I've been fencing since the 90's (epee to hema) and this is the first time I've heard of "doubling distance". never considered doubling as a factor of distance over bladework or technique. thank you Daniel. I think this bit of info alone is going to improve my fencing/coaching by orders of magnitude. maybe even a metric Neil. although I prefer to measure in imperial Neils.
Thank you Daniel, very educational! I feel one aspect is not covered in this video which bothers me a lot: imagin I do a perfect provocation from a good measure, opponent reacts, I use it to score but then comes an afterblow. For me it is the most frustrating. How do we avoid it? What are the techiques targeting HEMA sparrings?
Good point. The afterblow is often difficult to avoid. If your opponent is prone to do afterblows, I usually find that attacking the arms instead of the body to be helpful (firstly because it discourages their attack, but also because you can do it while moving to a safer distance). For attacks on deep targets it's worth using attacks with strong opposition as well as offline movement (depending on the style)- a provocation using a thrust, for example, followed by a cut around with a zwerch to their upper right opening, then moving quickly away. In the end, it's always going to be difficult to avoid a really quick afterblow :D
@@DanielPopeScholarVictoria Thanks, I will try to focus hands/arms next time. As for the moving sideways, I tested it quite a lot and find it not very effective for me: it is too slow (consider sideway acceleration of my 95+ kg against weapon movement + rotation of the opponent). It also very quickly eats through stamina :) Strong opposition is what I typically try to do, but it has an intrinsic problem I still cannot solve: if you tend to commit to strong opposition and this is spotted by the opponent, it is relatively easy for them to put in an afterblow by kind of sacrifing themself first (like doing an intentional double hit in epee fencing). One extra factor is that we fight with plastic longswords (1 kg) which makes easier to do fast afterblows in comparison with steel weapons. Do you have more thoughts to share?
@@andrmoro8430 the side-ways movement is more about angling off to the side from the outset - for example launching a thrust from a low guard, angle off so you're going past the opponent's right shoulder, and as they parry your thrust (or you land it) zwerch around to their right side and then continue moving past them. The intentional double hit is a difficult problem - the only response to people who do that is to refuse to attack, and just feint until an opportunity appears then tag their arms - suicidal fencers are not the ones to use the prestige techniques on ;-)
Silver covers pretty much all this. I'd have a few quibbles on your 'no mans land' but one of those things you need to be in the same room to discuss well.
I've been fencing since the 90's (epee to hema) and this is the first time I've heard of "doubling distance". never considered doubling as a factor of distance over bladework or technique. thank you Daniel. I think this bit of info alone is going to improve my fencing/coaching by orders of magnitude. maybe even a metric Neil. although I prefer to measure in imperial Neils.
Glad you got something out of it! I'll even allow the use of Imperial Neils for measurement :D
thank you for verbalizing what I have been following for years.
Thanks - glad you liked the video :)
teaching my first class in a few days...best explanation on youtube of these concepts
Best explanation so far, thanks!
Great video about the European take on maai (間合い), amongst other things!
Fantastic breakdown, especially at 19:10 with the rapid examples of transitions to maintain attack
It is a wonderful video, I am very grateful that you share this type of videos, how you integrate all the concepts is really revealing
Thanks. I'm glad you found it useful :)
I'm still learning but this is a great breakdown of the importance of distance management, thanks!
One metric Niel is a handy measurement tool
Thank you!!!!
Thank you Daniel, very educational! I feel one aspect is not covered in this video which bothers me a lot: imagin I do a perfect provocation from a good measure, opponent reacts, I use it to score but then comes an afterblow. For me it is the most frustrating. How do we avoid it? What are the techiques targeting HEMA sparrings?
Good point.
The afterblow is often difficult to avoid. If your opponent is prone to do afterblows, I usually find that attacking the arms instead of the body to be helpful (firstly because it discourages their attack, but also because you can do it while moving to a safer distance).
For attacks on deep targets it's worth using attacks with strong opposition as well as offline movement (depending on the style)- a provocation using a thrust, for example, followed by a cut around with a zwerch to their upper right opening, then moving quickly away.
In the end, it's always going to be difficult to avoid a really quick afterblow :D
@@DanielPopeScholarVictoria Thanks, I will try to focus hands/arms next time. As for the moving sideways, I tested it quite a lot and find it not very effective for me: it is too slow (consider sideway acceleration of my 95+ kg against weapon movement + rotation of the opponent). It also very quickly eats through stamina :) Strong opposition is what I typically try to do, but it has an intrinsic problem I still cannot solve: if you tend to commit to strong opposition and this is spotted by the opponent, it is relatively easy for them to put in an afterblow by kind of sacrifing themself first (like doing an intentional double hit in epee fencing). One extra factor is that we fight with plastic longswords (1 kg) which makes easier to do fast afterblows in comparison with steel weapons. Do you have more thoughts to share?
@@andrmoro8430 the side-ways movement is more about angling off to the side from the outset - for example launching a thrust from a low guard, angle off so you're going past the opponent's right shoulder, and as they parry your thrust (or you land it) zwerch around to their right side and then continue moving past them.
The intentional double hit is a difficult problem - the only response to people who do that is to refuse to attack, and just feint until an opportunity appears then tag their arms - suicidal fencers are not the ones to use the prestige techniques on ;-)
@@DanielPopeScholarVictoria haha good point ;)
Out of measure, perfect measure, within measure, and close measure.
Good stuff
doubling distance.... yes ... and no. Again... I need to be in the same room.... so annoying :-)
Where do those pollaxes come from...?
Silver covers pretty much all this. I'd have a few quibbles on your 'no mans land' but one of those things you need to be in the same room to discuss well.