I've been fencing for a while and I've stopped improving. How do I break out of a plateau?

Stop trying to get better at everything and find out exactly how you are losing touches. Plateaus are normal in fencing, and they almost always hide a specific, fixable problem that vague extra effort will not touch. Film a few bouts and tally every touch you lose: at close range, on your own attack being parried, to a counterattack, off-target, at the start of the bout. Two or three categories usually dominate. That list is your training plan, and it is far more useful than a general feeling of being stuck or slow.

Then go into each practice with one goal. One night you only work on keeping distance after your attack fails. Another night you only attack into a different line, meaning a different area of the target. Win-loss record at club night does not matter while you do this. Keep a small notebook of what coaches and clubmates point out, and check it before practice. If your coach never gives you feedback, ask directly: what is the one thing costing me the most touches? A good coach will answer that. If nobody at your club can, a few lessons with a different coach are worth it.

Feeling predictable usually means a thin repertoire or a fixed rhythm. A useful baseline on offense is a simple attack, a compound attack (a feint to draw a parry, then a hit somewhere else), and an action that changes lines. On defense, have at least a parry-riposte and a counterattack. Then layer them: show one action to set up another. Vary your footwork tempo too, because a steady advance-advance-advance rhythm is easy to time. Watch your own video and ask how you would beat that fencer, then take that answer away from them.

Fresh opponents help more than people expect. Fencing the same ten clubmates for years builds habits that only work against them, so visit other clubs, go to tournaments outside your usual circuit, and bout people who fence differently. Conditioning matters as well, since a lot of feeling slow is legs and recovery rather than reactions. If you are drained or dreading practice, a short break can reset things. And compare yourself to a year ago, not last week: a plateau is still higher ground than where you started.