The last couple of months we’ve been looking at the Deceptive Fight in rapier class, however the techniques and tactics also carry over to other forms like dueling saber and smallsword.
Specifically, we’ve been building up a flow chart for the feinting branch of the Deceptive Fight.
Here’s a quick draft of what that looks like. It’s not an exhaustive list of actions, but it’s what we’ve been working with in class thus far.
It starts off with us feinting. We can do this in a few ways (direct, via cavazione/disengagement or via gaining/glide). From there our opponent has three main responses we need to be ready for:
- Parries.
- Does Nothing.
- Counter-attacks.
Ideally, when feinting, we’re trying to force our opponent to parry. If they move to parry, we move around their blade.
- Against a simple parry < perform a cavazione/disengagement in the opposite direction the opponent moves their weapon.
- Against a circular parry < perform a contracavazione/deceive (aka circular attack) in the same direction the opponent moves their weapon.
There’s also a chance they’ll do nothing — either ‘cause they don’t believe our feint or have frozen. In this case, if we’re in correct measure, we can just finish our attack. Giganti repeats this idea a lot in his book. We do need to do this right away (e.g, as soon as we finish the feint), so our opponent doesn’t have time to react.
What About Counterattacks?
The most dangerous option is our opponent counter-attacks us when we feint — either with a proper arrest or chaotically. Both Alfieri and Fabris warn folks in their books about this threat, and all of Capoferro’s feint plays have the opponent counter-attacking against the feint. In this case, we need to be prepared to deal with the incoming steel.
We have a few options to deal with the counter-attack:
- Parry & riposte in two tempos
- Parry & riposte in a single tempo (aka a time-thrust)
- Void the body (such as the giratta or passata sotto)
The parry-ripostes can be simple, circular, or yielding.
It’s always good to feint or provoke from a smidge further away than usual to see how your opponent reacts and build a plan from there. Recon their reaction, then be ready to respond next time.
For February, rapier class will continue it’s exploration of the art of deception, including working on voids and sneaky footwork.
—Justin
Head Coach
Boston Academie d’Armes
(he/him)
