Quick Report on Things

The first Thing did not work so well. This is because a false-edge cut on their blade with an effective amounts of force is super hard to perform if they are thrusting or stationary. Maybe this would work better with a full-circle cut, rather than a half-circle cut. Maybe this is a lost cause for the situation I'm trying to apply it to. It requires such a hard body-void to make things work.

The second Thing I did not end up trying very much. It made many situations feel much more dangerous, which was not great. I would need to perform so much more geometry to use this that I am electing to not mess with it for now. It would essentially be a new style, centering around rotating from the wrist around the point of balance of one's blade. And while it seems like an interesting style that I have already learned elementary bits of, I'm not ready to commit to it yet.

The third Thing has promise. I feel as though it might be better with the more German-ish thumb-on-the-ricasso grip, rather than my standard Rada-esque index-finger-on-the-side-of-the-ricasso grip. That would involve learning to use the fullness of the thumb-on-ricasso grip, which can be a long-term goal, but not a short-term one. Despite the fact that technically Rada uses the thumb-on-ricasso grip as well. Hm.

Perhaps placing my flat or false edge toward my opponent's blade would be easier on my wrist? One of the problems is that it feels weak against my opponent's blade. In retrospect, though, I'm not sure that actually caused any real problems for my opposition. I think that this is a thing which deserves more study, so I should spend serious time fighitng in this guard in practice, and then flow-charting out possible responses and possible good choices for my opponent in response to this.

As well, I did some good work in working through a couple of situations that were gnawing at the back of my brain.

The response I came up with against sword-first dagger-back guard seemed to work well, with the caveat that it is absolutely vital that I not initiate the action if my sword is farther toward their guard than about 5/8 of the way down their blade. This is different from my normal ideal zone of opposition - here, I want to take opposition about 5/8 of the way down their blade to about 1/8 of the way down their blade.

The action is a passing diagonal step to the left, at the same time taking their blade in the specified area and using the natural rotation of my body from the passing step to interpose my dagger such that a disengage or thrust to my flank is impossible. If I gain opposition any farther back, then it seems possible for them to lever my blade out of the way and thrust. If I do oppose correctly, their only option is a two-tempo parry-riposte, which I should be able to move my dagger to catch in time, leaving my sword at liberty.

Much thanks to the unnamed fencer who helped me sort this out.

The confusing situation which happened a few weeks ago, in which my hilt-first disengage completely did not do the defensive things that it should have done, and also completely jacked an unnamed fencer in the ribs, has been solved. The issue was that my opponent threw a thrust in prima. which meant that my push toward his hilt completely missed. Additionally, I did not perform the appropriate oblique left-foot step that this action should require. I think that a diagonal rightward lunge would also have worked, but we were in too close quarters to do that.

I need to make sure that I perform my footwork in fighting exactly how I perform it in my at-home drilling. Because at home, I do that step all the time. In combat, it's hard to do that step unless your opponent is coming in on you.

Additionally, I'm not sure that pushing my hilt toward their sword is always the best option. I believe that the straight-upward raise blocks off actions in prima far more effectively. It also restricts their sword to the half of my body which is far away, meaning that it is much more likely that my dagger can pick them up. I need to think Very Hard about this, because that hilt-first disengage is one of my bread-and-butter techniques in tournaments.