Foil Fencing & Getting Out of a Corner

Video Transcript

"If you do find yourself often getting backed into a corner, backed off the edge of the strip, there are a couple things that you can do that are pretty easy to adjust in your game. One, it's very simple, and happens right at the beginning. When your bout begins you want to attack rather than retreat. It gives you at least, that much extra distance, which is actually considerable amount of time. And also, if you're in a habit of being a defensive fencer, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can break the, the habit against an opponent that tends to push you off of the edge. So once you get a little momentum going forward, that might be a trend you could consider, and gain a little bit extra ground, so that you have time before you find yourself in that predicament. Whether it's a predicament where you have your feet off the edge of the piste, or just where you know you're close, and your game isn't what you know that it should be. Your other defense might be to be a little bit more offensive as you retreat. Even if they're not a thrust that you plan on hitting, force your opponent to parry because she's more likely to retreat, or less likely to drive you so far back. One last thought on how to defend against being pushed over the line, is if you are facing an opponent who wants to push you off the sidelines, there's one small trick you can do and that is if she has moved off to one side. If she has moved, say, there, to try to get me to follow her as I'll probably drift, and then push me off the side later. I'd follow here to access her target area. If instead, I decide, if I decided instead when she moved over there, not to follow her, I'm forcing her to fence at the diagonal which is a little bit uncomfortable. It's a little bit counterintuitive. It also puts her in the same danger she was trying to put me in, which is that she is more likely to fall backwards off of that strip and incur those penalties. So they're just little adjustments you can make. There are a lot of other creative ways to fence against different techniques but a couple that'll hopefully be useful in staying on the strip. And of course, lastly, the best thing you can do, is to stay in the middle of the strip as much as possible, so you don't run into those risks and give ground when it's necessary. But if you find yourself running to the edge too often, you're giving too much ground. You need to find places in your game to make adjustments against the opponent that is running you to the end of the strip."