I have addressed distance a number of times over the years in this blog. Today I am going to summarize my current thinking and suggest how distance interfaces with tactics. First – distance is often defined in terms of how far one fencer is from another on the piste. The…
In modern fencing we typically classify fencing actions as offense, defense, and counteroffense. The objective of offense is to hit – it includes the simple and compound attacks, the attacks on the blade and takings of the blade, the riposte, and the renewals of the attack. Defense attempts to prevent…
QUESTION – what are the five distances? ANSWER – Out of Distance, Long Distance (Advance Lunge Distance), Medium Distance (Lunge Distance), Short Distance (Extension Distance), In-Fighting Distance We now have a catechism page with all of the previous catechism questions at the Salle Green Catechism.
If you have been around fencing for any length of time, you have heard a specific action, let’s say a disengage, described as either a strategy, tactic, or technique. Two of the three choices here for a disengage are wrong. Do you know which ones? If you have been around…
Parries form the preparation for a successful riposte. As a result the selection of the parry makes a significant difference to the progress of a bout, the final score, and to your indicators, just like the preparation of any successful attack does. The same basic rules apply to the parry…
Envelopes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and are used to convey a wide variety of things. In this post we are talking about envelopes in fencing, specifically your tactical envelope, what it is made of, and how it is used. The concept of a tactical envelope is…
What do you do? The first, and possibly least often considered step, is to determine if you can attack. The key element here is whether or not you have the initiative and whether the rules and referees recognize that initiative. Initiative belongs to the individual who moves first. For example,…
The weekly blog supporting our lessons is back. We have completed a transition to a new internet service provider and after a long illness my mind is again clear and creative. Let’s review three basic definitions. First, one tempo is the time it takes to perform one simple fencing action.…
Timing is an important part of fencing. Everyone who is anyone, and even plenty of people who aren’t anyone, agree that is so. There are even words for it in other languages: scelta di tempo (Italian) and l’a propos (French). If everyone agrees this is a vital part of the…
Let’s review what we know about distance: (1) There are at least 5 definable distances: out of distance (beyond advance-lunge distance), long distance (advance-lunge distance), medium distance (lunge distance), short distance (extension distance), infighting distance (distance at which unconventional movements are required to position the blade to score). (2) These…