevitability on their own.