The Tactical Wheel is really a advancement of actions popular to teach tactics to fencers. Nevertheless, there are significant issues in the use of the wheel in all three weapons, as a previous article of mine pointed out, it can are designed to get fencers contemplating how to pick the best tactic on the proper time gain a little. But exactly how does a teacher get the beginning or intermediate fencer to comprehend the relationships within this tool? One approach I’ve used successfully is a modification with the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Step one is to make sure your fencers understand the elements within the wheel. As a standard section of our warm-up we recite the wheel aloud like a group. I want my fencers to understand the flow of straightforward attack, defeated from the parry and riposte, deceived from the compound attack, intercepted from the stop hit, and as a result defeated from the simple attack.
The 2nd step would be to assign numbers of fingers to each and every action: 1 for easy attack, 2 for parry-riposte, 3 for compound attack, and 4 for stop hit. Instead of the balled fist, flat hand, or forked fingers of rock paper lizard scissors spock the fencers will dispose off 1-4 fingers.
The 3rd step is to define which action beats which other actions. To varying degrees this relies on your evaluation of the wheel as well as the weapon the fencers fence. For instance, 2 (parry riposte) beats 1 (simple attack) in every three weapons. However, 4 (stop hit) will miss to 1 (simple attack) in foil, but will create a double hit or success in epee or sabre sometimes (a coin toss may be used to inject this degree of uncertainty).
Finally you are prepared to fence. This drill can be carried out being a couple of fencers, a team of three versus another group of three, or as two lines against each other with fencers rotating from line to the other because they are defeated. When the intent is to use the drill like a warm-up activity, the amount of repetitions should be limited. One solution in the rotating format is that the winner of a touch stays up and loser rotates. However, it is also found in 5 touch (bout), Ten or fifteen touch (direct elimination), or team formats. The more formats allow fencers to start to analyze opponent patterns (even though 4 option structure probably prevents using pure iocaine powder logic), and for team mates to observe and share that information. Make use of the standard commands “on guard,” “ready,” and “fence,” with all the fencers throwing out 1 to 4 fingers on “fence.” The level of force on decision-making can be increased by reducing the interval between commands to fence.
It might seem that one could achieve the same training by actually fencing, however the isolation from the decision as to which action from your variable of fencer ability to carry it out emphasizes the option of technique. The drill doesn’t need equipment, and so fits well in warm-up or cool-down activity. It’s faster than a bout, but keeps a high level of competitiveness involving the fencers. We have found so that it is an efficient training tool in our efforts to improve our fencers’ tactical sense.
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