Drake’s Claw – The Secret of Fencing

Drake’s Claw: The Secret of Fencing

“En Guard.” Two twelve-year-olds lay on their bellies. Their sword-arms are already extending forward in anticipation of finding the opponents foil lame with their tip.

“Ready?” The two youths begin crawling forward despite the fact that they have not heard the “fence” command from their referee.

“Fence!” As the fencers wriggle towards one another they begin pushing off of their toes in an improvised lunge. With their distance closer, they begin parrying and riposting as well as one might on your belly.  One student, Gabe, hits “on-target” on the lamé for a point. He immediately stands and celebrates with a fist pump. Onlookers giggle and look at each other knowingly.

Why are the TTFC athletes wriggling around on the ground like worms? That’s because they both cast spells on each other called “Earthworm Metamorphosis.” While playing Drake’s Claw, a fencing game geared toward youth fencers, athletes can give their opponents handicaps like fencing on their knees, or fencing on one foot. They can even force their opponent to fence on their tummy. With over 100 “spells” to cast fencers can be as silly or as competitive as they wish. Most “spells” have a serious tactical or strategic edge. But a few cards are sprinkled in just to be silly.

Objective of the Game

The objective of Drake’s Claw is to use your spell cards and action cards to attain an advantage during a fencing match. Action cards can be played repeatedly. An example of an action card is a “parry four riposte,” a “straight attack,” or something more technical, like a “coupé fleche.” Action cards are played face down because you want to keep it secret from your opponent. These cards are similar to “calling your shot” in pool. If you can score with this planned move you not only get a “bonus touch.” “Action Cards” are intended to encourage a fencer to practice a challenging skill: setting up your opponent for a planned action.

The game’s design of Drake’s Claw began with using these action cards only. Quickly, we found adding a new type of card made things much more interesting. “Spell Cards” soon gave fencers the ability to play specific strategic advantages over one another. Play a “Fire Shield” spell and your opponent can no longer score on you with parry ripostes. Play a “Cobra Charmer” spell and limit your opponent to only using parry ripostes against you. Or, get a little silly and turn your opponent into a turtle who must fence on his knees.  While this is a little silly, so what???!!! Life is too short; lets have some fun!

Why a Funny Game?

Kids love Drake’s Claw because it is something different for summer months. Coaches love it because this game forces their students to analyze tactical situations. But no matter what, children and adults stay interested in poking each other.

Secret of Fencing and Drake’s Claw

6 months ago, some students and I came up with the idea of “The Secret of Foil Fencing.” At first, we laughed at the name and at the notion that there was a strategy out there we did not know about. But the truth is there was a strategy that I have been using most of my life. However, I had never put a name to it. This strategy involves only 3 fencing actions and it works a bit like Rock, Paper Scissors. I combined this strategic concept with a specific way of moving and predicting your opponents’ actions and voila! We have something powerful to teach to our students.  I’ve been fencing for about 20 years. I have never heard a coach explain fencing in this light. I doubt we are the first to discover this “Secret of Foil Fencing.” However, with this new concept in place our competitive fencers are improving at a remarkable clip. I have found that even my fencing is improving and my actions are becoming cleaner. My aim has even improved! I can’t wait for next season. With this new strategy I plan to fence some national events again. I’m really fired up about foil fencing!

With the introduction of Drake’s Claw to our programs I noticed that it would be a perfect time to teach the “Secret of Foil Fencing” to our students. So I piggy-backed both ideas. Now, most of the Drake’s Claw “Action Cards” and “Spell Cards” are designed to help teach important concepts and strategies to our TTFC students.

I’ve known for a long time that the key to improving a student with out getting her burnt out is to make learning fun. I feel that Drake’s Claw is going to be a perfect way to accomplish this.

About the author

Coach Tedd - Tedd Padgitt is the proud owner and operator of the finest fencing studio in San Diego: the Team Touché Fencing Center in Sorrento Valley. A competitive fencer for over 15 years, Padgitt continues to place in the top 32 in the country. Many of his accomplishments include being the 2005 Pacific Coast Foil Champion and winning the Pacific Coast overall foil points title in the 2005 and in 2006. Coach Padgitt has also made three trips to NCAA nationals achieving top 20 in the collegiate nation. While training with the Hungarian Olympic team in Budapest, he learned the finer points of foil and sabre. Coach Padgitt prides himself in his ability to teach children; he understands that the best way to coach children is through positive reinforcement. He believes in the power of humor to overcome adversity.