Worlds 2009 Men's Epee Finals - Column

[lguillemin]

Float like a butterfly, sting like Avdeev!


The Men’s Epee finals were hosted in Antalya, Turkey this past Sunday. The depth of the Men’s Epee talent pool is absolutely phenomenal, making for a very exciting event. The beautiful thing about Men’s Epee is that it is near impossible to predict the outcome of a tournament. Epee for the last decade has been heavily dominated by France, Italy and Pavel Kolobkov (Russia). Sunday however, a new Russian star has cemented himself among the top in the world. Anton Avdeev, born in 1986, defeated Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol in the gold medal match 15 – 14. Tagliariol is no pushover; he won the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with a convincing victory over France’s Fabrice Jeannet 15-9.
In Beijing, Anton finished 22nd.

Anton Avdeev may be following where Pavel Kolobkov left off. It is very rare to see a successful Junior continue on to be successful in Senior events. Fabrice Jeannet and Pavel Kolobkov are the two most recent epeeists to have won Junior World’s and gone on to win a Senior World Championship title. While Anton hadn’t won a Junior World Championship event, he did finish 5th in Taebaek and 6th in Linz. Anton is considered small for an epeeist, standing at 5’8’’, but it does not stop him from defeating the taller and stronger opponents.

Anton uses his speed and agility to compensate for the height disadvantage. He has very dynamic footwork and his blade is always active. This makes it very hard to catch him off balance and very hard to gauge when he is going to extend his arm. Anton’s dynamic footwork allows him to set the tempo and he is usually in control of when actions initiate. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see any of Anton’s bouts prior to the semi finals match with Jose Luis Abajo so only speculations can be made about the previous bouts.

Jose Luis Abajo is a very strong and tall fencer from Spain. He finished 3rd at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has a very strong octave (8 parry) and his attacks are very deep. He launches his attacks from a far distance, but increases his speed as he approaches the target. When I saw Anton would be fencing Jose Luis I got excited (note that I typically get excited watching any fencing). I knew this bout would be height and power versus speed and technical ability. Avdeev is one of my favourite fencers (second to Zawrotniak) so naturally I was cheering for him. He got off to an amazing start picking apart Jose Luis with parry-ripostes and compound attacks. Anton was well aware of Jose Luis strong octave (8 parry) and he made sure to avoid it at all costs. Oddly enough Anton’s strength on the defence was his octave! Jose Luis has a very long lunge that he uses as a high-line feint with a finish to the leg. He was not successful with this action at all as I believe Anton was well aware of Jose Luis’ areas of excellence. Anton had a lot of tools to use for this bout. It seemed that Jose Luis did not respect Anton’s mobility and Anton was able to control Abajo’s distance. This allowed Anton to fleche whenever he pulled Jose Luis within his distance. Anton was able to parry riposte any of Jose Luis attacks and he was able to do compound attacks avoiding Abajo’s octave. The score was 12-5 after the first period. The final score was 15-6 securing Anton a spot in the finals.

The World Championship Finals provided us with an epic bout between Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol and Russia’s Anton Avdeev. Tagliariol has been tearing up event after event since he won Olympic gold in Beijing. His confidence is apparent in every action he does. He has the fastest hand in men’s epee and he utilizes the coupe (flick) better than anyone before. Along with his deadly hand speed he has an amazing sixte and very active footwork. The only weakness I can see with Matteo is at times he can become impatient, causing him to rush his attacks. Matteo has a very strong remise lunge that he likes to launch without preparation. He attacks high line and immediately remises low line. I feel however that this attack isn’t as strong against smaller opponents like Avdeev.

The elimination final started with a lot of movement so the fencers could feel each other out and look for patterns and to establish a rhythm. The first point is scored 50 seconds into the match, by Anton. Anton did a compound attack, feigning into Tagliariol’s sixte and finishing low line to Matteo’s flank. The first period consisted of Matteo trying to get in close to Anton and finish with a simple extension. It wasn’t successful as Anton’s technical ability allowed him to score at the short distance. The score at the end of the first period was 4-2 for Anton. Matteo did not attempt to get close to Anton before attacking for the rest of the bout.

