Quote:
Originally posted by drizzt_do_urden
Any other ideas on how I can learn to work against flick attacks?
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2 general types of flick attacks: marching flicks, opportunity flicks.
[1] Marching attacks with absence of blade, ending in a flick. These are when the opponent runs you down with bent-arm, blade-swinging movements. A counter-attack will be caught with a flying parry and riposte to the back.
Strategies:
- Fall back and use sabre techniques to break up the opponent's march. Stutter steps, changed rhythms, front foot taps, distance grabs. This "noise" complicates the normal process of running you over, it psychologically enjambs the opponent so they don't feel safe charging you. Exploit any openings this creates, when their footwork slows out of necessity, or take over initiative.
- Jump back a few steps and establish point-in-line. You have to be standing still for at least
one of your opponent's marching steps. (I've found it helps to appel (tap the floor w/ front foot) when creating a line, as the director and opponent are both more likely to notice.) Your arm should be slightly bent (not visible thru the fencing jacket) because a truly straight arm engages the shoulder, locks the elbow, and complicates derobements. Let the opponent impale and see what the director thinks.
- Let the distance get close. When the opponent is near enough, they will naturally have to conclude their marching attack with a final step, lunge or fleche to try to hit you. The hard part of the attack is over (the wait), and you have the reveal (the delivery point of the attack). Once you have invited the attack into its final action, be ready to retreat quickly and get out of the way. Parry riposte.
- Reach out and force a parry. As the opponent's blade swings around, reach out and smash it with a big beat middle-blade (if your follow-up works, it will be called a parry). After this blade collision, neither you nor your opponent will have a good grip or good aim... but he's still moving forward, and all
you have to do is point your straight arm at him. You'll hit something, ergo attack stopped. Be sure to keep retreating until your parry -- remember, the opponent's goal is to have you swishing around for his blade while he gets close.
- Take the attack before opponent can start their march. If these attack frustrate you, then just launch your own long attack when the director says "fence." Be sure you hit something.
- Let the opponent march at you as normal. Let your hand go out of line... lean a little... show him that juicy shoulder. When he finishes, be ready with a sixte parry or high tierce block. You've just
invited his attack on a target you
assigned -- he's attacking, but you're controlling the action. You ought to have a good success rate.
- For certain kinds of flickers (those that rely on blade whippiness), you can step into an attack and take it across your shoulders. It will land flat. This is also true of many actions -- since the dangerous part of the blade is the tip, getting inside the tip = safety. The cool thing about the flick is, if you do it right, it's not very sensitive to distance in this way (the tip is not going forward towards the opponent, but down from above, so lateral distance is less important). Advanced fencers won't be caught by step-ins.
(These strategies are good for many marching attacks, since the frustrating thing about them is not the final hit, it's the obfuscation and chaos that tends to open you up.)
[2] Opportunity flicks, as with beat-flicks or ripostes to shoulder from near distance. These are tougher, since they happen near instantaneously.
Strategies --
- Treat them like normal extensions. When taking any parry, you take one retreat. Always. This will put you in proper distance for a normal parry riposte. The important thing to remember about flick is: they're not magical, they can be parried.
- Assess the flick as a sabre cut (arc attack). In sabre, cuts are defeated by blocks. Protect your shoulder with a 3, your back with a 5. Blades might wrap around these blocks and still land... so make your block further away from your body. This causes your blade to intersect the opponent's further from your body, and whipovers are defeated. [From
http://www.geocities.com/fencinglessons/3.html: Parrying is the method of deflecting a point attack. Blocking is the method of deflecting a cutting or flick attack. The difference is obvious but most instructors and textbooks prefer to use the terms interchangably. They are wrong. Parrying is done while moving your blade. Blocking is done with the hand and blade held relatively still.
- Lean back. I never really counsel changing body position because it can cause many problems. But if you
see the flick coming, leaning back will sometimes fubar the hit -- the foible lands flat on your shoulder. Coupled with a step in and a dropped hand, you can start your infighting routine with the opponent at a severe disadvantage.
Quote:
Originally posted by drizzt_do_urden
Also, will learning to flick help against people who flick, or will it just give me one more attack method to use?
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Yes, and yes.
Knowing flicks yourself will allow you to better understand their weakenesses, as well as the tactical situations that lead to the delivery of a flick. You can then exploit the weaknesses, or manage tactics so flicks can't be delivered.
And, if you have a good flick... it's always good to have a move as natural and fast as blinking an eye to get a few touches per tournament bout. Cultivate a parry flick-riposte that you can use reflexively when the distance is right. You'll be getting touches you don't have to work for.
Lastly, generally speaking, if you can defeat an opponent's flick game, they will be either [a] beaten, or [b] forced to change away from a flick game. At a recent tournament, the advanced fencers were hard-core flickers. By the finals, the all-flick fencing was gone. This is because flicks
can be beaten; the flick is too "shallow" to be the only tactic for an advanced fencer.
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