What kind of fencer are you?

[veeco]

I mean, strategically?

Would you qualify yourself as a "natural" and when you fence, in the middle of a bout, you don't really think about what to do or what your strategy is going to be, leaving that kind of thinking to before, lessons, sparring, whatever. In short, do you leave the fencing to your instincts?

Or would you qualify yourself as an analyst, who after each touch or even after each action, analyzes what happened, why you touched, why you got hit, how to get around it, what you're going to do next, etc. In short, do like to analyze your bout as it goes?

Or would you define yourself in different terms that I have forgotten?

Just wondering...

[ 08-06-2001: Message edited by: veeco ]

[Purple Fencer]

Judging by my Nats performance. I;d have to say that I was basically reactionary in pools. In DE though, I actually found myself thinking of ways to draw a specific reaction to my feints. I guess what tactical mind I have woke up later in the day.

Waching the opponent in other bouts helps you to see what the weaknesses are. 'Course, if I'm fencing someone like Derek Snyder, I can analize til the cows come home...I'll still be lucky to toucj the guy!

[Inquartata]

Mostly reactionary. That's about all there's time for in sabre.

I start off with one or two ideas, and analyze what happened with them briefly between touches. Beyond that I just try to see a break in their attacks, an opening in time, or to draw an attack to a certain line. After that it's ALL reaction.

[Jeeves]

I'm totally tactical. I have a plan going onto the strip and I change the plan and adapt as I go thru the bout. At every engarde
I have a plan for the next touch.
I find if I don't set it up, it won't happen. I end up learning nothing and losing big.

[Peach]

I'm definitely analytical, but I depend heavily on automatic skills once the action is underway (I'm a sabre fencer). However, I plan my actions from point to point knowing I have those skills in my repertoire. My mind feels empty when I'm waiting for the "fence" command, but I'm realizing that's because most of my thinking in a bout is nonverbal. I don't think you have time in a sabre phrase to put your thoughts into words. I'm most likely to give a sabre yell when I've deliberately planned and executed an action and it worked, and THEN realize consciously that I did it on purpose. I don't know if that makes sense.

[Craig]

I tend to spec out a strategy for the bout and then drift into 'natural' mode depending on how well everything is clicking.

If I've had a chance to really scout out my opponent for a DE bout, I'll tend to get very analytical and use one touch to set up the next because I've got a good idea of exactly what that fencer will do.

Of course, at this past nationals, I stayed 'reactionary' for pretty much the whole tourney. That, plus the fact that I wasn't coming in with a 'kill them all' attitude resulted in a less-than-stellar performance on my part. Of course, when you only do a couple of tourneys/year you tend to dull your competitive edge.

When I've been fencing at my best, a "tough" attitude combined with a good bout strategy has done wonders. When you can plan out your first 3-4 touches to destroy your opponent's game and lower their confidence, the rest becomes easy.

Cheers,
Craig

[Purple Fencer]

Adding to what Jeeves and Peach said...When Freewind came back from his 1st Boston Sabre World Cup a couple'a years back, one thing he found was that you really had to go to the line saying to yourself "Okay...I'm gonna do this action." It's kinda like setting up plays in football; both players plan their game and see what happens. It's just too damn fast to react, unless you're real good at a sudden retreat to get away and react to the missed attack.

As far as my strongest game (foil), I'm aware of what strengths I have and what the weaknesses are. The big sloppy 2 parry-riposte and the really large cirle 6 parry-riposte are my best weapons, so if I know the other guy's liable to fall for it (like if he takes a really long run-up into an attack), I can usually pull it off if I try to draw him into it.

[ 08-07-2001: Message edited by: Purple Fencer ]