Ducking Attacks/Changing the Level?

[King Thunderblast III]

Hi,

These are annoying, exactly how do I practice getting good at them? Which is the optimal distance and how does one defend?

Do I simply parry, duck and extend my arm outwards?

[epeeslasher]

Are you asking how to perform a ducking attack or how to defeat someone who does them?

[Wetmelon]

Assuming foil/epee, they can be useful, but usually only work once in a bout. Maybe.

Try to get it so that your opponent is at their max distance, so that they have to make a pretty big lunge to hit you. One that you can see coming. Then you have to time it just right - I don't think you even need to parry, just duck and extend.

[Craig]

If you're getting hit with a ducking counter-attack it's the same reason why you get hit with almost any counter (in foil): You are coming in too fast, holding in preparation, and are not in "eyes open" mode to handle your opponent's changing of the available target area.

When I am landing a ducking counter-attack, it's usually with collapsing distance and my opponent holding a high preparation. Since their prep. is high, then by collapsing the distance and taking away target by ducking, it increases the chances of a one-light action.

When I go for this and my opponent isn't charging in, but is making a good prep step to see what I'm going to do, then I'm toast.

If you are getting hit on these, then try to figure out when your opponent is going to throw that counter-attack at you. What are you doing that gives away your intention. Figure that out and then work on shorter steps or a slower start in your action to have better vision of where you opponent's target will be when you are finishing your attack.

Craig

[Fiat Slug]

You're not talking about a passata-sotto, are you? If your opponent is doing a passato-sotto in response to your attack, then you should try to hit him on the back.

If you're talking about a simple ducking counterattack, then you don't need to parry. If you are able to catch the blade with a parry, then you don't need to duck.

One word of caution and this has been thoroughly discussed elsewhere on this forum is that you want to make sure that you're not tilting your head down when you duck. If you tilt your head down during ducking, then you're covering target. If you need more info on this, just do a search and you'll find excellent explanations.

.

[KD5MDK]

Assuming foil/epee, they can be useful, but usually only work once in a bout. Maybe.

Somebody should tell the girls from Alliance that ducking only works once per bout...

[King Thunderblast III]

Cheers guys, I got hit with one once - have been able to generally defend against them thus far, it just occured to me that I NEVER do them and it may be a good trick up the sleeve once every few bouts or so, I thought.

Got a tournament coming up soon, first I need to practice alot though.

Yes I probably am coming in much to fast. I tend to win a lot based on speed alone (I'm oddly fast, 90% of my points are from attacks in prep) and as such I realised how under developed I am in general...

[Craig]

Look at the article "Duck and Cover" in the main section of fencing.net. I've got a video of one of my foil bouts there that have good and bad examples of making ducking work. The ones that work for me (without exposing me to penalty) are the ones where I'm executing the duck as a planned remise to an attack that fails and leaves me in close distance.

I've seen guys that use the ducking final as an integrated part of a long attack, but there are referees who won't give that type of action an attack because they see "duck automatically equals counter-attack". But that's a different thread.

Craig

[King Thunderblast III]

Look at the article "Duck and Cover" in the main section of fencing.net. I've got a video of one of my foil bouts there that have good and bad examples of making ducking work. The ones that work for me (without exposing me to penalty) are the ones where I'm executing the duck as a planned remise to an attack that fails and leaves me in close distance.

I've seen guys that use the ducking final as an integrated part of a long attack, but there are referees who won't give that type of action an attack because they see "duck automatically equals counter-attack". But that's a different thread.

Craig

Yeah I thought that would be the most viable application. Thank you for reminding me of the articles, I don't see my coach till thursday (schoolwork) so they'll be helpful in prep.