Fencing help, please

[rolanni]

What's the proper name of the move where one swordsperson engages their opponents blade, twists it and follows the thrust of said blade back to the opponent, hopefully scoring a hit?

Apologies for the not-very-coherent description; I can see the dern move in my head. Now if I could only knock what I see out one ear and paste it into my word processor...

Thanks in advance...

Comments

[erink.livejournal.com]

Okay, so you're talking real sword fighting and don't necessarily care what referees think. Sounds like fun!

I'm a great fan of a lunge attack, but it has to be a good lunge (quick, balanced, recoverable). A standard response to a lunge is to step back (also called "retreat" or "give ground") until your opponent has committed to the lunge, then take the blade and ripposte. The bind is optional, but it's how I'd feel safest in a real fight. She will likely have to step in or lunge herself to hit, unless she's going for the sword arm. Of course, if you've studied fighting in general you likely know that - if you can hit your opponent and she can't hit you, either because she has a spear and you have a sword, or because she's overextended somehow, this is a good thing. There are pictures of special infighting postures for fencing/rapier, but they're probably way too hard to describe. The two standard approaches I can think of are to draw your arm back (elbow behind chest and forearm horizontal) or the prime (elbow above your head, wrist angling toward the target). I'm not sure the prime position has much use as a ripposte in street fighting (you might need it as a parry).

I was looking for a picture of a rapier prime position and found this - it's similar, and the parent page seems like a very cool site! http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/MS39564/MS39564.htm

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Prime seems unlikely to be a good parry position, especially with a heavier sword. Specifically, I don't see a clear line to riposte in opposition from it, and it's relatively slow. I'd recommend parry 4 if they're making a straight high attack, or circle 6 if your blade is light enough. If they're doing a lower attack, circle 2 makes a good position to riposte in opposition.

Is the goal to kill them or draw first blood? Are the blades edged or point only?