Columbia Classical Fencing, LLC

Here’s a review from last Thursday.  It is divided into Advanced and Beginners.  (I’ll generally keep this division in the future.)

Advanced

Recently, we have studied the intercepting parry to an attempted bind.  Last Thursday, we studied another response:  the ceding parry (la parade en cédant).  This parry is a very flowing, nonresisting sort of parry:  when your opponent takes your blade, you do not resist or press back.  Instead, you bend your elbow guide and, sticking to his blade, bring your forte around his blade—returning to tierce or quarte, as the case may be—and direct the incoming blade away from your body. As always, timing is crucial here.

This week we’re going to tighten up some of our binds.  In focusing on the response, people seem to have been getting loose with le liement.  And, if there’s enough progress, we’ll add a pressure to induce our opponent to step into measure with a straight arm and then bind that straight arm.

Beginners

We are learning the simple attacks.  CCF’s simple attacks are:

1. the straight thrust (le coup droit)
2. the disengage (le dégagé:  related to this is the counter-disengage, or contre-dégagement)
3. the cut-over (le coupé)
4. the glide (le glissade, le coulé)

They are “simple” because they take one “fencing time” to execute.  Others have suggested that they are simple because they are not preceded by a feint.  In either case, you get the idea.  To successfully land a simple attack, it is necessary—but not sufficient—that you be within measure.  Both proper measure and timing are required.