I found that analyzing one to two videos from my most recent practice or competition bouts could provide valuable insight into areas that needed improvement. Personally, I got the most out of video review when I conducted the exercise with a very specific focus in mind as opposed to making general observations about what actions worked and which ones failed. For example, I might watch a bout and see that my long attack needed improvement because I was hit in preparation too often by my opponent’s counterattack. While this was valuable to know from a tactical perspective, it was not the type of insight that led to a concrete training goal. However, if I forced myself to watch only one component of my fencing, I was more likely to spot a single skill that I could focus on and improve. Watching the same video, I looked only at my footwork, ignoring my upper body completely. When I did this, I was able to see that I had a tendency to bring my back foot too close to my front foot as I approached the final stage of my long attack. This caused me to pick up excess momentum just as I became vulnerable to my opponent’s counterattack. By eliminating the distraction of my upper body, I found it easier to turn a general observation about my long attack into a specific, fundamental skill I could focus on: isolating and preventing my back foot from coming too close to my front foot. I used the same method to look at other areas (such as my upper body position and blade action) helping me to discover more concrete insights that I would not have otherwise seen.

Quick Tip: If you use this method and struggle to avoid distraction, try a simple trick I used to isolate my focus. If I wanted to look only at footwork, I held a note card or piece of paper in my hand over the screen and covered my upper body completely, so I could only see my legs.