I completely agree that fencing is good for learning all of those things, advance/retreat, good posture, keeping proper distance, keeping balance on a lunge, perhaps qualifying it by saying these things have merit, however application to using a firesword retains very little, and there's alot that has to be retaught due to the nature of fencing. Why retrain when you can learn something more applicable from the start? Don't get me wrong, being able to cover ground very smoothly is great, but even as a fencer it looks pretty awkward unless you're actually fencing, another point being most fire sword work is more akin to dancing, or even if it's not approached in that manner your movements are exxagerated for the stage(also something that crossing the feet is better suited for if you're using choreography too). Another problem with fencing I find is the lack of using the hips for torque and fluidity, something that's taught early on in eastern martial arts, and the lack of that keeps you much stiffer than you want to be. 'Fingering' techniques(for lack of a technical term), or using the two fingers for something like a coupe just doesnt translate to stage I've found, if you're changing lines from the outside to inside or vice versa, it's something you're going to really exxagerate. Don't get me wrong, I lovelove (classical) fencing, but it took me years to unlearn all of the muscle memory once I got into eastern sword arts and fire sword work, it was a process of investigation, finding what worked, what looked good, and what didn't. All subjective of course, we all make our own styles, hopefully ;)