Often times in fencing we focus on how to do something. This is all well and good, but often times we overlook how to counter those very things, a skill that I for one would say is even more important. There is a reason that Giganti, the greatest writer in the history of fencing, generally teaches us how to counter a technique before he shows us how to perform it.[1] You can get away with only having a couple good attacks, but you have to know how to defend against everything if you want to make it out alive.
For anyone looking at a refresher on feints, I would strongly encourage you read the following:
Giganti’s Feints: A Revelation
Now with that out of the way, let’s learn how to stop our friends from faking us out when all we want from them is a little bit of commitment.
When someone throws a feint at you there’s two things you can do with your sword and two things you can do with your feet. Well technically there’s three, but we’ll get back to that later. With your blade you can either reestablish the line you’re already on, or you can move to a new one and gain the advantage there. Depending on how you view things or what vocabulary you’re used to, reestablishing the line could be conceived as either a parry or as a counter-find (I tend to go with the latter). You might extend your blade forwards in order to push through your opponent’s guard or you might have pulled it back in order to get your forte closer to their debole, but what matters for the definition here is that your sword has stayed on its initial line. Alternatively, you can go around. Generally speaking this is going to be some sort of cavazione (disengage), but I’m not going to limit it to just that.
For your feet, things are even more straightforward. You can either move forwards, or you can move back. If you want you could add in an angled step, but at the end of the day you’re either closing distance or you’re moving away.
This leaves us with four possibilities. 1) You reassert the line (counter-find) while you advance in to the feint. 2) You reassert the line while stepping away from your opponent. 3) You go around their sword (cavazione) while moving in. 4) You go around their sword while stepping back. 1,2, and 4 all work as valid options. #3 is theoretically possible, but by moving in you inherently give yourself more of their sword to go around, making your disengage take longer. For 2 and 4, the ones where you move away, I’d add in that you’re going to want to take an extra-large step. If your reaction is to parry while taking a small to normal sized step backwards, you’ve likely done precisely what your opponent has expected and landed yourself in to their obedience. If you take an extra-large step back you’ve made it so that their next step won’t be the one that hits you and given yourself back some precious time. On the flipside, by going with option 1 you’ve now essentially stolen time from your opponent by making their disengage inherently larger.
Now that we’ve gotten the mechanics down, it’s time to look at tempo.[2] Depending on which of the two types of feints your opponent employs, one of you or the other get to dictate in what tempo the feint is performed. If they already have the line and go for the feint-direct, they are the ones who are in control of when the feint happens. It’ll generally be while you’re already moving, but if they have the line and the measure is close enough they could theoretically fire whenever they wanted to. If it’s you who has the line and they’re forced to go with the feint-disengage (feinting by performing a disengage), then it’s you who controls the tempo. More than likely they’re going to wait to fire until you move to step towards them. Now you never know which step it is they’re going to fire down, but if they wait too long you should have already run them down thus providing a convenient solution to their indecision.
Finally we return the option I have intentionally chose not to mention until now as it muddies the waters a bit. This is something we see often suggested in the Anonimo Bolognese.[3] Generally when an opponent feints a blow at us, his suggestion? Just ignore it.
Now I would note that this last option only works when they throw a bad feint. You can try and seize the opportunity and attempt to strike your opponent in contratempo, but generally speaking I just end up saving my energy for when it really matters. Just remember, if their “feint” isn’t a threat, no reason to pay it any attention. That and just straight up ignoring your opponent’s antics is just a sweet power move.
Anyhow, clear things up for anyone who might have found themselves mystified by the whole topic. If you have any additional thoughts on how to get students comfortable with countering feints, feel free to drop them below.
[1] Giganti, plates 2-7.
[2] See what I did there?
[3] Anonimo Bolognese, page 197.
Fool of Swords 