The Snicker Snack System

This training document is adapted from the pamphlet given to members of  Snicker Snack.  It works (and we've got the medals to prove it!) especially if you really actually follow it.

The BASIC TEST

The fencer must be able to do the following perfectly: 

* Recite the club Safety Code 
* Demonstrate the En Guard position 
* Demonstrate advancing and retiring 
* Demonstrate the 4 basic guards & parries: quarte,sixte,septime,octave 
* Demonstrate the lunge 
* Demonstrate the flêche

[Skills 2-5 above make up the basic lesson, which is explained in more detail a page or two after this.] 

The criteria for the six basic skills are as follows: 

SAFETY CODE

1) Never point any weapon at anyone not wearing a correctly fitted mask and jacket. 

2) Never fence or demonstrate or allow anyone else to point a weapon at  you unless you are wearing a correctly fitted mask and jacket. 

3) Avoid the dangers of broken blades by not hitting too deeply or too fast. 

4) Wear a plastron. 

EN GUARD

Feet at right angles, with 30 - 100 cm between the heels;
Front toe, heel, and rear heel in line; 
Knees bent, weight evenly distributed; 
Knees pointing at right angles; 
Body and head upright, trunk at 45 degrees to front; 
Hand span between elbow and hip;
Rear arm up, bent, relaxed and not too far out. 

ADVANCING AND RETIRING:
Stance must be correct before, during and after each step, especially the feet; 
Front foot to move first when advancing, rear foot when retiring; 
Feet must not be dragged or lifted too high. 

BASIC GUARDS/PARRIES

Sixte: 
Elbow/hip hand span distance;
Thumb between top and outside positions; 
Forearm and blade in straight line when seen from side; 
Elbow in, wrist out, point in, pointing near top of opponent's head, pommel into wrist; 
Point to stay correctly aligned during parry, and not to flap out; 
Hand/arm to move up and forward to parry high attack; 
Both high and lowish attacks to be successfully blocked. 

Quarte: 
Parryer's blade must be angled up at 30 - 45 degrees; 
Blade must be approximately vertical when seen from the front;
Hand must be at level of solar plexus;
Opponent's point must be guided to between 2 - 6 inches from target;
Attacks must be successfully blocked.

Septime: 
As for quarte, but angle must be 30 degrees down;
Parryer's point should aim at opponent's knee (for same-handers). 

Octave: 
As for sixte except the point should be 6 inches inside opponent's knee (for same handers), and the last two points do not apply. 

Prime:
Forearm horizontal in approx "brow-wiping" position across, a little ahead of and above or sometimes below but not obscuring eyes;
Try to get blade vertical particularly in side-to-side sense;
Riposte by penduluming point forward as much as poss;
Underneath of wrist forward and up for french grip, down for orthopaedic.

Seconde:   (Note: 6'' = 15 cms.)
Start from octave position, then rotate palm to face down;
Tilt upper arm so elbow is about 6'' further up and out, and hand is about 6'' further out but still low;
Give wrist same angle to forearm as in quarte;
Hand further out, point further in, blade more "across" than octave. 	Try to keep shoulder back;
Point to angle down; when parying, opp's blade to be trapped underneath "V" of blade and guard.

Tierce:
Whole arm/hand/weapon assembly exactly as Seconde but pointing up from instead of down.

Tierce used against attacks from very high such as flicks to shoulder;  Both Tierce and Seconde used against wide attacks such as from opp. handers, and attacks with strong inward force.


LUNGE: 
Arm to move first, elbow to be straight; 
Hand to be high and out, point to be in and down (8 o'clock position, or 4 o'clock for left handers);   
Heel to shoot forwards along the ground initially, not up;
Rear arm straight, parallel to leg, with hand facing to front of body; 
Front shin to be just forward of vertical;
Trunk and head upright;
Rear knee to be straightened vigorously in second half of lunge; 
Feet still at rt angles and correctly aligned; rear foot flat on ground; 
Recovery to be crisp and controlled, rear knee bending to be distinct, firm push off front foot; 
En Guard stance to be correctly resumed at end. 

FLÊCHE: 
Arm extended first, and to assume correct straight arm postn (cf lunge); 
Head up;  Explosive acceleration;  Rear foot to move first; 
Feasibility of hitting opponent before rear foot hits ground to be demonstrated; 
On hitting, keep elbow straight; simply allow weapon to swivel in hand.
Avoid opponent to right or left. 


THE BASIC LESSON:       Done in pairs at the start of each session, between rounds in competitions, etc.

Stage 1: 'Pupil' keeps correct distance as 'coach' moves backwards and  forwards; 

Stage 2: Pupil attacks in the high line when coach lowers his sword, the low line when the sword is raised; 
 Coach adjusts distance so that sometimes the pupil's attack should  be made with a simple extension, short lunge, long lunge or flêche; 

Stage 3: The coach should make a simple direct attack in each of the four lines, and the pupil should parry and make a simple direct riposte in the same line as the attack, which the coach should allow to arrive; 
 The components of the third stage should be mixed up but each should be  repeated successfully three times in all by the end; 

 Advanced fencers add disengage ripostes, circular parries, tricks 45+48 etc. 
 Correctness is everything, speed is nothing in the lesson. 

