attacking underside of hand in epee

[Victor]

During my career, I asked several masters ...

How many masters comprise "several?"

[jetzm]

I have sometimes had success feinting to the top of the forearm, the opponent's response being to raise their hand, which exposes the underside to attack. They quickly learn: if it seems to be a trick, it probably is.

It's true. Usually the high feint only works once, MAYBE twice in a bout. But from there I use it as a complex second intention attack, drawing the counter attack during the feint, taking the blade in seconde, and stepping in with opposition to the hip. Of course, as usual, it doesn't always work as well in practice as in theory.

[Schiavona]

How many masters comprise "several?"

I believe that fencing convention sates several as more than two but less than 'a lot', I can't seem to find it in the Rules.............

[BrianH]

How many masters comprise "several?"

Let's see: Yves, Leon, Regis, Gia and Ed....uhm, five.

[epeefencer74]

Which method to use to hit the underside of your opponents forearm really depends on how your opponent is holding his guard. For an exposed under-wrist, simple straight shot with no pronation of the wrist will suffice, same when performing an upward-beat attack. Beat the blade up to expose the wrist and a straight shot in.

However if your opponent has a covered wrist then a pronation is required to hit the underside. This is because it is easier to angulate upwards with a pronated wrist rather than with a neutral positioned wrist, but beware, cos this also exposes more of your top forearm to stop hits and flicks. I often use this position when I'm performing a stop hit to the bottom of the wrist on the retreat from my opponent's direct attack.

[Twinkletoes]

I posted this thread and thank you for all the input.

From what I can distill.. different fencers attack differently; in terms
of hand positions, some seem to get better angulation from a pronated
attack and yet others prefer suppinated.

Actually, EpeeFencer74 's reply seemed to incorporate different hand posistions depending on the opponent's exposed area. His method seems logical.

A very nice post. Thank you all again for your input, this forum is very
informative.

Thx

Marc