How To Flèche Attack - Epee Fencing

What's up everybody? I'm coach Tyler with Fencer's Edge and today we are going to be going over the flesh attack and today we're going to be focusing on epe specifically. You can use this move in foil however it is much more frequently used in epe and absolutely do not use this move in saber because you will get carded for crossing the feet. So this is not a move that you can use So the flesh attack is a very powerful and fast attack to get to your opponent as soon as possible from a wider distance than you would be able to score from let's say a lunge distance. So it covers a lot of distance very quickly. So today we're going to be covering a lot of different aspects of the flesh attack. We're going to be first of all breaking down the mechanics of how to actually perform the move. Then I'll be giving you some tips on how you can judge the correct distance and how you can protect yourself with the flesh. All right so let's break down the body mechanics of the flesh attack. So just like a lot of moves in fencing it all starts from having a really solid unguarded position with this nice deep knee bend. This is where all of your power speed and balance comes from. If you're trying to perform this flesh attack with straight legs it's not going to be as explosive, you're not going to be as balanced, and it's not going to be as fast. So number one aspect is definitely having this deep knee bend. All right so the first thing that happens with the flesh attack is that the arm extends. This is really really crucial and important for epee fencing. In foil it's not so important but in epee it is absolutely crucial that the first thing that happens when you start the flesh attack is that your arm fully extends. Okay if you are starting the flesh attack and you're pulling your arm or you're not leading with your arm it makes it much easier for your opponent to counter attack you and you will be out of that touch. The next aspect to the flesh attack is that this front shoulder drops and moves towards the target area. Okay and the back hand reaches back so you're really extending your reach as much as possible. The next stage of the flesh is pushing off of this back leg and stepping in front. So bringing that back leg from behind you to in front of you. So you're landing in this position for the flesh. Now from here the last stage of the flesh is to push and drive again off of that back foot. All right so let's break it down step by step one more time in slow motion. Arm leads, shoulder leans, back hand reaches and then pushing off of the back foot bringing it in front and landing here making sure that I'm turning my shoulders as much as possible giving myself the most reach and making my target area as skinny as possible. So when I land here I should be turned here with my shoulders like this. Now the last stage of the flesh is pushing off of your left leg if you're right-handed your right leg if you're left-handed. That last stage is going to be pushing off of that foot and driving past and through your opponent not running into them but driving past them with that final action. All right so a few of the common beginner mistakes that I see in the flesh attack are number one not having the bent knees to begin with. We talked about that earlier so that's the most crucial part. The next common mistake that I see a lot of beginners make is that when they flesh they keep their shoulders squared off to their opponent. All right this is going to do a couple of things that will hinder their effectiveness. Number one is if I am reaching and my shoulders are squared I'm not going to get the same distance that I would get if my arm was if my shoulders were turned. So number one that gives them the most possible reach and number two if my shoulders are squared off to my opponent I'm giving my opponent a lot of target area to hit whereas if I turn this shoulder now my target area becomes a lot skinnier and a lot harder to hit. Okay so that's one of the common mistakes I see is people fleshing with the squared off shoulders. Another common mistake that I see is that when people go for the flesh attack is the they stand up here and push up with the flesh attack so they're kind of traveling up in the air more than they are going forward. Now this move is designed to be an explosive attack that covers a lot of distance quickly so it's meant to really drive you forward more than it is up so when you're doing this flesh attack it's important to stay bent on this front knee as you're pushing through. Okay so when my leg fully extends here for the flesh I'm extending and driving forward and I'm not extending this leg early and driving up with the flesh. So another common mistake that I see with people making the flesh attack is that they make the they may extend their arm but they don't do the upper body lean. Okay so this upper body lean is going to help you in a few different ways. Number one it's going to move you closer to your opponent faster that's probably the most important part. The second important part to this body lean with the flesh is that it allows you to move your center of gravity forward and it gives you this forward momentum that really drives and pushes you forward with that flesh attack. So the last common mistake that I want to talk about today is the distance at which people choose to make the flesh attack. So we're going to get our gear on here and I will talk about the the proper distance to perform a flesh