The Tactical Wheel is really a progression of actions widely used to show tactics to fencers. Although there are significant issues within the utilisation of the wheel in every three weapons, as a previous piece of mine stated, it does actually get fencers considering choosing the proper tactic in the correct time to attain a touch. But wait, how does an instructor get the beginning or intermediate fencer to know the relationships in this tool? One approach I have proven to work is a modification with the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.
The initial step is to ensure that your fencers understand the elements within the wheel. Being a standard part of our warm-up we recite the wheel aloud like a group. I want my fencers to learn the flow of straightforward attack, defeated by the parry and riposte, deceived through the compound attack, intercepted by the stop hit, also defeated through the simple attack.
The 2nd step is to assign amounts of fingers to every action: 1 for straightforward attack, 2 for parry-riposte, 3 for compound attack, and 4 for stop hit. Rather than the balled fist, flat hand, or forked fingers of rock scissors paper lizard spock the fencers will throw out 1 to 4 fingers.
The third step is to define which action beats which other actions. To varying degrees depends in your evaluation of the wheel and also the weapon the fencers fence. For example, 2 (parry riposte) beats 1 (simple attack) in most three weapons. However, 4 (stop hit) will miss to at least one (simple attack) in foil, but might cause a double hit or success in epee or sabre sometimes (a coin toss enables you to inject this level of uncertainty).
Finally you are ready to fence. This drill can be achieved being a pair of fencers, a group of three versus another team of three, or as two lines against one another with fencers rotating from one line to the other since they are defeated. In the event the intent is to use the drill like a warm-up activity, the amount of repetitions should be limited. One solution inside the rotating format is the winner of your touch stays up and loser rotates. However, it can also be utilized in 5 touch (bout), 10 or 15 touch (direct elimination), or team formats. The more time formats allow fencers to start out to investigate opponent patterns (even though 4 option structure probably prevents using pure iocaine powder logic), and then for team mates to look at and share that information. Make use of the standard commands “on guard,” “ready,” and “fence,” using the fencers throwing out 1-4 fingers on “fence.” The level of stress on decision-making could be increased by reducing the interval between commands to fence.
It could seem that you could reach the same training by actually fencing, but the isolation of the decision concerning which action from your variable of fencer ability to carry it out emphasizes a choice of technique. The drill doesn’t require equipment, therefore fits well in warm-up or cool-down activity. It’s faster than a bout, but keeps a high degree of competitiveness between the fencers. We have found that it is an effective training tool inside our efforts to boost our fencers’ tactical sense.
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