Second Day My Fencing Clinic Experience

[Shelby]

OK, So on day two I was prepped with water and Tylenol prior to starting and yes I was soar.
So we covered a lot on Sunday but it was a slightly shorter day.
We spent a lot of time on ripostes and remises.
We basically practiced 4 to 5 different ways to attack.
1. Changing your attack speed.
2. Feint/Deceive.
3. Changing your line.
4. Changing the start of your attack.
5. Running away with confusing parries and then using a direct attack.
Basically we did drills using these methods. We repeated the same moves two or more times to get the opponent used to what we were doing and then we slightly or possibly dramatically changed something to catch them off guard.
This was a lot of fun and I really started to get better at my parries and feints.
Finally, we discussed Tactics and Techniques.
Basically the tactics are Thrust, Beats, Oppositions and Sweeps.
There are variations of type of each of these but these are the basics.
The basic Techniques we talked about are those found on the Tactical Wheel.
Simple Attacks --> Parry/Riposte --> Counter Attack --> Second Intentions --> Counter Time --> Feint Time --> which takes us back to the beginning again.
Again we ended with some bouting.
I felt really good about this day. Not only was I able to start applying what I learned right away and didn't feel sick. So if you have the opportunity to take a clinic with Gary Copeland I recommend you do so. It was well worth my time and money and am excited to start using what I have learned.
Thanks to New Mexico Fencing Foundation for putting on this great event.
Now I have to start getting ready for the New Mexico Open in Albuquerque on 27th & 28th. I have signed up for Women's Epee and Open Epee. Luckily I have a little time and three great coaches ( David, Bram and Jamie) to help.