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Basic defense tips

Today we expound upon the basic concepts of
the defense. As mentioned in earlier lessons,One of the primary facets to controlling a
there are three areas to defense. The parry,bout, and thus your defense, is to control
the displacement of target and the counterfrom where your opponent's attacks come. As
attack. All three work together to form athe blade is the only thing allowed to block
sound defense, however we must examine eachan attack, and competition fencing allows for
independently.only one blade, it is impossible to defended
every area on your body at once. Many
The parry is the act of using the blade tostarting fencers have the tendency to hold
deflect an opponents attack. Pretty simplythe On Guard sword dead center of their body,
concept, however your opponent is doingmaintaining the logic that each area is
everything to bypass your parry and land thepartially covered and the blade could be
point. A good parry requires preparation,quickly moved to either side to parry an
alertness,  speed  and  form.attack. Sound logic, but strategically
faulty. When coming to On Guard, choose a
If  any  one is lacking, the parry will fail."line"  from  which  to  defend.
As we recall, there are 9, and often moreWhen coming On Guard "into line", choose a
depending on style, parries from which tostance of either line 6 (which is basically
choose. Different parries serve differentOn Guard while holding a parry 6) or of line
functions depending on the attack from which4 (stance holding parry 4.) This completely
you are defending, and where the defenderprotects one side of the body, leaving the
wishes to go with the offense. In competitiveother side completely open. Thus you have
fencing, there are four basic parries toactually reduced the possible approaches for
begin  studying.attacks  by  50%.
Other  parries  are variations of these four.When holding an On Guard in the center, you
have all four quadrants partially open. An
Remember, the target area of a fencer isattack could come into any one of these
divided into four regions labeled, cleverlyquadrants. By holding a "line of 6" for
enough, Quadrant 1, Quadrant 2, Quadrant 3instance, the right side of the body is
and Quadrant 4. Quad 1 is the top right areaclosed, leaving openings only to the left.
of the target area covering the right side ofYou now know where your opponent will have to
the chest and the right shoulder. Quad 2 isbegin an assault and allows you to prepare a
the top left, quad 3 is the lower leftstrategy for responding to the two possible
covering the left side of the stomach andattacks, as opposed to four. The On Guard
left hip and quad 4 is the lower right. Eachline can be based off any of the parries,
of the parries roughly corresponds to thehowever be sure to choose one from which your
four quadrants, however due to theexperience makes you competent to reply to
conventions of fencing, the numbers of thethe  assault.
parries do not correspond to the quadrant
labels.The parry itself is a difficult talent to
cultivate. When executed improperly it can
The first parry is parry 6. Parry 6 isfail to protect as well as open you for
realistically the natural On Guard position.further attacks. The goal of the parry is to
It is intended to cover the upper, rightblock an attacking blade completely, while
quadrant (Quad 1) and part of Quad 4. Theutilizing the smallest movement possible.
parry is held with the blade pointing at yourDefining the amount of this movement is the
opponent's eyes, the arm held at thechallenge. If the parry is too small, the
comfortable 90 degree angle at the elbow,attacking blade will not be moved far enough
with the bell of the sword at about waistout of line to keep the point from landing on
level. The length of the blade is held inthe target area. This is known as a failed or
such a manner that it forms a "wall"false parry. If the movement is to large, the
protecting the right, upper side of the bodyattacking blade will miss the target area,
and part of the right belly. Were an opponenthowever the defending blade will now be so
thrust to the right side of your chest, forfar out of line that it is difficult to parry
example, their attack would encounter youra continuation of the attack (a remise') to a
blade and the thrust would slide harmlesslydifferent  line.
past your right shoulder, missing the target
area. Although, the bell and the third of theFor example, a fencer attacks to the upper,
blade closest to the bell (called theright quadrant (quadrant 1.) The defender
forte'), is intended to take the weight ofmoves to a parry six, however instead of
the parry, the entire blade often comes intokeeping the blade close to the body, he/she
play.straightens his/her arm and pushes the
attacking blade two feet to the right. The
Parry four, the next parry, is nearlyattack is strongly thwarted, however the
identical to 6, however the sword arm crossesoriginal attacker then disengages underneath
the body such that the left side of the bodythe defending blade (see lesson 2, the
is defended. The blade is still pointing atattack) and mounts a remise' to the upper
the eyes of the opponent and the bell of theleft quadrant (quadrant 2.) Now, the
foil is still at waist level. This createsdefending blade is way off to the right and
the wall to the left, protecting quadrant 2before it can be brought all the way across
and parts of quad 3. Although the upperthe body to a parry 4 (probably three, three
parries partially defend the lower quadrants,and a half feet) the attack has plenty of
the following lower parries are designed totime to land the point. This is an example of
protect these quadrants from direct attack.parrying too far out of line and is exactly
Parry 7 is nearly identical to parry 6 exceptwhat we hope to induce with a feint.
the blade's point is simply dropped slightlyConversely, if the defender was to make the
below the waist to create a shield for theparry too small, the parry would have made
lower areas. Parry 7 protects the right,contact with the attacking blade however the
lower side of the body and the tip should beattacking blade would not have been moved far
pointing to your opponent's hip or thigh.enough out of line and would still have
Parry eight is a parry four, with the pointlanded  in  quad  1.
dropped  in  the  same  manner.
Perfecting the parry is a lifelong endeavor
There are of course innumerable variations ofand one will, as one advances through the
these parries, which will be pursued in laterranks of fencing, develop more skill, timing,
lessons.precision and variation on the different
defined parries. In future lessons we will
Now, let's discuss the parry itself. Asexpound on the defense examining displacement
mentioned, parry six is the natural On Guardof the target, the counter attack and
stance.  This  is  not  coincidental.combinations of the three.



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