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Prepared attacks
Your preparations must (as always) be sensitive to what the opponent is doing with distance. Preparations must stop or conclude when the opponent is in distance, not after the opponent is in distance. The fudge factor allowed by flicks, glancing hits, and late-arriving jabs has been removed.
Because preparations must always keep the opponents in front of the tip, opponents will be able to meaningfully freeze preparations by pretending to get in distance. They can fake forward, appel, or make a forward check to shut down preparatory footwork.
Thus, prepared attacks will be a guessing/experiential game, centered around being able to discern when opponents are in distance, or only pretending to be in distance. Some rules of thumb: (1) During slow preparations, defenders will be able to fake being in distance, but attackers will have time for second intention or decision point. (2) During fast preparations, opponents won't be able to fake as easily, but what they can fake will seem very real. Attackers will use speed as well as surprise to be sure that opponents are in distance; this isn't necessarily the case today, where relaxed box timing allows the fencer with Right of Way to finish at their leisure.
And, since opponents will often suddenly close distance to be safe from tip attacks, more fencers will end up in near distance on these occasions. Look for a return of infighting, especially behind the head hits with reversed shoulders (see the Chinese fencers in the 2003 World Championship Team Final).
The speed and earlier commitment of attacks, coupled with sudden distance collapsing and infighting, will lead to a more physical contact game. Light fencers, fencers with weak arms, or fencers who don't like jostling should cultivate even longer distance.
To mitigate against closed-distance and infighting, fencers should train up a fast backward recovery from the lunge — done at the right moment, this leaves the distance-closing opponent with withdrawn arm (to get point on a near target) while the fencer is at prime distance to hit with extension.
For the backwards recovery to be meaningful, the fencer must have enough room — which means the acceptable lunge is one that hits from "far away." Train your distance so that long committed lunges bend the blade less than 3 inches against the nearest target. Steep blade-bends on deep target indicate a dangerous flaw in distance.
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