Foilist back in the game...flicks?

[darius]

Hasn't the max bend for foil been changed from 4cm to 1cm? That's something you need to be mindful of with those extra flexible blades.

From 2cm to 1cm, but yes.

4cm is for sabres.

darius

[striker]

Makes sense... But while I am willing to (reluctantly) give up the flick--or the flick as my primary offense--I don't think I'm ready to give up my hoola-hoop blades just yet.

felixduc,

I do not think you need to give up on flicks altogether. There is a fencer in my
salle that uses flicks at least 50% of the time. We have used new timings
for a long time. He IS able to land the flicks. What is the secret of his
success ? Practice practice practice. He has adjusted the feel for his
blade and he knows how much pressure is needed to land a flick.
I think if you give it some time you can adjust. In my humble opinion
what the new timings eliminated were badly executed flicks
or well executed but very light flicks.

[shango]

Try flicking on the upper shoulder of your opponents. Those usually go off as opposed to the attempted flicks on the spine and such.

[kalivor]

Flicking still works, it's just harder (and less useful) than it used to be. It used to be that hand position and distance could be ignored, if your opponent wasn't that great and/or you had a good feel for landing the flick. No more -- you now need good hand position and good distance all the way through the action.

The stiff blade stuff is hogwash. A stiff blade does not bend more or less against an opponent than a flexible blade does, unless it is illegally stiff. All foil blades are sufficiently flexible to bend enough to lose the hit if distance is very poor.

The advantage of a stiffer blade is that the point moves less during the action, allowing the fencer to maintain better control during parries, beats, etc. It also stays tighter in disengages and such. Given that new timings foil has more disengages, parries and small actions than old timings foil, there is an increased advantage to a stiffer blade.

However, blade stiffness has no bearing on the likelihood of the point scoring.

[rory]

My recipe for landing flicks
- good distance
- high hand
- don't grip hard
- use the fingers to "snap" it on

I can score with the septime pick-up-and-flick riposte if the distance is right, especially if the opponent leans forward in the lunge (like a lot of squirmers now). Maybe 60% effective, so don't do it on a remise-monkey.

Step-lunge-flick to shoulder (righty on righty) is OK too, especially if they're backing off as it lets the point sit on longer. That's a 50-50 hit though.

Circle sixte riposte to back is flaky at best, target feels too hard (maybe shoulder tension in the opponent? don't know).

Prime riposte is OK but don't flick it in so much - push the hand down and forwards. 90% effective.

Flick to flank is good - but get the distance right or you'll miss the soft bits and fail.
Likewise when flicking to chest against an opposite-hander, aim for stomach rather than sternum!

I use medium-stiff BF blades - good point control but if I want it can flick it pretty well. I have an old LP Budget Maraging and it's like wet spaghetti: it's almost useless these days.

Make sure you have perfect taping on the point and blade - any silver showing on the barrel, it'll short out, and you'll lose fights 5-0 without knowing why.

Make sure your bodywires are in good nick too - any corrosion will increase the resistance and increase the likelihood your light won't go off.

[cs3dswb]

I was at the BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) Individuals Championship The year that they brought in new timings and i watched as Corin Beck (now ranked 23rd in Britain) wiped the floor with a Russian Maxim Izotov.

Corin was flicking Maxim from shoulder to hip and must have only not landed 1 or 2. It made me feel a lot better about potential flicking on the new timings. However i was there this year also and didnt see 1 flicker out of 8 in the quarter finals, i also watched as he got knocked out in the quarter finals too.

[felixduc]

Nice post rory, good info.. Thanks!

[felixduc]

I was at the BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) Individuals Championship The year that they brought in new timings and i watched as Corin Beck (now ranked 23rd in Britain) wiped the floor with a Russian Maxim Izotov.

Corin was flicking Maxim from shoulder to hip and must have only not landed 1 or 2. It made me feel a lot better about potential flicking on the new timings. However i was there this year also and didnt see 1 flicker out of 8 in the quarter finals, i also watched as he got knocked out in the quarter finals too.

Cool...

Was at the club last night and worked out a little. Haven't had problems with straight attacks or ripostes missing at all, but I have decent point control and follow through well. In the past I would just toss the point in and never worry about it. I do have to concentrate a bit more now, but that's a good side-effect of the new timings.

The flicks ARE interesting though. I have had ~75% success flicking to the near shoulder on righties, although my club opponents are all relatively inexperienced and so they all lean forward too much. The back is out of the question for me, it seems. Oh well.

I'm working on flicks to the flank, and I've had more success "throwing" the point into my opponent rather than flicking it in. The blade stays in the contact area a bit longer. The problem I'm having is that this tactic appears to be more difficult; I have to weave the point-throw between parries and limbs, rather than just flicking around. Practice should work that out though.

First tournament tomorrow for me in 4 years! And the first for me with the new timings. It's the Mile-High Cup in Denver, CO. We'll see what happens...