Tactical vs. Offensive Foil Fencing

Video Transcript

"So generally, when you are fencing you are attacking while you're advancing, you're parrying while you're retreating, but that isn't the only way to go. There are a couple things you can do while you retreat that are really valuable, whether they're tactical maneuvers or offensive maneuvers. First let's try, let's talk about tactical. If I retreat, I'm not just giving ground, I'm probably eliciting some sort of reaction from my opponent. So I want to watch my opponent, watch her body language, and watch her blade, and see what it is she does when I retreat. So the first time I'm fencing an opponent, even while I'm watching someone else fence an opponent, I want to watch her carefully and see what that reaction is, so I can take advantage of it the next time I retreat. Okay, let's see what this looks like in action. So if, in a bout, Siri were to retreat, just to see what I would do, if she's thinking about it, she's not just giving up ground. Most likely, I have some reaction. I'll probably follow her retreat, but not always. I might follow her retreat with a fast and furious attack, and I might relax a bit, especially if we've just been engaged in a lot of back and forth. If she notices a tendency in me to relax, whether that's a dropping of my guard, even a slight one, or relaxing of my muscles, a bending of my arm, she'd make a mental note of that. So that the next time Siri retreated, she'd most likely want to follow that with a really fast attack, taking advantage of my tendency to relax when she retreats. Which would go something like that. So you can use, you can use a retreat as a way to gather information, you can use it as part of your strategy. You can also use a retreat as part of your offensive, and we'll talk about that next."