This article is one of the 100+ fencing clips and descriptions available on the Foil Actions CD-ROM. This one comes from the section on Attacks.
Simple Attack:
(From “Foil Fencing Actions CD-ROM,” now on Fencing.net!) |
  |  | Attack from right. |  |  |
In this action, Fencer Right comes off the on guard line with an
advance and a lunge — and scores! This action is from the 2003 World
Championships, and both competitors can do much, much more complicated fencing.
But a straight attack was all that was needed, and the straight attack
works.
Sometimes, the simple attacks land for no good reason. When simple attacks
seem unsafe, irrational, and ill-advised, this is one of the best times to use
them — the opponent isn’t expecting it.
Then again, simple attacks are usually easy to defend against. They start too
quickly to be obscured with preparations, they finish too quickly to benefit
from deceptions. With a simple attack, what the defender sees is what the
defender gets… which is the way defenders like it.
If you’re going to attack simple, make it surprising and make it
land. Accellerate faster than the opponent can move, and hit through the
parry. The main aspect of this action is that fencer right attacked with utter
conviction and commitment. He believed in the attack, and carried it through. He
hit through the opponent’s parry.
(From the 2003 World Championships, Men’s Individual
Foil Final.)