Club nights started with warm-ups and ended with free fencing;  the training in between consisted of:
 *  basic lesson;
 *  tricks (see trick list) - 2 or 3 while learning, eventually covering all of them in 20-30 minutes (!);
 *  practising moves against specific opponents.

LOG BOOKS

It "was a requirement" of attendance at Snicker Snack that every fencer maintain their log book in which the details of his lessons etc are noted, according to the following example: 

DATE       WHO TO/FROM         CONTENTS/COMMENTSts
           Basic, to AB        Corrected rear knee on lunge 
           Basic, from XY      Worked on 4 riposte 
           non-basic - JJ      Balestras, circular parries 

This allowed anyone else to see at a glance what the fencer had been working on.

Notes on any competitions should be entered, particularly how far you got, fights where you got knocked out, or which were notable for some other reason, what moves of theirs you had most trouble with, and 
what your most successful moves were. 


GUIDE TO PROGRESS

In the first few sessions, beginners are typically introduced to new topics as follows.  Each session also involves revision. 

Session 1: En guard, advance/retire, lunge, holding & hitting,  sixte guard & parry.  Perhaps sixte riposte;      perhaps quarte. 

Session 2: Perhaps sixte riposte; perhaps quarte guard, parry & riposte;  Septime & octave. 

Session 3: Balestra, flêche, disengage attacks/ripostes, 

Session 4: Circular parries, beats. 

Session 5: Sequences of parries & ripostes, using random choice.

Session 6: Presiding. 



			SNICKER SNACK - TRICK LIST    Nos. 0-48 		19/9/95 

0: Extend arm in 6 & hit.  Maintain hit by stepping while opponent  adjusts distance.  Disengage & rehit
      when opponent tries to take blade. 
1: Beat attack in quarte then sixte. 
2: Circular quarte parry. 
3: Circular sixte parry. 
4: Disengage attack - quarte to sixte then sixte to quarte. 
5: Counter-attack with opposition in quarte.  
6: Counter-attack with opposition in sixte.  
7: Cut-over attack from sixte to quarte, then quarte to sixte. 
8: Parry a mixture of attacks: direct sixte; sixte disengage quarte;  direct quarte; quarte disengage sixte. 
9: Long lunge in sixte, disengage into quarte if parried;  Long lunge in quarte disengage into sixte, if 
      parried; 
10: Into a compound attack with 2 feints before final thrust, stop-hit into 1st or 2nd movement at will. 
11: Retire repeatedly until opponent lunges at random; make sudden stop,  parry, riposte. 
12: As 9:, but following opponent's distance. 
13: Successfully thrust through very fast (4 Hertz) but regular quarte/sixte continuous parrying, using only
        timing.
14: Retire with arm fully extended, opponent advancing with wide quarte/sixte disengagements 
       (1 cycle/sec); make stop-hit by footwork alone so opponent is made to miss entirely due to timing. 
15: In sixte, blades less than 2" from edge of guards; opponent disengages one way then the other; own
        blade must evade all the time but never go > 2" from opp's guard.  Then same thing only 2 rotations 
        both ways, then same thing with 3 rotations both ways. 
     Each disengagement to take < 1 second, and whole must be completed as one sequence, with no 
       touching and no exceeding 2" at any time. 
16: Stop-hit executed by stepping back with rear foot then forwards with  front foot. 
17: Drift compound attacks: eg long slow attack aimed originally at opponent's 6, then with a gentle curve, 
        swerve across to the 4 side, then finally gently aim down to 7. 
18: Take blade of opposite-hander in 'back 3', then cut to high chest  with a sudden flêche. 
19: Slide front foot forwards nearly to short lunge position, then do long lunge. 
20: Co-ordinate a series of forward steps with 3 & 2 guards/attempts to take blade:  
         Front foot forward + take 3, rear foot forward + take 2, & repeat. 
 Also front foot forward + take 2, rear foot forward + take 3, & repeat. 
21: 2 (ie Seconde) then graze hit to flank. (or chest if opp. hander.) 
22: Take in circular 6 then lunge. 
23: as 22 but if opp. disengages, turn lunge into step, beat 4 as rear foot hits ground then lunge. 
24: As 23 but if opp. still out of range, flêche.  Also, simply flêche  with just circ 6 if opp retreats enough
        but doesn't disengage. 
25: "Foot-back-flêche": precede basic flêche by moving front foot forward as if about 
         to step/balestra/lunge, but then pull back and place on ground behind where it started off from, then 
         flêche. 
26: False disengage by coming up on same side of blade. 
27: Against multiple disengage attacks, parry with hand low and forward. 
  FLICKS:  to be done as much as in sabre as poss.  (lefties swap L/R) 
   Flick exercises best done v. opp handed stance. 
 I:   Bend wrist back and rotate left as far as poss.  
 II:  Sharply twist to the right by 1/3 full travel then stop suddenly. 
 III: Point ONLY touches, & lightly, its momentum causing blade to bend.  
       Same movement done in slow motion should stop 10 cms short. 
28: Against Opp. hander, parry/beat in 3, drop hand, 'cut' to low chest;  if v. close, move hand into wide low 
        2 for flick. 
29: Against Opp. hander, take in 4 or 5, cut over, 'cut' to low chest. 
30: As 29, but croissé down instead of cutting over. 
31: As 29 & 30 but riposte down onto near shoulder. 
32: As 29 & 30 but riposte to flank. 

