(Part 2) Top products from r/Fencing

1st what did your read; Both manuals? I don't know what that means. Ignore everything you read on medieval swordplay, it's not relevant to sport fencing. Although, I'm sure it's very interesting.

The books you read are pretty good. Nothing to outlandish about either Czajkowski book or Epee 2.5. If you want a syllabus, try:

1. Elaine Cheris' Fencing: Steps to Success - which is a good book on basic beginner technique
   
2. Aldo Nadi's On Fencing - technical manual/autobiography; is a classic fencing read although very dated.
   
3. Sergei Golobitsky's Fencing is My Life - which like Nadi's is more autobiography but of the most winning fencer in contemporary fencing
   
   Many, many people here on reddit will also recommend, "The Inner Game of Tennis" as a good read for fencing -- it's essentially a self help book. I personally did not find it even remotely helpful but if you find yourself generally inclined towards similar self-help, pop-psychology books then you might like it.
   
   As far as workout plans go (and you'll hate to hear this): don't work on lunges and fleches and such, yet. Wait till you have a coach to correct your form. You may wind up further ingraining some bad habits which you aren't aware of by working on them alone before you start. But, kudos on trying to get ahead of the game.
   
   What I recommend is that you just work on conditioning, the longer you stay sharp at practice the faster you'll improve. Run/Cycle a bunch get your body used to the stress. Optionally do weightlifting-style lunges with some free weights and kettlebell swings (don't over do it). I think even a brisk yoga routine which is heavy on the core-strength exercises and light on the mystical-bullshit is pretty good for fencing training.

Glad to help!

Dr. Gaugler passed away in 2011 and since then Science of Fencing has become a little harder to come by. You should still be able to find a copy on Amazon that won't cost you too horribly much.

My school is not affiliated with HEMA so I can't give much advise there but if you are have any quesitons about the Science or Classical Italian in general feel free to pick my brain and I'll do my best to get you the information.

Well, sort of. What you're describing is foil. A couple of very good books on early epee fencing are:

The Dueling Sword by Claude la Marche

Secrets of the Sword by Baron de Bazancourt

They're both very readable, and give a good picture of teaching someone who may or may not know some of the foil you describe above to use an epee in a real fight.

What Bazancourt and la Marche describe sounds like epee to me. La Marche in particular sounds like a modern epee coach, in a book written in the late 19th century about a sport that was just being invented. Amazing stuff. There's a good blurb from Gary Copeland on the back, that's actually what got me to read it, and I'm glad I did.

Epee was fencing. Full speed, what they call in the books "flying attacks", which means you don't put your foot down before you hit, no style points, much discussion of how anyone can beat anyone at one touch in epee, the sort of thing you'd hear if you went to a one-touch epee competition today. Be careful, cover your hand, don't make crazy deep attacks, all that stuff. It sounds nothing like today's classical fencers.

And neither writer was backwards-looking. They were both developing their sport/martial art. I can't imagine either one would be a "classical fencer" today, they'd be fencers, trying to get better.

Anyway, if you want to get past the history in the Cohen book, which is a decent start but not really comprehensive, those are two original sources you might look at.

A Basic Fencing Companion by Paul Sise is really good, specially for beginners/intermediate fencers. It reads easily and has a great glossary that I used to get ready for my moniteur exam.

Another good one is Understanding Fencing by Czajkowski (who sadly passed away just last week). This one is more advanced, but it doesn’t read as easily. I took my time reading this one.

Get formal training. It has improved my coaching tremendously and I would not be able the think of any other way to achieve my current level.

Good books for a starting fencing coach are Szabo L. Fencing and the Master, Czajkowski Z. Understanding Fencing and Kogler A. One Touch at a Time.

I really like strapping tape for this. A former fencer recommended me this stuff and I always keep some around. It's what I use to tape my fingers. It sticks better, is stiffer and is more durable than standard athletic tape.

http://amzn.com/B000E59HXC

To add to this, his other book The Mental Preparation of Fencers and Others: Awareness-Based Concentrative Analysis and Mind Fitness Training is also an amazing read.

e: why did I get downvoted for this??

I recommend giving this book a read: https://www.amazon.com/Champions-Mind-Great-Athletes-Thrive/dp/1623365627/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480998587&sr=8-1&keywords=the+champions+mind

It helped me out a lot.

A Coach and Referee I know just published Journals to help you make the most out of tournaments for Epee Foil and Sabre

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0486428265?pc_redir=1404726794&robot_redir=1

This book is quite good. It's a history of fencing written around 1890. It's not a specific treatise as covered above, but it summarizes a lot of treatises over time. It probably requires some basic fencing understanding to get what he means some times though.

I seriously could not work at a bench now that didn't have a magnetic bowl sitting on the back of the vise. It helps so much.

So you've read it too?
http://www.amazon.com/Fencing-Master-Arturo-Perez-Reverte/dp/0156029839

There aren't that many modern fencing books out there, and there are practically zero modern Sabre books. Only one I know of is "Modern Sabre Fencing" by Zbigniew Borysiuk. Having browsed through it, I can say it is.... OK. Only a small portion really concentrates on fencing, with chapters looking at the history of the sport, the 'impact of electric', nutrition, "diagnostic tools", and so on. I know there is also a DVD that goes with it, but I've never seen it, so can't comment on that. So anyways, I wouldn't recommend bothering with it probably, but if you really have no other option, you could probably do worse, but frankly, I think you could learn more by watching YouTube videos... I know there are a lot out there geared towards instruction.