Arch rival always win.... help?

[Hurriranger]

well in the U16 Qld, nobody even troubles me but this one person! and he does the same thing over and over and i can't beat it. some mates of mine can beat him easyly yet i can't! what he would do is advance really quickly, feint once or twice, and hit me. he does it really well and fast and i simply can't parry him. i have tried keeping distance but you can only retreat so far...

Haven't fenced him for a few months now but i think he's coming to the schools comp. my new plan is to start my before his attack. you guys got any ideas?

[Zelda]

Who is it??? I am not a saburer, so cant suggest anything concrete, however, your idea seems good.

[Tireur]

Since he seems to always be the attacker, try changing things around to throw him off. YOU attack for instance.

Other than that, don't go for the feints, wait until he commits to a real attack, then parry.

Of course, this is all basic.

[CarlKnoch]

Interesting. I had a nemisis of sorts for a while. I found that as soon as I could beat him, I found a new nemisis who I couldn't beat. You're Arch Rival will only be an Arch Rival until you can beat him. Then you'll find a new one....

In the interim, if he feints every time with a march, as soon as you see him feint the first time, advance lunge, or just lunge and hit him. That will stop his march and surprise him probably. Stop thinking defensively for a few touches and get him to change his tactics against you.

[Craig]

Ask your friends what they do to beat this arch rival.

Sounds to me like it's a mental thing with you. You feel that you can't beat him, so you don't.

Craig

[The0ne]

Do a cool Sabre stop-cut!!!!

[MyraTrue]

I agree most of all with Craig. I have one of those arch rivals, though I've not fenced her in some time. Its THE MOST frustrating thing to have someone take you out, point by point, the same way. You can see it coming, you know what will happen, they've already done it to you multiple times and can do NOTHING about it.

Ask others. Explain what he's doing, and get some help defending against it. Ask other people who can beat him. Try mixing it up. Take your game, and see if you can completely turn it around, attack him, don't give him the chance to make his feints.

Its always a surprise when the person you've been feinting toward and faking out suddenly doesnt try to parry but calls you on the carpet. They just hit you. And you feel kinda stupid. "Oh".

And don't take any fencer too seriously. Time and fencing with other fencers may help you a lot. If anything, use it as a learning experience. Maybe this means you've got a weakness in your fencing. Learn to correct for it, or to compensate for it. Use it to draw someone in.

But most of all, go have fun. Its fencing. You're stabbing the other guy, or slashing at him, or... enjoy!

*climbs off her soap box and scuttles away*

[veeco]

If someone is consistently scoring on you with the same action, it means that there is something you do to try and defeat this action which is either:

1- Not appropriate. As Craig said, talk to your friends and see what they do. Then practice doing it until you can do it well enough to beat your nemesis.

2- The right thing to do, but somehow it isn't working. It can be either because you're not doing it well enough, or you're just not doing it at the right time. Sometimes, just because you know what the other person is going to do makes you anticipate a little too much and you end up being too early on an action. This can be most frustrating, because you feel you're doing what you should be doing, but the tempo isn't there and it makes you miss or you loose ROW because of it. If that's the case, if you believe what you're doing is the right thing, then try something completely different. There is more than one way to beat one action. If you're trying parry ripostes and they don't work, try stop cuts, or counter time actions. Or try and step back, open up the distance and see what they do. This will give you another perspective on the problem and might give you another way to beat that person.

[Sabresque]

The parries may not be working because you aren't doing it either A. at the right distance or B. with the right timing.

You've said that there's only so much you can retreat. Assuming you're a sabreur, one way to fix this is to feint into their attack in a closer distance, then when they try to finish their attack because of the feint make a larger retreat (or jump back) then what you were doing before (you can either make them miss, or use a parry also). This will A. make the attack sooner and B. let you know when their attack will end. This bigger retreat will also give you more time to parry.

Of course, I'm not sure if this is exactly what you were talking about, but give it a try. I'm all for Tireur and Veecos suggestions too. Practice all these things during training.

[pkt]

Originally posted by Hurriranger
well in the U16 Qld, nobody even troubles me but this one person! and he does the same thing over and over and i can't beat it. some mates of mine can beat him easyly yet i can't!

This tells me it's a mental thing.

Originally posted by Hurriranger
what he would do is advance really quickly, feint once or twice, and hit me. he does it really well and fast and i simply can't parry him. i have tried keeping distance but you can only retreat so far...

...

I have a similar nemesis. He likes to attack me as I perform one of my delayed extension preps. He'd hit me on my tierce.
Well, I'm glad to report that in spite of the fact that I did lose to him this SAt. in the DE by 15-13 [it's closer than the scores indicate] and he did get me ONCE with that attack, I counter-timed him on at least 3 occassions... So there is HOPE.

