So to start thinking about these three actions, our first question is what are they? The textbook definitions are: RIPOSTE – a riposte is the attack delivered by a fencer who has been attacked and successfully parries. I would add to this that the parry may be by blade or…
The term “counteroffense” describes actions taken to hinder or defeat an opponent’s attack. The term sounds very broad. However, it is generally interpreted to mean actions that are counterattacks into an opponent’s attack with the simple first intention to disrupt and score on that attack. When we define counteroffense in…
The parry is a complex activity that can be described in a number of ways. Barbasetti defined the parry conceptually as an action which is aimed to defeat the opponent’s attack. That has come to be interpreted as a specific family of blade actions – blade contact by the blade…
(18) Question – what does the parry prepare? ANSWER – the riposte.
Question – from the referee’s perspective what is the difference between a beat and a parry?Answer – a beat is an offensive action that strikes the opponent’s blade on the outer two-thirds of its length from the guard. A parry is an action that defeats the opponent’s by interposing the inner one-third…
QUESTION – what is an invitation? ANSWER – a movement to create an apparent, but false, opportunity to draw an opponent’s attack or counterattack.
QUESTION – what is a first intention action? ANSWER – an attack or riposte executed to hit the opponent in one or multiple tempos of continuous attacking action.
Fencers make decisions all the time. Some are relatively slow, for example “do I want to enter the Upper Noplace Open or not?” Some are made in advance, for example “what is my plan for this bout?” Some are made in the instant, for example “she is stepping into distance,…
QUESTION – what is preparation? ANSWER – any actions taken to create the conditions for a successful final action of an attack or counterattack
Normally when we talk about fencing we discuss techniques, less frequently tactics. We typically go technique, tactics, bout, tournament, season, quadrennium. But what happens if we went the other way? If we go quadrennium, season, tournament, bout … suddenly there is something missing. We admonish our students or our strip…