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Title
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How to Compete in a Foil Competition (2)
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Date
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April 1939
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volume
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4
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issue
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3
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4
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6
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content
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en
HOW TO COMPETE IN A FOIL COMPETITION (2)
Having dealt in the first part of this essay with the physical, nervous, and mental conditioning necessary for good competitive results, we are now ready for more specific suggestions pertaining to competition technique.
We must assume now that we have entered a competition with the required "will to win" and are ready to match our skill and acumen with that of our opponents. Since skill is not all that is necessary to win a competition, we must give some thought to planning our campaign. We are now a one-man army if it is an individual competition, or one of a three-man army if it is a team competition, and few battles have been won without the use of campaign strategy.
There is a certain amount of nervous tension in connection with every competition. There is also the natural physical strain which every fencer undergoes. It is therefore advisable to find a seat in a quiet corner between bouts and learn to relax to compensate for these strains. This is not always possible, for many competitions require the assistance of the competitors for directing and judging. You should render these services willingly as one of the duties contingent upon you, but if you find yourself being used constantly for this purpose while others are consistently free from such additional duties, plead your cause with the Bout Committee and request that such work be evenly divided.
When off the strip, rest your eyes by avoiding the bright lights or by not facing daylight windows. Put on a dressing gown or coat after each bout to keep yourself warm. If thirsty, take drinks frequently but not too much at one time.
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Individual Competition
First, we must estimate the total number of bouts we may have to fence. Will it be a long or a short competition? How many pools would we, if we became a Finalist, have to survive? How many bouts would each Finalist have to fence? Ten competition bouts is a good day’s work. If eight or fewer bouts are all that would be necessary, you should be able to survive these without extra planning. If ten or more bouts are necessary, then you should plan to conserve your energy as much as possible.
Most individual competitions are run in a series of pools with approximately half the men from each pool advancing into the next round. Review your pool before you begin fencing. Find out what men will be in the pool with you and how many will be qualified into the second round. Let us say the pool consists of seven men with four to qualify. That means a maximum of six bouts with the necessity of winning at least three bouts to qualify. Even this may not be enough if the top men are closely bunched, so you must try to win four bouts to be sure.
There are not so many fencers in the United States that all the men in your pool would be strangers to you. You should be able to say to yourself, "I can beat Doe, Smith, Wood, and Brown; the others will be tougher." These are the men upon whom you must concentrate. You cannot afford to go at them as if the result were an assured thing, for should you lose to one of these, you would have to defeat one of the stronger fencers to make up for the loss. To fool away a sure bout is often very costly. Also, in this preliminary pool, you must be careful about touches made against you, for a tie for qualification will be decided on points, and each point may have a golden value later on.
If one of the stronger fencers in your pool has you 4-0 or 4-1 and the cause appears hopeless, do not wear yourself out trying to win against such short odds. If this is the last bout in your pool and you must win it to survive, then of course you have no alternative but to fight on with everything you’ve got. But if there are other bouts to come which might serve to qualify you, save yourself as much as possible and be that much fresher for the next bout, which will start off 0-0 with an even break for victory.
These same tactics apply in the Semifinal pool. It is only the Finals in which every bout counts. Save yourself for these as much as possible, by using your head in the earlier rounds. In the Finals, every bout and even every touch is very important. It is here that you must fence "all out" all the time. You will need all your strength and stamina and be glad of any hoarding of these items that you may have been able to accomplish in riding through the earlier pools.
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Bout Planning
The art of fence or fencing, as it is called, is a combination of the art of offense and defense. Every fencer must have ability in each of these. However, you can generally note that any particular fencer is better at one than the other. His game is built around his stronger point. Therefore, it is important that you watch the other fencers during their bouts and determine in advance which are the defensive and which are the offensive fencers. You must plan your play accordingly, inviting the attack from the defensive fencers and assuming the attack yourself against the strong attacking type of opponent.
A defensive fencer often takes a stance well set and then proceeds to await your attack. To do so may be suicidal. You must nurse him into an offensive action. For instance, retreat so far from him that he has to advance. This forward motion of his sometimes suggests an attack to him, and your ruse will have worked. If not, appear relaxed and invite him through apparent defenselessness on your part. If that doesn’t work, press him back to the end of the strip. Make him conscious of that back line. Man or mouse will attack when backed up to a wall.
Beware of analyzing an opponent too quickly. A man may make many attacks and still be primarily a defensive fencer. Always note the "will" of an attack. Was it intended as a real attack or a false attack? Many defensive fencers use false attacks to make an opponent parry and riposte or stop thrust upon which their defensive intentions come quickly into play, and they counter riposte or, in the case of a stop thrust, parry and riposte. These attacks with secondary intent should be interpreted really as defensive actions since they depend for their success upon baiting the opponent into coming to them.
If you must attack a strong defensive fencer, make sure of your time and attack hard so that he must parry effectively before his intended riposte. Either that or a very light false attack which leaves you ready to parry a riposte or free to jump back to the neutral position with parries covering your retreat.
A defensive fencer usually has his parry planned ahead of time. By watching a fencer, you may spot this parry in advance. In this case, do not enter the line which he wants you to or do so with as strong an intent to deceive that parry as he has to make it. If you can do so, it pays to delay a man by going through his pet parry. He is psychologically at a loss through the failure of his best defense and begins to doubt his invulnerability.
