When Your Brain Gets in the Way of Your Feet
My notes from the 2026 International Fencing Research Conference (IFRC)
One presentation that really surprised me at the IFRC wasn't about new footwork drills or better conditioning.
It was about something every fencer has probably experienced without realizing it.
Sometimes your feet aren't slow because your legs are tired.
Sometimes they're slow because your brain is too busy.
The presentation, "Motor-Cognitive Profiling: A Science-Based Approach to Improving Footwork and Decision-Making in Fencing," was given by sports physiologist Daria Zhigulskaya, founder of Electrome Lab.
I don't understand all the neuroscience yet (I'm still in high school!), but several ideas immediately made me think about my own fencing.
I think I've done this hundreds of times.
Picture this.
I'm in a close bout.
My coach yells:
"Push him!"
I'm also thinking:
Don't forget the score.
Stay aggressive.
Watch the distance.
Don't miss.
Don't retreat.
Meanwhile...
I'm supposed to move as fast as possible.
After watching this presentation, I realized my brain is trying to do five different jobs while my legs are trying to do another one.
What is cognitive load?
One phrase the presenter used a lot was cognitive load.
I had never heard that term before.
From what I learned, cognitive load is basically:
How much mental work your brain is doing at one time.
The more information you're trying to process, the harder it becomes for your brain to control movement efficiently.
That sounded surprisingly familiar.
Too much thinking can slow your movement
One of the most interesting slides explained that speaking—or even talking to yourself in your head—uses the language part of the brain.
Research suggests that heavy verbal processing can interfere with lower-body movement.
That doesn't mean coaches shouldn't talk.
It means that constantly repeating instructions inside your own head during a bout might actually make movement less efficient.
It made me wonder how many times I've lost speed simply because I was overthinking.
Coaches say "Don't think."
Maybe there's a reason.
Good coaches often tell us:
"Just fence."
I always thought that meant:
"Stop worrying."
After this presentation I wonder if they also mean:
"Stop filling your brain with unnecessary information."
The presenter showed research suggesting that as cognitive load increases, athletes may have:
slower movement
shorter steps
less stable footwork
more movement variability
In other words...
More thinking doesn't always mean better fencing.
Every fencer's brain is different
The coolest part of the presentation was something called motor-cognitive profiling.
Instead of assuming every athlete struggles with the same thing, athletes perform fencing footwork while also completing different mental tasks.
Those tasks test things like:
verbal processing
working memory
visual search
conflict control
The goal isn't to find the "best" brain.
It's to discover which type of thinking hurts your movement the most.
For one athlete it might be verbal instructions.
For someone else it might be remembering information.
Another athlete might struggle most when making quick decisions.
That means two athletes who look similar on the strip might actually need completely different mental training.
Training the brain, not just the feet
This was probably my favorite takeaway.
The goal isn't simply to measure athletes.
It's to improve them.
The presenter suggested a three-step process:
Create a motor-cognitive profile.
Find the mental process that interferes most with movement.
Combine mental exercises with footwork training.
Instead of only practicing faster footwork, athletes would also practice handling the type of thinking that slows them down.
I had never thought about training like that before.
Measuring improvement
The presentation also introduced some measurements that I had never seen before.
One was called the Motor Stability Composite Index (MSCI).
Another was the Motor Dual-task Cost Index (MDTC).
I definitely don't understand the math behind them yet, but the basic idea seems pretty straightforward.
Instead of guessing whether an athlete is improving, these measurements try to show:
how stable your movement stays
how much your movement changes when thinking is added
whether mental training is actually helping over time
As someone who likes analytics, I thought that was really interesting.
This connects with my own project
One reason I enjoyed this presentation so much is because it connects with the analytics project I'm working on.
So far, I've mostly been looking at competition data:
Who wins?
Does seeding matter?
Can ratings predict results?
This presentation looks at a completely different side of performance.
Instead of studying tournament results, it studies what's happening inside the athlete while they're fencing.
Someday I'd love to know if those two worlds connect.
Could athletes with lower cognitive interference perform better in close 14-14 bouts?
Could mental training improve consistency over an entire tournament?
I don't know the answers yet.
But now I have even more questions.
And that's probably what good research is supposed to do.
My biggest takeaway
I've always thought that becoming a better fencer meant:
stronger legs
faster attacks
cleaner technique
Now I think there might be another piece.
Sometimes the fastest way to improve your footwork...
...might actually start with your brain.
Terms I'm Planning to Learn More About
One thing I like about attending research conferences is hearing words I've never heard before. I'm not an expert in these yet, but they're now on my reading list.
Cognitive load – The total amount of mental effort your brain is using.
Working memory – Your brain's temporary workspace for holding and using information.
Motor control – How your brain and nervous system coordinate movement.
Broca's area – A part of the brain involved in speech and language.
Conflict control – The ability to ignore distractions or automatic responses and choose the correct action.
Visual search – How your eyes and brain quickly find important information in your surroundings.
Motor Stability Composite Index (MSCI) – A measurement used in this study to evaluate how stable an athlete's movement remains under cognitive load.
Motor Dual-task Cost Index (MDTC) – A measurement of how much movement performance declines when an athlete performs a mental task and a physical task at the same time.
Motor-cognitive profiling – Testing how different mental processes affect an athlete's movement so training can be personalized.
Presentation Credit
This article is based on the presentation "Motor-Cognitive Profiling: A Science-Based Approach to Improving Footwork and Decision-Making in Fencing" by Daria Zhigulskaya, Sports Physiologist and Founder of Electrome Lab, presented at the International Fencing Research Conference (IFRC). The ideas summarized here are my personal reflections and interpretation as a student and competitive sabre fencer after attending the presentation.
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