anotheranon | "That's all you need."

The above is a favorite saying of one of my historic fencing coaches, noting that ideally parries and other blade motions shouldn't go far off line (if at all) - exaggerated motions create more work than necessary in a sport/martial art where a split second/a couple of inches really are all you need.

I've been trying to control my broader parries and the like, and this is much easier to do at a longer distance (the closer I get to my opponent, the wider I have to go to get around their blade). Still, I've been feeling long and ungainly and wondering what it takes to make tight, neat parries and disengages. This seems to be true not only in historic, but in my sport foil game as well.

Tonight I discovered a (slight) advantage of gangliness, at least for foil :)

Understand, I'm not that tall, at least for a woman (5'6"), so the following is an unusual experience for me: We did advance-lunge drills (one person advances and lunges in quick succession; if their point doesn't land they retreat as quickly as possible while their opponent tries to advance lunge). As it happens, everyone I fenced tonight was shorter than me - not by much, but enough so that my height advantage let me "stretch out" long enough so that my lunges covered the distance and landed before they could reach me.

That was pretty damn cool :)

And yes, using what advantages one has is sorta mean, but then, in fencing, sneaky underhandedness is not only allowed but encouraged ;)

I also experimented with balestras, a jumping forward attack that would stretch me out even further. It's jarring to the hip and knee though - I hope I am able to practice this on my opposite side, so as not to turn into a fiddler crab! :P