The fact that most fencers have a pet parry is something that can be used against them. It is twice as easy to plan an attack when you know which parry the opponent will use. Once you know that parry, you can depend upon its use almost certainly under two conditions: at the start of a bout and in a "pinch." Let us say that an opponent favors a counter of quarte. You go on the strip together, and the bout begins. He will use a counter of quarte against your first attack because he feels safest with that parry and needs that feeling of safety until he gets well started. If you make an immediate attack, doubling through his counter of quarte with speed, confidence, and authority, you should have a 1-0 advantage within the first few seconds of the bout. Later on, let us say you are successful in reaching a score of 4 against him. He is on the spot to defend himself successfully against another touch from you. What is more natural than that he should depend upon his best parry for this defense? Pick the proper time and then end the bout with a double through his old favorite counter of quarte.
A good fencer mixes his parries unconsciously. However, good fencers are much rarer than the layman thinks. The majority of fencers work in fairly determinable grooves and have standard sets of reactions. Here is one modus operandi, based upon this fact, that often results in touches: Make a fast feint with every appearance of attacking. Note the reaction of your opponent. Go back on guard and immediately make an attack deceiving the reaction the opponent has just indicated. Nine out of ten times his reaction will be the same the second time.
Here is another use of the same principle. Strange to say, it takes a great deal of experience before this simple ruse ever dawns upon the average fencer. Let us say that you have been fortunate to gain a 4-0 or 4-1 lead over your opponent, and yet that 5th touch is proving very difficult. The competition may be a long one, and you cannot afford to tire yourself out against this one stubbornly aroused opponent. Why not give a touch to make a touch? You disengage and lunge out with the casualness of a Sunday afternoon stroll and naturally get hit with a riposte. Your opponent thinks, "Boy, that was easy! This fellow isn’t untouchable. A few more like that, and I’ll be out of this tough spot." Now give him another that looks just the same. You’ll see him rise to the bait like a hungry trout. Furthermore, he’ll rise the same as before. He’ll hardly believe that it’s true. It isn’t. You are set for that riposte, and he won’t be set for your counter riposte, which should have everything behind it, including thanks. The bout will be over.
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College Competition
Certain tricks will work against some and not against others. You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. A senior A.F.L.A. fencer will not react the same as a college fencer and vice versa. In the first place, their reactions, sense of timing, or tempos are different. An entire article should someday be written on this subject of differences between a good collegian and a good national competitor. Here, however, I shall endeavor to point out only a few tricks useful in college competition or against college fencers.
When I was in college, our college team watched very carefully for the pet parries of our opponents. The use of favorite parries is more pronounced in college fencing than in A.F.L.A. competition. None of our foilsmen went upon the strip without knowing what his first attack would be. He was also supposed to repeat it as long as possible until he saw that his opponent had finally decided to use another parry.
College fencers are, for the most part, poor at timing. They plan to attack and do so regardless of whether the opponent is set for it or not. Those were the days of Sabatini’s novel Scaramouche, in which the hero told of counting to five and attacking "all out" at the "five." It worked many times as a good substitute for the sense of timing which we had not yet developed. It at least relieved us of tension during the count, enabled us to put everything into our attack when it came due, and carried the surprise element of suddenness. I suggest that boys who are not sure of their timing try the Scaramouche method of counting to three or five.
We also found that if an opponent made a beat attack against one of us, and he turned right around and made a beat attack in reply, he could quite often make a point. We tried to use the same attack against an opponent that he had just made against us. Why it succeeded, I do not know unless it is that the opponent used a gambit which he thought he would dislike having used against him. Perhaps success lay in the fact that any firm idea quickly executed had a better chance of success than no idea at all. College fencers are generally fairly new to the sport. They lack the experience to know what to do next. This plan at least gave us something definite to work upon, and I pass it along as a hint which may help.
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Don’ts
Never change a winning game. How many times have you seen a fencer lead at 4-0 or 4-1 and then lose the bout? Very probably he changed his game. He had made four touches with attacks and then went back on the defensive to make his 5th touch with a riposte, not daring to attack any longer. Or he may have made his touches on the defensive and then, at 4-0, taken up the attack to finish off the bout. If you find that a certain thing works well against an opponent, stick to it until it fails to work. When it fails to work, it is no longer a winning game, and you can change. But until this happens, never change.
Never expect an opponent to step off the end of the strip. In fifteen years of fencing, I can remember making only one touch from an opponent’s stepping off the back of the strip. Remember that your opponent is hard-pressed when his foot is on the back line, but also remember that he will not step off. He’ll bite back every chance he gets and is extremely dangerous. Back him up to the limit if you can, but actually be more on the defensive than on the attacking when you get him there. He almost has to attack, so be set for him and not go feinting in with only offensive tactics in mind.
Never underestimate an opponent. No man ever entered a competition on the basis of his good looks or his money. He entered for the same reason you did, because he can fence and because he would like to win. He has something to warrant his confidence in himself, and that something may be just enough to upset you if you face him feeling superior. You may have beaten him in every previous encounter, which is all the more reason to watch your step, for he values a victory over you more highly than you value another victory over him.
Never overestimate an opponent. Just because your opponent may have a big name, wear an Olympic shield on his arm, or have beaten you badly in your last encounter, don’t let that phase you. You must be careful, yes, but you must also do your best without apologies. You will never go far if you just look forward to your easy bouts. It is the tough bouts which you should anticipate with pleasure, for there you measure yourself against men whose speed, coordination, skill, and experience you aspire to yourself. Try your best to beat them, to forget their records, and concentrate upon them in the present. Every fencer has his off days, and your great moment may have arrived. There is no thrill sweeter than being on the right side of an upset.
(The next and concluding article in this foil series will deal with team competition and general considerations.)
