Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
As we talk about moves in foil, I want to add the press, which is a very simple move,
but you can add strategy to the press and have it actually become one step in a dance
of many complex moves. So let's, let's start with the simple press. The press is just what
it sounds like, it's me applying pressure to my opponent's blade, just pressing her
blade out of the way. Now, if she does, if she in response to that pressure, she pushes
back, what I want to do is disengage, and come around to the open line. In this case
I would thrust to her four. Now, most likely my opponent's going to catch on to that very
quickly. If she's been fencing for a little while she's going to anticipate exactly that
sort of response to a press, so she might instead give me a little bit of pressure,
and then immediately parry four. In that case I might feint a disengage. So if she parries
four, I feint to disengage, come back to the now open line, and thrust to six. So, in fencing
you often have, in Foil Fencing, many levels of deception. That's just the very first level,
but you could see how you could pile on a lot of different feints and intentions in
order to create a complicated dance of action. So let's show how that works, with a partner,
in action.