Agosti, V., et al.: Fencing functional training system (FFTS)… Sport Science 13 (2020) Suppl 1: 118-122

FENCING FUNCTIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM (FFTS): A NEW PEDAGOGICAL-EDUCATIONAL TRAINING PROJECT

Valeria Agosti1 and Marco Autuori2

1Department of Human, Philosophical and Educational Sciences, University of Salerno, Italy 2Italian Fencing Federation, Italy 3Department of Sport Sciences and Wellness, Parthenope University, Naples, Italy

Review paper

Abstract The purpose of this article is to suggest a preliminary methodological approach to an ad hoc functional training for fencers of all three weapons. Fencing is an asymmetric open skills sport with a high psychological application and a huge impact on the musculoskeletal system, thus requiring a high level of physical training. Modern fencing needs to gain a new performance model, which takes into consideration the cognitive aspects of performance. The new model needs to create an exercise plan for athletic training in fencing could be useful to train not only elite fencers but also young practitioners. The preliminary case report study described below aims to give a first analysis to identify functional exercises that could be useful, if properly modified, for improving fencer’s motor control and his performance.

Key words: fencing, functional training, education, pedagogy, cognition.

Introduction

Fencing is a combat sport that does not involve pedagogical-educational process (Agosti, 2019) and physical contact except for the use of weapons (foil, this work points precisely in this direction. The epee or sabre) to touch the opponent in a game proposal of FT exercises for fencing is described action called attack. This opposition situation is below; the exercises have been given to a fencing made up of decisive, short, fast and complex athlete following a predefined training program, actions, so speed of movement and perceptual which is part of a broader athletic training project accuracy skills are essential for a good as a first step. performance. The improvement of the fencing performance level therefore requires the acquisition Discussion of specific psychomotor and neuromuscular skills that can be conveyed through particular functional The link between functional training and fencing exercises during physical preparation programs. performance Functional training (FT) has been considered for FT is a training method that bases its ratio in years a useful model for implementing motor preparing the body for real-world "motor performance, even in non-sports and pathological challenges" such as balance, stability, rotation, subjects. (Liu et al., 2014; Pedroso et al., 2018; flexion and lifting, i.e. motor control. (Santana, Santos E Campos et al., 2020). 2015; Agosti, 2018). The primary goal of FT is therefore to transfer the motor experience of a In recent years, the proposal for FT, although it has specific movement to the performance of another now become a sort of brand in the world of movement, thus influencing the entire strength and conditioning, is evolving towards a neuromuscular system. sporty specificity. This new specific sport proposal allows re-evaluating and renewing its potential: it is This ensures a proper functionality of the nervous not considered, or defined, as a series of exercises system and an appropriate use of all parts of the whose execution in quantity is transferred to real body. This is why functional exercises are usually activity but it is considered as a system of exercises designed and organized to combine and organize useful to guide the athlete in complete motor multiple movements simultaneously, just as it control during a specific sport performance. In this happens in sports performance (football, volleyball, work, the FT proposal addresses fencing and in athletics, etc.). In recent years, many studies have particular a specific fencing performance: the tested the use of FT exercises to improve sports control of the body and arm movements. Recent performance in various sports (Thompson et al., studies (Roi & Bianchedi, 2008) have highlighted 2007; Ordzhonikidze et al., 2007; Labib, 2014; how modern fencing requires the structuring of a Cojocaru & Cojocaru, 2016). Recent studies have new performance model in which motor control, also recommended the use of specific FT programs and therefore cognitive function, is a fundamental for balance and stability as an essential constituent element of performance. Designing an exercise of any strengthening and conditioning program. program for the athletic training of the fencer This is an attempt to improve the effectiveness of starting from this model, could provide a new point athletic training programs and at the same time to of view to consider training as a complex develop functional postural activation, which is a

