Fencing tempo

[Carlos37]

What is fencing tempo?Any websites or tips on how to understand it better?

[semihippie]

I'm a fairly new fencer, but this is my understanding of it.

Tempo in fencing is like tempo in music- your timing/rhythm/flow of your actions. An advance and a retreat can be a two tempo (if you advance, pause, and then retreat), or a one tempo (advance, retreat) action.

I hear it most often in the context of changing tempo. If all of your actions are at the same time, you become predictable, and its easy to counter/parry riposte/attack in preparation.

[ddavis]

Check out Allen Evan's excellent web site

http://home.earthlink.net/~allenevans59/index.html

[Adler]

There are many different definitions for Tempo. The definition of Tempo that seems to prevalent in the States is what I would refer to as Cadence i.e the rythm of an action.

I personally define Tempo as the moment most conducive to scoring a hit where your opponent is partially or totally unable to defend themself. I would suggest you read Prof Czajkowski's book Understanding Fencing which has several interesting article's on the value of Tempo (timing) in tactics.

From a coaches point of view you can divide Tempo into two broad categories:
Physical Tempo and Psychological Tempo.
Physical tempo can be divided into tempo from the Hand and tempo from the foot.

Hand tempo uses a movement of your opponents blade in order to score a hit e.g on my opponents change of engagement I launch a fast attack by counter disengage into the opening created by my opponent.

Tempo from the foot is similar e.g on my opponents careless large prepatory step forward I execute an attack with an explosive lunge and score whilst he's still off balance.

Psychological Tempo is a bit more difficult as it relies on good obsevartion and being able to recognise the outward signs of my opponent lack of concentration and then launch the appropriate offensive or counter offensive action.

[Carlos37]

So the key to controlling the tempo is to catch the opponent off balance to hit him that way.Do you know what can be done to be able to recognize when the other fencer might be off balanced?

[AdamH]

So the key to controlling the tempo is to catch the opponent off balance to hit him that way.Do you know what can be done to be able to recognize when the other fencer might be off balanced?

...

nng

<self-restraint>

Look, a three-headed monkey.

edit:

Oh, alright. A three-headed monkey in the middle of a step after over-lunging and about to be hit in an opening line.

[jBirch]

So the key to controlling the tempo is to catch the opponent off balance to hit him that way.

You've got two different things going on here...The key to controlling tempo is to be the fencer dictating the actions to the opponent. The fencer who is acting and causing their opponent to respond is essentially the one controlling the tempo.

One USE of controlling the tempo is to place your opponent into an unfavourable position and then to use a correct attack to exploit the opponent's inability to respond.

The basis of RoW lies in the nuanced rules of tempo and while the person controlling the tempo has an advantage, it isn't the only advantage. A wily opponent can keep up with your tempo and can use that knowledge to launch attacks of opportunity when you are most disadvantaged. They aren't controlling the tempo per se, but they are taking advantage of your technical weaknesses to launch harassing actions.

Do you know what can be done to be able to recognize when the other fencer might be off balanced?

Predictable, reflexive actions to common stimulii, jerky responses, over-emphasised movements etc... At the club we talk about "throwing boxes" in front of your opponent to try to make it as difficult as possible for them to execute whatever it is they are thinking of doing. We then wait in a holding pattern (this is epee, after all) until the opponent is totally discombobulated and then we launch simple, strong attacks to the major targets.

As to what tempo *IS* that's a very grey conceptual area. It is, as has already been mentioned, like music but not like the music played by a single instrument. Rather, it is an entire symphony of movement with half notes, quarter notes, high notes and low notes all working in harmony or in disharmony to acheive an affect. It's the ebb and flow of a contest that occurs in both the mental, physical and preparational realms simultaneously in three different people (the two fencers and the ref).

You don't just hit your opponent: your opponent allows themselves to be hit too. So there is action on both your part and on the opponent's part and each beat of that action is a component of tempo.

The common technical definitions include the notion that a tempo is how long it takes to execute a simple fencing action. Some simple actions have multiple rhythms (the difference between a "blocking riposte" and a step-lunge w/disengage) at changing speeds (accelerating, constant, deccelerating) to different distances of targets (close, near, far, extreme) so depending on the context, the term "tempo" takes on different precise meanings.

And read both the Professor and Allen Evans. They are fantastic essays on tempo.

Hope this helps.