The second period started off much the same as the first, with a lot of movement. Anton tested his fleche but found out how quick Matteo’s hand really is. Matteo easily parried Anton’s fleche and hit him with a riposte. Matteo then attacked right off the line to surprise Anton tieing the score 4 – 4. The next attack Matteo attempted his lunge remise attack I had mentioned earlier. It failed and Anton had no problems accepting the touch Matteo gave him. Matteo changed his tactics and attempted to use his deceptive footwork to push and pull Anton. As soon as Matteo knew he had control of the movement he surprised Anton with a beautiful attack to the foot. Matteo took advantage of Anton being surprised and once again attacked off the line for a quick point to take the lead 6-5. Matteo utilized the lead to draw an attack from Anton that was easily countered. Matteo continued to control Avdeev’s movement and once again drew an attack from Anton that was launched right into Matteo’s strongest parry; sixte. Matteo continued with his game plan, pulling Anton within distance allowing Matteo to attack whenever he pleased. This game plan worked well enough to put Matteo ahead 9-6. Then Anton changed. Anton became more dynamic with his footwork and was able to surprise Matteo with simple extension attacks. Anton tied the score 9 – 9 going into the second period break.

The third period began just as active as the previous two, with both fencers trying to establish dominance over the tempo and rhythm. Anton attacked with a fleche disengage and scored to give him the lead. Matteo was quick to tie the bout with a counter attack on Anton’s next lunge. The intensity in the bout increased almost exponentially with the next two touches being doubles. Matteo attempted to surprise Anton off the line but put too much into his attack and Anton’s focus was there to help him score the touch with a parry-riposte. Matteo tried another surprise attack off the line which Anton was just as ready for. 14-12 for Anton. Anton attempted a fleche to finish the bout off, but he unleashed his attack well out of context and Matteo had no problem parrying the blade and finishing the attack for a point to make the score 14-13. Anton kept his blade very active so Matteo couldn’t predict when an attack was coming and also so Matteo couldn’t land a coupe to Anton’s forearm. Usually in these situations when the score is close and it is in the finals you are very likely to see a direct attack as both fencers don’t want to take any risks. Anton however initiated a beautiful compound attack once again feigning high line and finishing low. Matteo missed the parry but landed a coupe to Anton’s back as Anton closed the distance to score a double. Anton won 15-14 in a very close bout.

Both fencers were very tactical from the beginning of the bout. A lot of movement trying to get the other fencer to attack in the wrong context and off balance, but both fencers were able to control themselves and limit their mistakes. Both fencers had a healthy mix of defensive actions and offensive actions to make the bout extremely exciting. I would like to give congratulations to both Matteo and Anton for fencing an amazing final bout. It will be interesting to watch Anton this upcoming season.

[samh]

Sweet column man, what about the breakdown of the Jeannet - Tagliarol match?

[Tomas N]

My memory (I'll have to watch the bout again) of Tagliariol's footwork in the Olympic finals is that it was more dynamic than it was in the WC final. I thought perhaps he relied more on blade actions in the WC final and less on his dominating game of tempo.

[lguillemin]

Sweet column man, what about the breakdown of the Jeannet - Tagliarol match?

A decided to just focus on Anton, but here is my very brief summary of Jerome and Matteo:

Jerome controlled the bout until Matteo decided to use his coupes. Jerome lost confidence, while Matteo's confidence shot through the roof.

Actually after just writing this I want to do it formally, so expect a little blurb of that bout.

I'm going to analyze Jerome and Matteo's bout more in depth tomorrow, for it is now my time to go train!

[lguillemin]

My memory (I'll have to watch the bout again) of Tagliariol's footwork in the Olympic finals is that it was more dynamic than it was in the WC final. I thought perhaps he relied more on blade actions in the WC final and less on his dominating game of tempo.

I have to agree with you on this, but I think there are other factors as to why his footwork wasn't as dominant.

In Beijing (I'll focus on the last two bouts of his) he had Abajo and Fabrice Jeannet. Both are taller and both have crazy long attacks. Fabrice has the longest lunge in Men's Epee.

