The explosive attacking step: the weapon arm extends first, then the back leg drives. Elite fencers cover around 1.17 m, beginners about 1.02 m.
The lunge is how hits are scored in fencing — and the gap between beginner and elite has actually been measured. In a kinematic study, elite fencers reached a lunge length of 1.17 ± 0.17 m against 1.02 ± 0.10 m for novices, and the elite group extended the front knee far more actively in the final phase (51 ± 9° versus 18 ± 8°). Reach, in other words, comes from that late extension rather than from raw power. The classic mistake is doing it in the wrong order: jump first, thrust afterwards. It should run from the inside out — the weapon arm extends, then the back leg explodes; in beginners the front deltoid fires a good 50 milliseconds too late. And one point that regularly gets missed: the lunge does not end with the hit, it ends with the recovery. Keep the front knee stacked over the ankle and get straight back into the guard position.