If you know that he's advancing these would be my counter-measures:
1. Take the distance away from him.
This can be
a. As he's advancing - that means he's not attacking - he's expecting you, as per usu., to give way, so in stead of stepping AWAY, STEP INTO his PREPARATION. Thi scould be a simple attack, a flunge, or whatever. But you have to be sure that the ref does not construe his "collapsing of the distance" - Bill Oliver's phrase - is an attack.
b. Advance BEFORE HE STARTS HIS ADVANCE.

Once he's started advancing, the usu. counter-action is to take one step back, then appel with "OPEN EYES", if the opportunity presents itself - i.e. if he hesitiates, or breaks his advance momentarily - then attack. If not, keep distance and do whatever you or your friends who beat him do. This could be take a step back and parry-riposte; or it could be a stop-hit.

The appeal tells the ref that you're taking over his tempo...

Discuss with the ref before hand if at all possible about his interpretation, understand how he sees the actions. Watch him ref the others, esp. those that beat your nemisis.

Of course this assumes the ref knows what he's doing...

2. If his advance is multi-tempo, yes, a stop-hit is usu. the solution. Distance and timing are of course your main concerns. It goes without saying that you have to make sure your timing is perfect.

Set it up, so that your opp't thinks that you're retreating and 'whack' him with a coup d'arret on his FIRST step! Or, let him hit you once as per usu. then change your tactics and surprise him.

3. Ask your coach to work with you on this action. Then PRACTISE, PRACTISE, PRACTISE.

PRACTISE it till you can do it in your sleep.
Visualise the actions.

That's how I made the successful counter-time: practice and visualisation.

4. Don't forget to stay low - bend your knees... don't get up while you retreat. If you don't stay low, you can't do the counter-actions properly.

5. Learn to relax, concentrate - I know these are diametrical opposites, but that's how you can determine how good you're - and don't try too hard. Analyse what you are doing, why you got beat.

6. Buy the 2003 World Champ MS DVD from Craig then watch and learn...

Hope these help,

PK

[Thomas]

Before a tournament.
1.put on a black ski mask
2.get a baseball bat
3.wait till hes alone in the bathroom
4.strike him in the kneecaps with the bat

COntinue with the tournament. AND WE WILL SEE THEN! Who lunges faster. HAHAHAHAHAH!

[Tireur]

6. Buy the 2003 World Champ MS DVD from Craig then watch and learn...

You must be getting a commission on these...........

[epeecurian]

The answer may be time. I had the same problem fencing one girl. It was horrible, she trained for the olympics since she was a child and I was a new fencer. How could I possilby win, with her father directing her every move and encouraging her. What an impossibility. Then I realized. Don't fence her for a while. Just fence other people and watch her style of fencing and recall later on what does she do. In her instance her style was that she used a 2nd parry, riposte to the fencers flank [the infamous 'back-attack' and precurser to the flick]. A demon on wheels, and fast without any mercy and could not care less if she left welts, while she cried boo-hoo, daddy at the least infraction against her purity-white skinned body. Oh well.

I practiced until I could at least parry parry parry and occassionally hit her back in 6 while her father screamed in the distance and realize, that she will get beaten later on by another, more experienced fencer than myself or herself, and I will continue to develop in time.

[telkanuru]

Originally posted by Thomas
Before a tournament.
1.put on a black ski mask
2.get a baseball bat
3.wait till hes alone in the bathroom
4.strike him in the kneecaps with the bat

COntinue with the tournament. AND WE WILL SEE THEN! Who lunges faster. HAHAHAHAHAH!

I believe one calls this "Attack in Preperation".

[MikeHarm]

I think the solution is for you to relax, not worry so much about the person and work on beating the technique.

I'd do one of these as a first shot at cracking it.

Option one:

do a false parries for the drawing the feint attacks, then circle into a real parry for whatever line he's landing in.

Option two :

Stop parrying the same way. Use the circlular, semicircular, beat parries, parries with opposition, flying parries, semicircular parries, throw a prime parry in now and then. Learn different guards, and how to invite him into lines you can control the best. He's comfortable launching feinting attacks because he feels safe that he knows how you're going to defend yourself. You have to take that security away from him if you're going to shut his offense down.

Option 3:

Attack into his preparation while he's fishing around your blade or advancing into range. Try a retreat-fleche to reverse instantly into an attack as he's charging to close with you before he's started his feinting actions.

[klauver]

Have a friend or family member video tape your next bout. Go home and study it with a friend and have them re-enact the scene of the crime. You may be able to see the troublesome attack on your own.
Good Luck