I believe in order to neutralize the height advantage Abajo and Jeannet had, Matteo had to really control the tempo and distance. In his bout with Abajo he often forced Abajo into his (Matteo) extension range and made the actions that way. The other key factor of Matteo is that he makes his opponent attack into his preparation which in theory I guess is preparation in itself. Prepping his prep? I don't know lol. Anyways he does a preparation to start an attack but he also uses the same preparation movements to do a coupe if the opponent decides to counter into the preparation.

Against a smart fencer like Fabrice he uses his preparation movements to set up for an attack AND he uses it to draw Fabrice. Same thing with Jose Luis Abajo. This is very beneficial because it plays a trick on you psychologically. You see that your OP is prepping for an attack, you notice the pattern and you say to yourself "when he steps forward I can hit him" and you know exactly when he is stepping forward. Now the problem is he steps forward and is already initiating a coupe, so you impale yourself right on the hit.

The psychological mind trick comes because you have figured out the opening, you go for it at the perfect timing, and you get hit. So from that point on every time they do that prep either you will continue to attempt an attack or you won't react, either they get a point or they can set up for a point. Then you may start limiting your actions because you are focusing on what to do with his preps.

I don't know if this makes any sense or not. But if you can lock a strong fencer in that situation, they will beat themselves. I.e. Tagliariol vs Jeannet in Beijing and Tagliariol vs Jeannet (Jerome) at Worlds.



As for the bout against Avdeev, Matteo can't really amp up his footwork to take control like he did vs Jerome and vs Fabrice and Abajo. He has to be smart... and this is exactly what he does, he uses half steps and he is dynamic with the size of his steps to control Avdeev. It works, that is when he gets his 9-6 lead. Then Avdeev changes. Avdeev is very fluent and fast with his footwork so it is very very hard to control someone like that.

(ALL IN MY OPINION THIS DOESN'T MEAN IT IS THE TRUTH!!!!)

With Anton he heavily relied on blade actions partially because the footwork was very hard to control.

Does any of this make sense?

[gladius]

The World Championship Finals provided us with an epic bout between Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol and Russia’s Anton Avdeev. Tagliariol has been tearing up event after event since he won Olympic gold in Beijing.

I really enjoyed reading your analysis and I think it would be great if there were a way to have your text interspersed with the actual footage to really appreciate your technical analysis.

I hope you don't mind if I add this info which I believe can shed some light and add to your technical analysis.

1. Ever since the Olympic gold in Beijing, Tagliariol has had a rather lackluster season dropping from #1 to #23 this year because by his own admission he has been taking it easy, very easy...

2. He also was very upset for losing his coach, Angelo Mazzoni when the latter became the CT of Switzerland together with his old Maestro Gianni Muzio. Tagliariol took it very personal, threatening to change to Swiss nationality to follow Mazzoni. If I recall correctly, Matteo's mother is Swiss, but then Matteo must have gone through the fine print of FIE rules and figured out that this change of flag isn't easy to do. It is not an understatement that he has some problems with the FIS and the Italian elite epee program.

3. In the final bout which you so expertly analyze, there was the moment when Matteo's epee had a problem. The screw holding the grip together became loose. He complained loudly to the Italian bench for not making sure that this weapon was in perfect shape. He then took the second weapon which apparently also was not perfect as it should have been. He actually stated that the weapon was defective, "I was touching but it wouldn't score!" There were some heated discussions after the bout between him and Sandro Cuomo, epee CT, and the rest of the Italian bench which continued in post bout interviews.

This is the link to the FIS web site

http://www.federscherma.it/news.asp?i=75951&s=7

And this is the English translation:

He got silver but his face is ... bronze-mad. This is how Matteo Tagliariol stepped down from the strip addressing his staff with a rather poor choice of words. The reason: the grip of his epee came loose. Something which helped his opponent Anton Avdeev (RUS) to recover.

