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Old 01-04-2004, 05:23 PM   #1
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Left v Right handed fencers

Does anyone know the habits or weaknesses in general of people who fence left handed? What about right handed fencers? I'm speaking about foil specifically. For example, if we were to generalize, we could say a left handed fencer is weak in one part of the target area when it comes to parrying and a right handed fencer is weak in some other place. Does anyone have advice on what can be said?
I'm a right handed person and I have trouble fencing left handers because there are so few around.
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Old 01-04-2004, 05:54 PM   #2
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ahhh us lefties hehe its not an easy life EVERYTHING IS MADE FOR RIGHTIES. ah well anyway I find my major weakness is my right should area. what works best on me is a feint to a low line then attack to the shoulder hope you dont fence by me!
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Old 01-04-2004, 06:43 PM   #3
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Well, Speaking as a lefty, A good deal of feints to my Belly and cut to my flank( En Guarde) Used to get me all the time. Although I would assume such a move would be a righty's first choice.
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Old 01-05-2004, 10:18 AM   #4
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The majority of left handed foilists that I fence are weak in 8 (low, outside, under the elbow). I find that I can attack into there high out side (6) and they figure I'm no longer a threat which makes it easy to move the point under their arm.

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Old 01-05-2004, 12:04 PM   #5
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I'll second the weakness in 8, but it goes both ways... also, my natural stance and position is in a slightly more outside 6. This draws nearly all of my attacks into my 4 (which, luckily, I'm fast enough to usually parry-riposte anything coming in.) When I get tired, though, my arm starts to come in more centerline, and (as I've noticed with most novice-decent lefties) leaves me with a 6 hole the size of a barn.

If you've got a lot of reach (as I do) you can also try as a lefty to keep a partially extended 8 with a LOT of distance... threaten with the eight any time someone starts to come forward and then either disengage to a high 4 (people tend to follow your blade and pull your tip into them) or a quick coupe to a 6. I haven't found a C/lower fencer
yet that it doesn't drive bonkers...
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Old 01-05-2004, 05:22 PM   #6
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For starters, I'm lefty, foil.
I tend to hold my blade in 6 while "at rest", so to speak, so my parry 6 itself is weak. But the way that part of my target area is presented, it is already blocked by my arm, so I'm not attacked there. My 8 is weak, although that may be because I don't ever use it. None of the righties on my (small) team are fond of lowline attacks, so I don't often have to defend against them. I much prefer to do a parry 2 instead of 8, and I find my parries 2 and 4 are the strongest, maybe because the motions have always felt better to me.

With some righty opponents, I find I'm able to do a low attack to their right flank. If they don't keep their elbow in front of it, they don't seem able to guard it properly. A beat-attack can be effective. There's a variation where you do a mini-beat with your foible and then slide your blade along theirs to hit. I fully intend to try this next time I fence lefty.

For another question, what do you do (especially lefties, who rarely fence their own kind) when you are fencing someone who is of the same handedness of you?
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