attack. Okay so let's talk about the proper distance to make a flesh attack. So for the flesh attack number one you want to target your opponent's forearm to shoulder area. So this area right in here is where you want to focus your target for the flesh attack. So when I make my flesh attack if I'm at the proper distance I should be hitting my opponent's target before or right with my back foot hitting the ground on this step forward. Okay so if I flesh from outside here and I land and I still haven't touched my target area I'm too far away and it's going to be really easy for my opponent to parry or to make a counter attack. It's going to be much easier for him to defend himself if I'm fleshing from outside that distance. So the main thing that you want to focus on is finding your flesh distance. So when you land your flesh you should be hitting your opponent either just before this foot hits the ground or right with it. All right so one of the things that you can do to help you kind of learn your flesh distance is to get with a partner and start off in this position of the flesh attack. So you should be right here and then have your opponent move into where you're touching their arm. Okay so once they've moved into that distance where you're making that contact then from here you're going to step back to the unguarded position and now you'll see this is the distance that I need to make my flesh attack from. Okay if I'm any wider than this then I shouldn't go because when I go I'm going to fall short there. Okay so that is one way that you can help learn your flesh attack distance. All right so the next thing that we're going to talk about is fleshing with opposition. So one of the defensive tactics to stop somebody from fleshing you is to make a counterattack. So fleshing with opposition is a way that you can protect yourself from that counterattack and still make the touch. So if when I make my flesh attack if my partner if my opponent is counterattacking inside my arm okay one of the things that I can do to protect myself from that is to flesh with opposition. So when I flesh to protect myself from being counterattacked inside the arm I'm going to move my wrist over and take opposition four with my flesh. So now I'm protecting the inside of my body and scoring the touch. Okay so just so you can get an angle of that when I flesh I'm coming over to this angle and protecting that inside of my arm inside of my chest area with the flesh attack. Okay so now if my opponent likes to counterattack outside or on top of my arm outside the blade or on top of my arm when I make my flesh attack okay as you see here I would flesh with six opposition. So now my wrist is going to come up and I'm going to drop my point into the target area. Okay so this action is in particularly really good for lefties because lefties like to counterattack outside the arm like that. So just so you can get the angle of it the six opposition with the flesh is here lifting the wrist and dropping the point. Okay and the four opposition is here so moving the wrist over and scoring with the point. So another option that you can do with the flesh attack is to flesh with a disengage. Okay so a few really crucial aspects here so let's say my opponent likes to take his circle six parry when I make my flesh attack. So when I go into flesh and he takes six I'm going to keep that disengage very very small so the disengage should just be with the fingers controlling the action very small like this. Okay if you're making your disengage with your whole arm it's going to be way too big and you're going to be a lot less accurate. So it's important that when you make this flesh with the disengage you're letting your fingers and your wrist do very small disengages instead of big disengages with the whole arm. All right so if your opponent likes to make a circle six parry and you go for this disengage their point's going to be inside right so even if they don't find the parry they can extend and still hit. Okay so what I like to do with this circle six disengage is when I make my flesh and he circles moving my hands over to that four opposition so that even if he doesn't find the parry and he extends his arm I'm going to lock him out. All right so let's say my opponent likes to make a parry four when I go for my flesh attack. So for this one I'm going to drop my point down and I'm going to take the six opposition coming in. So just to take a look at those two the first one the circle six disengage my arm extends I make a small disengage with the point and I'm moving my wrist over to protect the inside of my body. Now with the four disengage okay I'm again dropping the point down but this time I'm going to lift my wrist and drop the point covering the six opposition as I go in. All right everybody that does it for this video I hope you found this information helpful and I hope it helps you improve your fencing game. If you are enjoying these videos guys make sure to like share subscribe and comment below. If you are really liking these videos and you want to help me produce more awesome fencing content for you there are a few different ways you can do that check out all the different ways you can support this channel below in the description. I really want to give a big shout out to all of my patron supporters out there you guys are the engine that drives this channel and I couldn't do without you so thank you so much for all your support. Until next time guys have fun work hard and practice