Foil Fencing Right of Way Scenarios

Video Transcript

"Because of right-of-way, there are certain rules that apply to counter-attacks. A counter-attack is any attack that a fencer makes before they attempt to parry. So if Siri engages, if she establishes right-of-way and begins an attack, but instead of parrying that attack, or evading that attack, I attack her in return, it's called a counter-attack. So let's set up that scenario where Siri establishes right-of-way first, she straightens her arm first, her point, her blade is on point, and comes in for an attack. She hits my arm, or in this case, she grazed off my arm, and hit real target area as I hit her target area, the right-of-way, is in this case, again mine. Because even though her target, even though her point landed here, and the target was, was prime, it did touch off target area first, so in the case of electric fencing the white light would go off before the colored light, and her touch would not count. Also, when she hit off target area, her attack officially missed, which is to say that she lost right-of-way. So the moment that her attack missed, she lost right-of-way, and my touch, which was on target and good, would have scored the touch. So, as you can see there are a lot of different scenarios where you can establish who has right-of-way, where you can argue about the finer points of who straightened their arm first, but when it comes down to it the rules are clear. Electric devices help ascertain exactly when each hits are scored but, but it really does make the game, like I said, a head game. Something where you're constantly thinking and setting up attacks, and where situations in which both fencers accidentally touch each other at the same time and score score touches just don't happen. And that's a counter-attack."