Need help on fencing lefties

[akaiyuki]

Nobody at my school's fencing team is a lefty, I find it hard fencing other lefties as there's no one to practice with and test out strategies. For an upcoming fencing match against another school, I know that they have a lefty starter with great reach, so, any suggestions on what to do? Or do you guys know any lefty drills? I'll get someone to be my dummy, lol :P

[fencerontheline]

If it is foil, it is just like fencing a righty, only with a few differences(for me at least).Try to avoid going to four, and eat up the flank if you can hit it. Also watch your flank. A lot of lefties will atack there, and many fencers cannot defend their flank.

[glowstix]

i'm a lefty and pretty much the only thing that works on me at my club is the attack to the flank area under my weapon arm. also, if its foil, try some flicks to the shoulder and chest..that also seems to work but it is a low percentage move depending on skill level i suppose. but, yeah, definitely focus on the area under the weapon arm for ripostes...

[GreenDot]

I also have this problem. I find that the thing with fencing other lefties is that you have to think more about what you are doing and what you are going to do. If you just go on autopilot, you will make many more mistakes than you would normally against a righty. This is my experience at least. Beyond that, I think that you should get out of the mindset that fencing a lefty is all that different. I used to worry about how I would fence when I came up against other lefties, and it would rattle me, but now I just approach it like any other bout. Pick the open target and hit it. I know you're looking for good tricks, but you should get out of the mindset of changing your game for other lefties.

-James

P.S. Fine, I'll give you one trick that works for me sometimes. Feint under his hand when you are attacking, as he will be expecting the attack to his wrist since everyone does this to lefties. At the last moment change lines and hit him in the mask. I did this twice in one five touch bout against someone, and he didn't even move his hand before he got hit. Think about what righties like to do to you, and figure he'll be expecting it. Act like you're going to do it and then change it up at the last second.

[akaiyuki]

Oh, I fence foil.

I find it quite hard to land my ripost without flicking, which isn't something that I can do well.

[Epeecurean]

Just to get you in the right (or left?) frame of mind...

try facing off against yourself in front of a mirror and do some shadow fencing. Just don't hit the mirror

[veeco]

It's all in your head buddy! Fencing lefties and righties is the same thing, it's still fencing. There shouldn't be anything to worry about.

There is very little need to "practice against lefties". You just gotta hit them in the target area, which is the same as the target area for the righties.

One word of advice however. When fencing a lefty, you gotta watch out the distance, which righties tend to make closer unconciously. If you are fencing a lefty his arm and his weapon are closer to you than if he was standing at the same spot with his weapon in his right hand. So watch out for that.

[kalivor]

Fencing lefties and righties is EXACTLY THE SAME!

Do nothing different. Try not to notice they're left-handed.

One of the fencers I coach had/has a major block against lefties. I switch hands so often during lessons that she loses track of whether she's getting her lesson left-handed or right-handed. She'll normally take left-handed fencers apart ... until/unless she notices they're lefties.

[Victor]

1. For some reason, it's often disconcerting to a left-handed foilist when the rightie takes an exaggerated six guard position -- it's been my experience that the leftie will often search out that blade for some sense of control (a comfort habit, rather than a tactical action). So try moving your guard a bit higher and wider EVERY SO OFTEN just to give the other guy some mental hiccups and break his pace.

2. As has been said before, a low-line second intention or compound attack, dipping just below his arm, often proves to be useful.

3. Veeco is right; half the battle is already won or lost in your head with tension-producing thoughts like, "Oh My Gawd! He's a LEFTIE! Whatever will I DOOOOOO?!" ... So you need to practice this particular skill along with your other physical skills: Keep reminding yourself, over and over, that he's just another fencer and he can be defeated.

[EricS]

A couple of people pointed out that leftys like going for the flank. A nice technique you can use against a lefty is to go flank--your weapon arms are on the same side so you can use the same 'tricks' that he or she would use against you.

If you're fencing epee, you can do some nice tricks because your weapon arms are on the same side. Feint disengage to the wrist or arm is a good one.

[Artisan]

Its great fun to watch two lefties fence. Neither of them has a clue....

[telkanuru]

I find taking the blade in a parry 2 and riposting to the leg works. Kidneys, if you're a foilist.

[MikeHarm]

With the high level lefties, fence them the same as everyone else their bad habits to exploit are probably gone.
I've noticed that with the beginner/mid level lefties like to have you reach into their quarte line and do quarte parries and ripostes against you for easy points. My main strategy is feint to quarte disengage/coupe to six. If that doesn't work I do an slow attack to quarte, let them do the quarte parry, but then use the energy to come around into a yielding quarte and ripost at a faster tempo, this has scored me lots of points in competition. If I see them scared off of doing the quarte parry I start drilling them in the quarte line until they go back to it.

[Victor]

re inside line of a leftie:

Remember that it's very natural for us to guard our outside line and parry attacks to the inside line. In a simplified, almost static scenario, think of it this way: Rightie to rightie, those parries automatically push blades back to the preferred en garde position -- a beat four from one guy means the other guy has been whacked back to his own six again. .... But against a mirror image, those same natural tendencies merely serve to put us in a more precarious position. So if a rightie attacks the leftie's inside/four line and the leftie naturally beats (from his perspective) the four away, the rightie finds himself waaaay out of range instead of being bumped closer to his own six again.

In other words, don't fall for the illusion that you should come in deep on the inside, unless you've worked up a game plan to compensate. The leftie feels very good about defending that line; it's as comfortable for him as it would be for you, but he normally fences his mirror image so he's got more practice at it than you do. ... Find a way to use it against him instead.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

at one point, there were as many lefties in my club as righties. when i started, i got the *lefty-->bad* thing stuck in my head, and then got over that. nowadays, i ONLY notice if someone is a lefty when trying to shake hands with them. sometimes i freak out when fencing a righty, thinking "oh god, her hand is in a weird place, what do i do". if i notice myself freak out about fencing a leftie, i have to remind myself to double check- most of the time, the "leftie" i was worrying about is a righty. i regularly forget if people are left/right handed, because at this point, it doesn't affect me much......

it really is experience

but you don't have that option.

*useful hint for those without a lefty in their club*

walk up to a friend. hand them a glove in their size, turned inside out. ask them if they can do you a favor- stand there holding a weapon, move back and forward a bit. that way, you get the idea of where they are, where their blade is, and how to approch hitting them. then, you and your friend can trade (IF you want to be fair, that is ).

in the long run, specific tactics for lefties won't help you much- lefties are all different people, what works for one won't work for another- but having a good sense of where their blade is, and where their body is- right handed or left handed, will.

[rvergara]

the only lefty on our club tends to wait for your attack and stop hit on seconde when you attack him on quarte. the feint to quarte, disengage to sixte is very effective, especially if you close on quarte, destroying all his stop-hit chances.

[Superman]

Oh, I fence foil.

I find it quite hard to land my ripost without flicking, which isn't something that I can do well.

Whatyou might want to try is a disengage-riposte. This sometimes is very effective. Another thing: if your opponent doesn't know you're not good at flicking, DON'T LET HIM KNOW IT! Faint-flick-disengage is AWESOME against lefties. An Idea:

Faint flick to four (most/some lefties have a wide parry four) finish in eight.

Do try it. Hope it works out for you!

[akaiyuki]

Thanks guys, I'll try some of these out. My coach is currently training someone on my team to be a lefty, lol, it's quite fun ^^'
Are there any suggestions on defending against an lefty's attack?

[Superman]

Parrying the opponents blade.