He said after the bout, "You could see a Tagliariol of Beijing, maybe even a better one. At Beijing I had nothing to lose. Here I had something to prove. A silver is in any case a good starting point towards London 2012. We had a communication problem between the strip and the Italian bench with various ideas and comments concerning my slow grip. And my opponent exploited this situation."

Sandro Cuomo, Italian epee CT, comments, "The slow grip and the change of weapon is nobody's responsibility. When you change weapon it is taken out and according to the rules cannot be used any longer in the same bout. It's a shame and it unsettled our athlete and caused him to lose concentration. It's a bitter silver which shows also how strong we are. Everybody else deserved better. Now we concentrate on a medal in the team event."

I always wonder how many times important bouts and even championships are lost because of ... a loose screw or a screw loose if you prefer.

[K O'N]

Hi

Very interesting commentary from everyone, thank you.

I thought Avdeev did a great job of capitalizing on Tagliariol's distraction with having a "cold grip" in his hand, that was great. I also thought that he came out to the third period with a clear plan in his mind - not to show Tagliariol the same fencer he had seen in periods 1 and 2. Very effective.

I agree that video clips would be nice. It's the 21st century! Why should our sports columns look like columns did a hundred years ago?

I'll repeat my statement, that a lot of us would enjoy regular good quality columns on world-level fencing in the various weapons. I hope Craig can find a place for such a thing here, and someone to write them.

K O'N

[lguillemin]

I really like the idea of embedding video in with my columns.

I'm going to make a website to put epee columns on and I will embed video in. I first need to get the permissions from universal sport to do this.

Do you guys have any other suggestions or requests?

This column I did with a focus on Anton Avdeev as opposed to the whole World Championships, should I focus mainly on the event?

[lguillemin]

@Gladius

That is very very interesting information you put forth. I was wondering why he was spending so much time focusing (for lack of a better word) on his weapons. I can definitely see how that would mess with his focus. Changing weapons is always hard to do in the middle of a bout.

I have the utmost respect for Tagliariol, he is absolutely amazing.

I'm going to go over the footage again and see if I notice anything.

[jojo]

Many thanks for an excellent review of the bout. I agree in all details. Just would like to add a little comment since I followed Tagliariol all day. Tagliariol's favorite parry is the sixte binding move which is very, very fast. In addition it is very difficult to block because of the flick. All of his bouts started in a similar way. He started rather slow and was at times behind. During the middle of most bouts he started to close the distance with his excellent footwork. He then used his sixte parry binding to easily win the bouts. As noted by lGuillimin this also happened in the final and was to some extent successful. This move gave the upper hand to Tagliariol 9-6. As noted by lGuillimin, Avdeev changed at this point and the only thing that I would like to add to lGuillimin's excellent description is that Avdeev also made sure to have a very high guard during all of Tagliariol's hitting attempt, thus blocking them. This potentially opened up Avdeev for a low attack from Tagliariol but I do not think that Tagliariol managed to deliver any low attacks. He probably was not comfortable to go so far away from his area of excellence. Avdeev did a beautiful job in neutralizing Tagliariol's area of excellence. He is probably the shortest male epee world champion in history. We all thought that this was a historic moment. Just one thought: When I was active, we fenced to 10 touches. Like Tagliariol, I always started with my second best tactics and I might be behind a little at around 5 touches. With 5 touches to go I would change into my best strategy with the rational that it would not give the opponent enough space to make any adjustments. Tagliariol changed into his best tactics at 4-4 with 11 touches to go. What would have happened if he have waited a little longer???

Johan Harmenberg

[lguillemin]

Johan,

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply.

I would agree that this is a historical moment in Men's Epee. Anton Avdeev proved all three of Solee's Conjectures and I believe he used your paradigm flawlessly.

I honestly thought Jose Luis Abajo would destroy Anton primarily because of the height and strength difference, but Anton proved me wrong. I think he proved a lot of people wrong. What an outstanding performance.

As far as Tagliariol waiting to switch to his best tactic... I think that would have been wise for him, maybe score a couple doubles before switching. If the score was 6-6 or 7-7 Matteo would've been up 11-7 or 12-8, a much nicer situation to be in. As far as I know Matteo has never been beaten in that situation.