Watching a fellow from Clinton NJ fence his gold medal bout in Foil showed his fighting style. Bladework predominant, many touches were scored by second intention, riposte, and attacks and takings of the blade. Attack au fer et prise de fer. Sword movements were rather small and rhythmic. Absent were wide Sabre style sweeps or flicks. The concise parries did not stray from a small defensive box, his attacks were direct, following the shortest line to the target. Preparatory bladework almost seemed a little sloppy, casual. Button play was accented a little from the wrist. Blade initiative preceded footwork, tending to slow dynamic movement in the rest of the body. Nearly all attacks were simple with bladework and lunges at lunge distance. His style could be summed up as use of the smallsword by Jean Louis, one of the fathers the French school during the Napoleonic period. Jean was known for strategic play by wearing opponents down with defensive attrition, gaining a superior position, then delivering a devastating reply via riposte. The Clinton fencers best touches were with riposte, often from prime. He was also well schooled in all manner of stiletto infighting, stabbing around his back, behind the neck, over the head, ect.. Being an advanced fencer who favored specific blade movements this man chose his type of handle carefully. His Foils looked mounted with Italian Visconti. Maybe German. Rather good handles for point work with riposte. To his horror the last remaining weapon malfunctioned at the most critical moment of the bout. This was the tipping point, right when he analyzed a tough opponent and was just beginning to dismantle him. The score was about equal. Someone in the audience offered a spare weapon. The young man took the sword gratefully. Unfortunately the weapon held an exotically curve in the handle called a small Russian. Not only is the shape difficult to understand by sight, it also encourages unusual bladework. The small Russian is so rare there is no photograph. This Russian has a peculiar twist in the handle, somewhat reminiscent of another uncommon grip called modern Spanish. What this twist is intended for is open to conjecture, without doubt making for some crazy moves. It seems to incite cutting actions, or at least bizarre angulations, Fencing modernism. Upon contact with the hand the desperate fencer paused, then passed through several colours of expression. One could nearly see his entire body ripple trying to adjust to the handles contortion. High level fencers are so attuned to their movements one small change, not to mention clown handles, will throw them into a fit of kinetic conversion. Maybe he didnt know anything about theory, or even what his own hilts were called, he seemed to name all multi pronged grips as pistol. This being an order alongside a class of three called, French, Italian and Pistol. He probably knew little history or what the makers had in mind. If you pointed to his grips and asked for the name his reply would likely be, pistol. But if offered 19 different types there is little question this fencer would grab the type of pistol he uses, and more, the exact model by a certain company. Yet the gold medal contender knew grips! Knew how they related to his individualistic style of movement and how they were used against hundreds of different opponents. With a valiant defence, this entrepreneur not only had to fend off viscous attacks but also to dissemble new prongs into effectiveness. One observer commented, Hes doomed, hell never figure out the abomination in time, hes got no point control. There were only about 3 points left in the 15 touch bout. If one can picture a finely knitted mind synthesizing thousands of physical conversions with tailored manipulation, he would look something like a malleable chameleon in a crayon smeared fit of coloured morphology. The fencers head titled in consideration, he shook his hand and fingers out between halts, quickly assessing which moves were most viable, the blade cricked to the side a few times during tune. Finally a light went on inside the fellows head. A solution was found! The grip is held in such and such a way to align a riposte in prime and viola, the opponent demolished.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 05:24:46 +0000
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