  CEDING PARRIES: FIRST GET OPP. TO TAKE BLADE THOROUGHLY, WITH CROISSÉ
  FROM HIGH LINE TO LOW OR VICE VERSA & ATTACK YOU.  LATER, LEARN TO DEAL 
  WITH A SIMPLE TAKING OF BLADE WITHOUT CROISSÉ OR THRUST. 

33: In low line, opp takes your blade to your 8; cede to 6 & riposte. 
34: In low line, opp takes your blade to your 8; cede to 3 & riposte. 
35: In low line, opp takes your blade to your 7; cede to 4 & riposte. 
36: In hi line, opp takes your blade to your 6; cede to 8 & riposte.
37: In hi line, opp takes your blade to your 6; cede to 2, hop in and riposte. 
38: In hi line, opp takes your blade to your 4; cede to 7 & riposte. 
39: In hi line, opp takes your blade to your 4; cede to 1 & riposte.       (Good against flêching.) 
40: When opp. has parried your flêche in 4, cede to Outside Hanging  Guard.
      (For a couple of challenging continuations from 40, try:  
Flip into 2 then riposte;    Sudden stop then overhead riposte in 1.) 
  
        KATAS 

KEY:  1-prime;     4-quarte;    7-septime;     C = circular;          Flank = side of body under sword arm;
      2-seconde;   5-quinte;    8-octave;      cd = ceding parry;     Chest = front of body;
      3-tierce;    6-sixte;     OHG = outside hanging guard.

41: (same handed opponents) 

        Fencer 1: 		    Fencer 2: 

        parry   riposte     	    parry   riposte 

start here:   high line      	   4    -> high line 
        4    ->  high line     	   C 6  -> arm (shoulder if foil) 
        6    ->  flank             8    -> flank 
        2    -> shoulder   	   3    -> low line 
        cd 1 -> low line      	   7    -> ... 

	(resume at top of opposite columns.) 


42: (opposite handed opponents;  mainly epee;  V.Diff!) 

        Fencer 1: 		     Fencer 2: 

        parry   riposte    	     parry   riposte 

start here:     high line            4    -> shoulder 
        3 croissé -> bum             cd 8, feint to inside elbow; hit foot 
        2     -> shoulder            3    -> chest 
        4 croissé -> low line        cd 1 -> low line 
        8 -> shoulder, then          6, C 6 -> shoulder with flick 
           counter-disengage 
        C 3, croissé -> waist        OHG, cd ->waist 
        7    -> front thigh          2    -> ...   

	(resume at top of opp cols.) 



43: (opposite handed opponents; foil, easier than 42.) 

        Fencer 1:		    Fencer 2: 

        parry   riposte 	    parry   riposte 

start here:  feint-disengage     
         -> hi outside blade        3  1 rip -> low  
        7          -> flank         8        ->  high 
        4 cut-over ->lo chest       low 4    -> flank 
        2     bind -> waist         cd 6 1-2 -> hi inside blade 
        C 3  low cut -> chest       1        -> low 
        2          -> high          C 6      -> ... 

 	(resume at top of opposite columns...) 


44: 2nd Intention Attack: v op. who counter-attacks: attack (simple or compound), draw counter, parry it 
        and riposte, perhaps transporting opponent's blade. 
45: Both partners repeatedly parry and riposte to random targets;  including some disengages & 1-2's.  
        Strive to abolish the 8 parry reaction to attacks in 7; do 7 instead!
46: Parry 4 into opp's. flêche; use max angulation and dab to shoulder. 
47: 'Down' parry (hand as in 4) to low-line attack; rip with dab to low line. 
48: Coach presents blade in any line.  Pupil takes blade and envelopés.  
       Coach disengages to another line, pupil retakes etc repeatedly. 


STEALTH: 

Definition:
Hiding, what you're doing and what you're going to do; the elimination of cues/clues re future actions & intentions (as to both when and what).  

Eliminate:

..sudden moves (eg sharp movements instead of curves).  These give the eye something easy to find and latch onto. 

..lolloping:  Instead, step forwards and backwards smoothly without moving up and down.  The opponent can only spare a little attention to any one thing eg distance changes.  If you signal each change of 
distance by making the top of your head move up and down 10cms it is much easier to detect than if you simply loom a bit larger or smaller.  

..looking:  If you are about to hit just above the right hip, try looking at the left shoulder. 
 
..leaning:  If you are going to hit in 4 (quarte) don't lean over to that side (& vice versa). 

..backswing:  Just arrange for your blade to be in the right starting position by doing some other movement that finishes in that position. 

..hand-churning:  Instead, simply angle your blade instead if possible, eg when taking opp's blade or making circular parry. 


Start different actions in similar ways eg lunge, extend-&-step, extend- &-balestra, 'foot-back-flêche'.