Parrying Forte to Foible

Video Transcript

"The last important point to remember when parry with the strong part of the blade. That will help you keep your movements small because you won't have to put as much effort into them and it will make sure that your parries are effective so in reviewing the parts of the blade this is called the fort and it is the strongest part of the blade. Up here at the foible, the blade is very weak and you don't have a lot of control over what happens there. You want to make sure that your parries are performed with the contact of the other person's blade meeting this part of your blade. Let's demonstrate that. Again with a really simple forward thrust then parry. I am parrying here with the strong part of my blade to her foible or a little bit of the middle of the blade which is why my parry is effective. This is why I don't have to use my whole arm or my wrist a whole lot I can actually do my parry with the simple part of my fingers. Let's try that one more time correctly. You can see how moving my arm back helps me keep my parry strong and me keep the fort to be the part I am parrying with and you can also see how a retreat might help me insure that it is the fort that hits her foible. Let's see what would happen if I would try to parry with a different part of my blade. So if Syria comes in and I try to parry and I hit too low, I am actually putting a lot of strain on my arm right now and she could if she wanted thrust right through so once again if I parry incorrectly she would push my blade right out of the way. She is still on line. It is not an adequate parry so it doesn't count, it doesn't re-establish right away for me and also most likely she is going to complete that execution and she will score the touch so again always parry your fort to your opponent's foible and your parry will be strong enough to deflect their blade."