How to turn things around?

[Josedariom]

Thanks Jbirch, I think I fell into category 3 trying to get defensive touches but on the other hand most of my touches had come on defense beforehand. It just seemed that that one action before he landed his attack was not there. I first tried parrying which had worked up to that point and then PiL which had also one me some touches and then counterattacks in time and finally when the scored was tied I attacked did a beuatiful 1-2 but the second disengage was too sloppy and I missed and his flailing counterattack landed. One light and that was it for me.

[jBirch]

Josedariom,

You're welcome.

The situation you describe is different then the "point pressure" one I interpreted it as.

In this case, what has happened is that your opponent realised that what they were doing was something that you were able to take advantage of. They then changed to a different strategy and you were unable to figure it out fast enough.

A couple of bits of advice here.

First, by the nature of your post you're fencing a DEFENSIVE game.

What I mean by that is that you are waiting for your opponent to initiate an action upon which you will react with a prepared plan. This is, unfortuneatly, a losing strategy as you've found out.

The reason it's a losing strategy is that you are not in control of the crucial elements of the bout: timing and tempo.

What you need to do in this case is to return to your first point and fence, not an agressive game, but an *ACTIVE* one. You can still react to the opponent's action but what you need to do is to trigger it at a time and tempo of your choosing. Subtle difference.

Here's an example that I often see:

Beginner fencer finds that parry 4 riposte works brilliantly for them. So they wait until the opponent attacks and then BANG, parry riposte. Now, they get in trouble when the opponent realises that you are REACTING to the attack and start to attack in different lines, in different manners and at a different timing and tempo. All of a sudden that brilliant parry 4 riposte doesn't work anymore and no matter what you do, you can't get it back.

This is the DEFENSIVE or REACTIVE game that I'm talking about.

The ACTIVE game involves exactly the same situation, but you now give an INVITATION in 4 that your opponent has to hit. You bamboozle them with a some footwork and some feints, but you leave the 4 open. When you close the distance and the tempo, they feel an irrestible urge to hit your "open" target. You trigger their attack which you then parry and riposte.

Note the initiative. In the first, the opponent is controlling you and your reaction is just a little better. In the second, YOU are controlling your opponent and your reaction makes no matter BECAUSE YOU KNOW when and where the attack is coming. You KNOW because you CALLED it. You CAUSED it to happen. This is the crux of an active game.

So, the basics of fencing then: disrupt your opponent and "trigger" or "call" their action when you are good and ready. Do not let your opponent choose the time and tempo. Ever.

Second, you need to have a DEEPER BAG OF TRICKS.

I don't mean a deeper bag of techniques, but rather a set of actions that you are confident in applying in different situations. Techniques are the fine grained components of your tricks. Your tricks are your unique application of a set of those techniques at a specific timing and tempo. Each trick counters or takes advantage of a specific trick in another fencer. Example, feint-disengage takes advantage of parry riposte. Advance lunge takes advantage of "turning the corner".

So when you see your opponent change strategy, you know where they are going and what to do with the new action they are presenting you.

The only way to acquire this bag is to train and compete a lot. It is advisable to have multiple tricks per trick in your opponent (so you can change it up)

Third, learn what to do when you don't know what to do.

What I mean by this is that when you start every bout, you should be looking for opportunities in your opponent while hiding weaknesses in yourself. There are structured ways of doing this in a manner that allows you to find out the most about the other fencer as quickly as possible. When you find yourself in a new situation as a result of a fencer who has "changed", you need to retreat to these "learning" techniques and repeat the process of finding weakness before exploiting it.

Your coach should be able to help you out with all of these.

Hope this helps.

James.

[Josedariom]

Yeah James I think you hit the nail on the head with the description of my defensive game. By nature, I am more confident in my defense than in my offense because I do not have a huge lunge and have a tendency to miss simple touches because of bad point control on attack. This is something my coach has noticed and he does not mind that I am defensive but gives me the same advice you did about not being reactive and whenever he sees me staying back waiting for an attack he tells me to PRESSURE my opponent to make him play my game. I guess I just got complacent and in a short span changed from a PRESSURING defensive style to a reactionary style.

[dramamine]

Yeah James I think you hit the nail on the head with the description of my defensive game. By nature, I am more confident in my defense than in my offense because I do not have a huge lunge and have a tendency to miss simple touches because of bad point control on attack. This is something my coach has noticed and he does not mind that I am defensive but gives me the same advice you did about not being reactive and whenever he sees me staying back waiting for an attack he tells me to PRESSURE my opponent to make him play my game. I guess I just got complacent and in a short span changed from a PRESSURING defensive style to a reactionary style.

Everyone is talking about plateaus but that doesn't have anything to do with losing a lead. I think there are two main cases that happen to people.:

1) They change when they don't have to. Like someone already said, if you are winning by 5 touches you are already doing the right thing. No need to change in this case.

2) They don't change when they have to. If you are doing something and your opponent catches on, you need to be ready to change! If my parry 4 riposte by disengage is mauling someone at the beginning but they start jamming in the remise, I need to be able to switch to the direct riposte or hold the blade.

It's pretty easy to figure out which one it is, just ask a good fencer to watch and tell you. If you can, talk to your opponent afterwards (you'd be surprised how willing most are to do this if you just ask).