Saber Fencing Tactics - Distance Trap & Attack In Preparation

What's up everybody I'm coach Tyler with Fencers Edge and today we are going to be going over a distance trap for saber fencing. Now I'm going to be going over a few actions and how these actions all play off of each other and how you can use them to be really effective in your saber fencing. Now all of these actions happen right off the start right when the referee says fence and don't really travel up and down the strip. It's all done what I call in the box in between the two on guard lines. So all of these actions that I'm about to show you today are built off of having a really good and solid direct attack off the line. So right when the referee says fence you have a really clean and solid and fast direct attack off the line. This is crucial this is what's going to build on the traps that I'm going to show you later on. So let's take a look at this first direct attack and here we go. Okay so let's watch that one more time in slow motion. All right now this touch here is a simultaneous touch but I want to talk to you about what makes a really good direct attack off the line. So number one if you notice my feet on the fence are on the right here. If you notice I'm not taking a really big step. So taking a nice medium step almost just to where your heel is coming past the on guard line not by a whole lot. So when you overreach with your step in saber fencing off the line it can make your arm pump, it can make your action slower and less accurate. So having that first step with the front foot be nice and medium size step. All right now the second and probably the most crucial part of having a nice clean direct attack off the line is not pumping with your arm. If you notice here my arm starts moving forward with my advance and then it accelerates at the time of my lunge. Okay so my arm is accelerating out right when I'm starting that lunge. This is what the referee is looking for. They're looking to see whose arm initiates that final attack first. Okay so that covers it for this first action and like I said this direct attack is going to be crucial for building the traps later on. So let's take a look at one of the traps next. All right so the first distance trap plays off of that first direct attack. So in the first touch I showed you I made a really fast direct attack and now instead of making that fast direct attack I'm actually going to stop and make my opponent fall short with their attack so I can repose. Let's take a look. All right let's watch it one more time in slow motion. All right now there's a few crucial things to being able to pull somebody short off the line. Number one is you want your first step to look just like your direct attack. So if you notice here my first step covers the same distance. It's the same speed. It looks almost identical to my first attack. Now I am stepping up with the back foot here and then instead of lunging here I'm actually going to take a step and sit down on my front leg and then push back so that my attacks my opponent's attack falls short. Okay now a few crucial things to point out here. Number one when I make that step and I go to pull distance I'm pulling my hand back and out of the way. This is really crucial if you leave your hand out it allows your opponent to possibly hit your hand on their way down through their cut. So pulling that hand back is a crucial aspect of pulling short. So again that step instead of the lunge is really crucial and you'll have to judge your opponent and feel out in the beginning of the bout how long their lunge is so you can get an idea of where you want to stop. Okay now if I stop too early like let's say I stop here my opponent can see me stopping and they'll just continue to press and hit but because I am continuing in and taking a medium-sized step there with my front foot after my first advance that makes my opponent feel like they can hit and it makes it look like I'm making my direct attack. So here I do a really good job of pulling them short so I can just land with an immediate repose. Okay we're going to go over some touches next of what to do if you don't do a good job pulling the distance like let's say you pull the distance too much and how to respond to that. Okay so sometimes when you pull your opponent short you're going to make them miss by a lot so the distance is going to be off and you're not going to be able to give an immediate repose. So here's an example of your opponent falling short but the distance is too wide for you to make a direct repose you need to slow your repose down and build an attack. So here I make my opponent miss but the distance is really wide afterwards if I went for a direct repose right now I wouldn't be able to reach him so I slow my attack down build an attack wait for the right moment and land my repose. All right so sometimes if you go for the distance parry you're not going to be able to just stop and pull your opponent short you may have to do some additional backing up after that stop especially if your opponent doesn't lunge right when you want them to. So you have to be ready to have a backup plan and pull distance even more if that first trap doesn't work. Let's take a look. All right so here I go for the distance trap I make my advance and my fake uh my fake attack to try and get him to finish but he doesn't finish now so I have to continue to back up continue to pull the distance using a crossover here to get out of the way again the really crucial part is getting that hand back and out of the way so your opponent doesn't accidentally hit your hand and because I pulled him short by so much I have to slow down my repose and build an attack after that. All right so if your distance trap fails meaning they don't go for your opponent doesn't go for a fast direct attack you need to be aware and have a backup plan in case they continue to All right so here my opponent doesn't fall for my distance trap I go to fake and he continues his attack so now I am stuck he is close enough to hit me but I am able to come back and make a parry. Now it's really important that if your distance trap fails you don't just stop right there and let your opponent chase you down and hit you you need to keep moving the feet so you can stay alive and continue to win the touch. Okay so let's talk about the next action this is the next trick and all these tricks play off of each other so in the previous touch I just got done pulling my opponent short now if you are fencing a fencer who has a little bit of brains to him once you pull them short once or twice in the bout they're gonna hold their attack and press maybe a little bit deeper to make sure that they're not being pulled short off of that first attack so that's when the next trap comes in handy the next trap is attacking in preparation so you're getting your opponent to hold their attack a little bit longer and you're going to attack in preparation and catch them in preparation so let's take a look at this touch. All right so here I the previous touch I pulled my opponent short so this time my opponent goes for a much bigger attack holding his arm back a little bit longer and I am launching my attack in preparation so now what I am doing for this attack is really crucial I'm starting off slow and then I really accelerate and lead with my hand and with my point to catch him in preparation if you notice here my arm is already fully extended and his arm is still holding back that's what the referee is looking for when they're calling attack in preparation. All right so there's some things that you can do to make your opponent really hold their attack and one of the things you can do is fake like you are going to pull distance and then catch them in preparation so that's what I'm doing here let's take a look at it and then I'll break it down. All right so if you notice here we'll watch it one more time in slow motion. All right so if you notice here with my attack I take a little tiny hesitation so I take my first advance and here's my hesitation it's very very small and I'm kind of standing up higher as if I'm trying to pull distance and if you notice that my weight is more on my back leg here which makes me look more like I'm trying to back out of the way and make him fall short so my opponent sees this and reads like I'm trying to pull him short so he extends his attack pulling his arm back allowing me to change and catch him in preparation so I pause a little bit and then accelerate leading with the point being able to catch him in preparation. Now this one is really clear it's one light I time him out before he can even finish so making that fake that fake distance trap and then changing it to a direct attack and catching my opponent in preparation. All right so here's another example of the fake distance and then attack in preparation. All right so you've got your direct attack you've got your distance trap and you've got your attack in preparation. Now you can also take that one step further and fake the attack in preparation to make your distance parry more effective so once your opponent learns that you are attacking and catching them in preparation now you can fake that action to make your distance parry more effective so here it is. All right so here if you watch I am starting slow like I'm going for distance and then I do a little fake attack like I'm going for a preparation attack in preparation which gets my opponent to stop search for the blade and allows me to take over with an attack of my own. All right everybody that does it for this video I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it helps improve your fencing game and as always please remember to like share subscribe and comment below and if you have any questions please put them in the comments below I'll be happy to answer them until next time everybody have fun work hard and practice