118 Agosti, V., et al.: Fencing functional training system (FFTS)… Sport Science 13 (2020) Suppl 1: 118-122 necessary element for improving performance in Fencing Functional Training System (FFTS). The terms of both technical efficacy and injury aim is to improve athletic ability but through the prevention (Tomljanović et al., 2011; Shaikh & improvement of motor control, specifically Mondal, 2012). functional balance and stability. To obtain a pedagogical-educational process, that is to say a Fencing is a combat sport whose performance way to "bring out" the cognitive component of the model requires the acquisition of specific motor function (efference) and to improve the psychomotor and neuromuscular skills, probably fencing performance in an elite athlete, they have obtainable through a specific physical training been designed and proposed FFTS exercises that program. In fact, to date, most of the athletic require the search for kinesthetic information content of fencing is based on empirical concepts (afference) through specific verbal instructions. The deriving from practical experience; on the other basic concept of the exercises is not only related to hand, scientific information relating to the motor control but to the recognition and biomechanical and neuromuscular profile of understanding of the movement itself: the main technical fundamentals remains very poor. objective lies in making the athlete independent Although some of the physiological, psychological and aware of his acting on the platform and at the and technical characteristics of elite fencers have same time, performing in his athletic performance. been identified compared to novice fencers, no The exercises, in fact, can be considered cognitive scientific evidence has yet determined the specific problems that the athlete solves by looking for neuromuscular patterns of lower limb muscles somesthetic information. The exercises chosen for associated with kinetics of fencing movement. the program are the Battle Rope Squatting These researches are however very interesting, Alternating Waves and the Kettlebell Windmills, considering that both the speed and the accuracy of modified in terms of fencing, which included the the movements (i.e. motor control) have proved to use of two typical FT tools: rope and kettbell (see be positively correlated to the effectiveness of the Fig.1 A-B and Fig.2 A-B). The exercises were fencing performance, in all three weapons. proposed not as a mere execution but rather by (Guilhem et al., 2014; Turner et al., 2014; Chen et giving the athlete different somesthetic goals al., 2017). Over the years, this sport has had a through specific verbal instructions. The training crescendo both nationally and internationally, and sessions were proposed with the times and ways the Italian fencers are among the most medaled described in Fig.3. athletes at the Olympic Games. In this context, is a necessary condition proceed with the structuring of To measure the pre and post FFTS neuromuscular a FT project that observes the fencing performance performance, the Dynamic Leap and Balance Test phenomenon in its entirety, in an ecological profile. (DLBT) was used, a test created as a measure of the type of balance and the dynamic capacity of Fencing Functional Training System (FFTS) joint stability required in most sports (Jaffri et al., From the foregoing, it is clear that sporting 2017). The execution of this test requires performance cannot be considered as a sum of coordination, balance, flexibility and strength both movements or muscle activations but must be in the lower and upper limbs and in its specific observed and trained in its entirety, which cannot execution needs the control of the movement of the be separated from an educational intention. That is parts of the body on a support base that changes why the goal of this work is a preliminary project into an alternating series of load in the lower limbs proposal intended as a work tool to make the (Fig . 4). educational action more targeted, continuous and effective, because it responds to real needs The DLBT is a low cost clinical test, which does not (Brandani, & Tomisich, 2014). The proposal of this require the use of specific tools, therefore easily project then moves away from a mechanistic vision executable and repeatable in any gym. of movement and looks at sport performance, in Achievement of equilibrium has been assessed this case fencing, in a systemic perspective. In this using a validated quality scoring system, the One systemic perspective, training and performance can Leg Loading Quality Assessment Tool (QASLS) be considered as a complex pedagogical- (Herrington et al., 2013). The score of this system educational process (Bellotti and Matteucci, 1999). is dichotomous of the movement strategy that A preliminary case report study is introduced, occurs in the individual regions of the body (arm, conducted on an elite athlete (gender: F; mass: 58 trunk, pelvis, thigh, knee, foot). The score is kg; height: 160 cm; age: 19yy), foil weapon, with defined as 0 for an appropriate strategy and 1 for 10 years of experience in national and international inappropriate movements, given for each region of competitions. The athlete was given a FT program the body. The best overall score is 0 and the worst based on modified exercises for fencing, the is 10 points. The score sheet is shown in Fig. 5.

119 Agosti, V., et al.: Fencing functional training system (FFTS)… Sport Science 13 (2020) Suppl 1: 118-122

Results intersegmental ratio (see scores in Fig. 3): However, this initial score gave us the opportunity The data given from the scores in the different to evaluate the wide room for performance’s study times proved that the FFTS program, improvement. After the administration of the FFTS evaluated using DLBT and QASLS, is effective in exercises, the performance status was significantly improving the athlete's motor control both in terms improved (see scores in Fig. 3). Furthermore, the of balance and dynamic stability. At the baseline, 1-month follow-up allowed us to monitor the long- before starting the FFTS, the athlete's motor time retention of the intervention, demonstrating a control was not completely positioned on a motor learning and a change in motor behavior satisfactory score, particularly with respect to the (see scores in Fig. 3).

120 Agosti, V., et al.: Fencing functional training system (FFTS)… Sport Science 13 (2020) Suppl 1: 118-122

Conclusion fencing training as a complex pedagogical- educational process and that proposes a cognitive The relationship between pedagogical theory and approach to functional athletic exercise. It can be educational practice is mediated by an educational considered as a preliminary case report study, model which in sport is the performance model. The therefore having some limitations in the solidity of theory-practice relationship represents one of the the data but certainly without limitations in the crucial questions in the epistemological dimension scientific solidity of approach. In order to create a of pedagogy where theory, without practice, is motor learning situation, the role of the athletic empty, just as practice, without theory, is blind. In trainers must be to better understand the other words, a theory unrelated to the problems of complexity of the performances and consequently educational practices ends up being abstract and adapt the exercises to the sport and the ineffective, but a practice without theoretical subjectivity of the athlete. This is the only way to illumination is likely to wander in the dark by trials propose the exercise not in an executive form but and errors. The link between theory and practice in a cognitive one and to make training as a system implies the transition from a contemplative that moves within a sports educational project, knowledge to an active one, so there is the need to even in elite athletes. Further studies or training apply a design model to sports training, in models are needed to better understand fencing particular to functional training for the from a neuro-psycho-physiological point of view in improvement of athletic performance in fencing. To order to maximize sport-specific performance and our knowledge, this is the first study that considers improve motor control.

References

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Received: March 3, 2019 Accepted: March 18, 2019 Correspondence to: Davide Di Palma University of Naples “Parthenope”, Naples, Italy E-mail: [email protected]

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