The individual lesson

The five-part architecture

One federation publishes a lesson structure. The FFE's Recueil pédagogique Animateur-Éducateur (September 2024) sets out five parts:

1. Salut — the opening salute.
2. Prise de contact — the introduction of the lesson and of its theme, with the first exchange. Its stated job is to establish concentration and trust between master and pupil.
3. Corps de la leçon — the main body, about 75% of total lesson time: progressive exercises from simple to complex, varying distance and speed.
4. Retour au calme et bilan verbal — a motor cool-down plus a spoken synthesis of what was mastered and what needs reinforcing. The verbal part is not optional in the FFE structure.
5. Salut de clôture — the closing salute and handshake.

A worked lesson, start to finish

The best single published template is Paul Sise's épée lesson on offensive second intention (42 Views of Épée, 2007). It maps cleanly onto the FFE structure:

1. Salute, then warm up anyway. Simple thrusts to the torso, a few lunges, a few parry-ripostes, footwork to keep distance — the warm-up gradually intensifies, and it is done even if the fencer is already warm.
2. Build a foundation phrase that makes the pupil need the theme. The pupil attacks and the master takes the hit; then the master starts to parry-riposte. Now the pupil needs to learn to deal with ripostes — the lesson has justified itself before it is taught.
3. Teach and practise it. Master opens the top of the wrist, pupil attacks, master ripostes in sixte, pupil makes an opposition parry of sixte and counter-ripostes to the torso.
4. Make it bout-like. Demand a recognisable tempo change — the attack slow and easy to parry, the riposte fast.
5. Vary the finish. Riposte to bicep, torso, thigh, toe; swap the opposition sixte for a yielding parry of prime.
6. Inject one or two unforeseen actions — the master attacks where the pupil normally initiates. Encourage out loud and with feeling, not with a flat "OK, again."
7. Cool down. Slow distance-keeping with slow, medium-length lunges, exhaling on each lunge. It can be shortened but should not be cut.
8. Salute, shake hands, debrief.

The eight lesson types

Peter Ellinger's taxonomy, which explicitly cites Ziemek Wojciechowski for the bouting lesson:

• Teaching lesson — introduce, explain, demonstrate.
• Coaching / perfecting lesson — refine an action the pupil already owns.
• Tactical lesson — the decision, not the movement.
• Check-up lesson — where is this fencer today.
• Warm-up lesson — pre-competition, mentally invigorating or calming as needed.
• Bouting lesson — the master simulates varied opponent styles.
• Capacity lesson — builds physical and mental fatigue resistance in competition-length bursts.
• Left-handed lesson — worth its own slot; a club with 10% left-handers gives its right-handers a fraction of the left-handed practice they will meet at national level.

Cueing as a craft

Allen Evans's account of cueing the épée lesson is the most usable published treatment. Three channels:

• Blade / physical — the cue must replicate the movement the pupil will actually see in a bout.
• Verbal — talk while moving, not by stopping to talk.
• Footwork — step speed and step size communicate timing on their own.

And four levels of control, from conventional to free: (1) the master controls every parameter; (2) the pupil chooses within the master's footwork; (3) the pupil controls the footwork and the master cues; (4) fully pupil-initiated. Two quotes carried in that article are worth keeping on the wall — Michael Marx: "I don't give cues. I make fencing actions"; Czajkowski: "Not to use real motions in teaching is stupid… but in épée, it is criminal!"

Real cues and false cues (Sise, after Gary Copeland). A real cue arrives at an appropriate time and is designed to let the pupil succeed. A false cue looks similar but is delivered at the wrong time, tempo, distance or direction, and is designed to tempt the pupil into acting and failing. Worked example: showing the top of the wrist is a real cue for a simple direct attack; showing the wrist while retreating is a false cue that demands a feint — and if the pupil has been told to make only simple direct attacks, the correct answer is to ignore the opening.

Footwork patterns in the lesson

Replace random master-led movement with named pupil-led patterns: single advance; advance–retreat; advance–advance–retreat. The master keeps control by choosing when and how far to move; the pupil decides whether the distance justifies an attack, so the decision comes from an observed situation rather than an artificial cue.

Hard limit: two to three steps. Longer chains — "advance, retreat, double advance, check, double retreat" — are flagged explicitly as too complex to be useful. Add the rhythm layer instead: repeat the pattern at a constant rhythm, then shorten the retreat and start the next advance very quickly, to catch the master in the wrong space.

How long a lesson should be

• 20–25 minutes is the de-facto standard, justified by stamina and focus and by parity with the nine minutes of fencing in a three-period bout.
• 40 minutes for a "double lesson" with advanced fencers.
• 5–10 minutes for a pre-competition warm-up lesson.

The finding worth publishing is the absence. No federation issues an absolute minute figure. The FFE specifies a proportion — corps de la leçon at about 75% — and nothing else. Every number above comes from club and commercial sources, not from a governing body. Frequency is the same story: no federation-issued lessons-per-week recommendation could be found at any competitive tier.

One scheduling warning: the Beck (Tauberbischofsheim) system, often admired from a distance, is designed around daily or multiple short lessons. It does not transplant into a club that trains two or three times a week.

One-to-one and safeguarding

The individual lesson creates a structural safeguarding problem that group sport does not, and three federations answer it explicitly:

• British Fencing caps group fencing rather than lessons: no more than twelve children per coach should fence at any one time, fewer than twelve for young children, and above that the group is split into relays — larger numbers can still do footwork and games without weapons.
• USA Fencing (SafeSport MAAPP) requires one-on-one contact to be observable and interruptible, with advance written parental consent at least annually, and parents must be permitted to observe.
• Canada strongly recommends the Rule of Two: lessons always within earshot and eyesight of another person in authority, with a communication window of 06:00 to midnight only.

British Fencing's 1:12 is a fencing-at-once safety cap, not a safeguarding ratio — the BF Safeguarding Policy contains no supervision ratios at all. For comparison, Switzerland sets one qualified J+S leader per group of 16 in fencing, and Canada sets one certified coach per five participants at the FUNdamentals stage, the strictest published ratio in the sport.

Who may give one

In France the individual lesson is explicitly gated by credential. Éducateur Fédéral 2 is the entry point — its remit is "leçons individuelles simples" in one weapon, and it requires Éducateur 1 in the same weapon, a minimum age of 18, a 30-hour national course and 10 hours of individual lessons already delivered in club.

Above that sit the state diplomas, which are what the law actually requires for paid teaching (Code du sport L212-1). The DEJEPS mention escrime confers the title Maître d'Armes. The Académie d'Armes de France maps the profession's titles one-to-one onto them:

• Prévôt d'escrime = BPJEPS escrime (which also carries the title Moniteur d'escrime).
• Maître d'armes = DEJEPS escrime.
• Maître d'armes expert = DESJEPS escrime.

Elsewhere the individual lesson enters the pathway at a named rung: British Fencing's Coaching Fencing Level 2 (about 35 hours) is explicitly the individual-lesson course; the USFCA's Moniteur requires 20 logged hours of individual instruction plus 20 of group instruction; and the USFCA Master qualification requires a written thesis and a practical before a board of three fencing masters.

Sources

FFE, Recueil pédagogique Animateur-Éducateur, September 2024 · Paul Sise, 42 Views of Épée, 2007 · Allen L. Evans, A Coaches Compendium (cueing, footwork patterns) · Peter Ellinger, Types of Lesson · British Fencing Standards and Guidelines for Safety in Fencing, 23rd edition, June 2026 · USA Fencing MAAPP · Canadian Fencing Federation Safe Sport Policy Manual · FFE and Académie d'Armes de France credential pages. Verified July 2026.