Attacking While Retreating in Foil Fencing

Video Transcript

"It is possible to attack while you're retreating. It's especially useful if your opponent is closing in on you fast enough to close, to close distance too fast, while, and either while she doesn't have right-of-way, or while you have an opportunity to take right-of-way, while you're retreating. So let's take a short example of what that might look like. If I find that she's starting to close in on me quickly, and she's closing that distance between us, it's possible for me to beat an attack, or sometimes simply extend my arm, particularly if her point is off line, and claim the right-of-way and score a valid touch, even though she's advancing fast. Let's see what that looks like again. So, once again, as she's moving in on me, I, I need to deal with her blade as well, and make sure that I'm not allowing her offensive to succeed. But if I'm retreating and I have claimed the right-of-way, it's my offensive even though I'm moving backwards. So sometimes, sometimes you can see how you can employ that intentionally. Maybe make your steps smaller as your opponent closes in, to take advantage of the fact that she may feel that she's on offensive because she's moving forward, but in reality, you've claimed the right-of-way, and the touch is yours."