Many years ago, I betook my son to a noted NYC program. It's the one which turned out several olympic medalists last time around. As is usual, they started all the kids on foil. On my own, I worked with him on epee. Apparently the method they encourage is the charge. Once I showed him the simple parry and he hit himself on my point a few times, he got the idea and never lost another match to that technique.

He now teaches foil and epee at a local salle with his afterschool program.

My technique is based on my limited mobility due to bad hips, ankles and knees. While I do a step here and there, mostly I work with my wrist and arm and an occasional duck.

As mentioned above, the inclination seems to be away from full skill fencing to "go for the kill at all costs" type fencing. The only way to overcome this is to work at spreading the skills around and being better that the chargers.

30 years ago, when I worked with the Rutgers team in my spare time, I did not see that tendency. I suspect that, at least among American fencers, it is a response to the European domination of the sport. "If this is what it takes to win, we'll grit our teeth and do it, even if it isn't by the book."

Of course, this parallels the situation in basketball, where the rest of the world is focussing on technique and our players focus on being stars.