This is the second posting supporting our work on systems. To refresh your memory, and to say anything I need to say that I didn’t say last time, a system is a combination of actions, chosen based on your tactical doctrine, that naturally work together to maximize the potential of…
The modern fencer faces a very complex tactical environment. It is not enough to know blade technique and footwork – risk assessment, statistical influence of hits in the bout and the pool, timing control, distance control, retention of the initiative, energy and hydration management, management of the fencer’s psychological state,…
… to do the same thing, but in different ways. Over the past year we have discussed on several occasions the reality that there are many cases in fencing where the same movement pattern is used to achieve the same basic goal, albeit with a different name. Today we are…
The disengage is a simple attack taught to beginning fencers in foil and epee and often ignored in sabre. Once the initial instruction (or ignoring) is over, there is often an assumption that revisiting the mechanics and timing of the disengage is pretty much a waste of time because as a simple attack it…
So you want to hit your opponent, but their guard or their blade or (in foil) a non-target body part is in the way. Simply launching your attack and hoping that the obstacle will remove itself is probably not very productive. And for that matter something else move to assume…
No, composed parries are not relaxed parries serenely waiting to spring into action. The title would seem to come from the nature of these parries as being composed of two or more parts. Another name for this type of defense is a compound parry. Both choices add something to understanding…
A parry is a blade action which diverts an opponent’s blade or blocks it so that the opponent’s offensive action does not hit the fencer. That sounds simple enough, but it is too simple by far. On one level it is important to note that there are a seemingly endless…
The modern fencer has a wide variety of footwork for attack and defense. This week we will focus on three simple footwork actions that logically flow together and that can be combined with attack, counterattack, or defense. Before we do, it is important to understand what footwork does. When we wish…
Distance or measure is the distance between the target areas of the two fencers on the strip, specifically in the context of whether one fencer can reach the other’s target area with a hitting attack. It is also a tactical paradox. On the one hand we want distance to be long enough…
“Bout plan … I don’t need no stinking bout plan” (with apologies to the Bandidos in the classic Western Blazing Saddles). But actually you do. And you need one for competition bouts and one for practice bouts. The core of any plan, military operations plans, disaster plans, business plans, etc.,…