Lessons:

Strydermike

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Lesson seven: Defense

Defense is a weakness for many fencers. One of the problems that might keep you from being comfortable and effective on defense is your mindset. Don't think of defense as avoiding getting hit. Defense is drawing your opponent in so you can hit him. Dare your opponent to come and take his best shot.

One huge problem I see in defense is fencers reaching and leaning and searching to defend a barely perceived threat. If nothing else you will learn more by getting hit in a balanced position with your eyes open, than you will by getting hit while swinging wildly with your eyes closed. The purpose of feint attacks is to draw your opponent's guard position away from the center. The smaller and more controlled your reaction to each feint, the harder your opponent will find hitting you. Keep your parries small and your opponent will have to hit you with a decent attack. These are more easily parried. React like a man being attacked by killer bees and the openings are too many to count.

Splitting the offense.

When threatened with a large attack and you are out of distance or off balanced for an attack-into-preparation, you are often overwhelmed. Here is one way to gain some time and space to successfully defend yourself.

A forward guard position with the point threatening and the elbow bent can limit the opponent and force him to choose between the defender's choice of lines. When you are being chased backwards down the strip the first thing you must do is match speed to maintain distance. Once you have done this you can take control of the speed by maintaining a solid guard position and slowing the pace. Your opponent will not want to finish unless you are off balance so he will slow down with you and try to feint an attack to move your guard position. If you can keep yourself from swinging at his first pitch, he will either back off and allow you to attack him, or he will finish. If he finishes against a balanced defender he should be quickly punished by a parry-riposte. The best way to accomplish this is to have some idea where he intends to finish. If you can threaten him while defending, he will be cautious and tentative in his attack. Threaten him with point in line as well as a hard, fast attack into prep. A tentative attacker is usually an easy target. If you sense hesitation in him, Attack! Whether he is in preparation or not, he will usually find a way to miss. By keeping your point out, you force your opponent to decide between a simple attack (trusting his speed) and a compund attack (trusting your reaction) his decision will be more obvious the more often you force him to decide. By moving your point to his blade, you force him to decide which side of the blade he will attack on. He will find his attack limited from the entire spectrum of actions in his arsenal, to a simple choice of seven, eight, or the unwise flick over the top of an extended arm. Once this has been established, the defenders choices are easy; in eight, you can parry eight or second or prise d' fer. In seven you have the same choices; parry seven, prime parry or prise d' fer. You can also harry the attacker whenever he gets too close by beating his blade. This will lead him to pull his blade out of line and opening the door for a good counter-attack.

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