Building a decision tree
Here I want to try to help you think through something resembling your own decision tree. This is generally an “if, then” series where you can map out your choices and how they may react and then what to do next… etc. We’re going to work our way through an exchange and look at the possibilities, viewing it all through the lens of a deeper understanding of tempo.
This is not meant to be all encompassing - it’s just to maybe give you a framework you can lean on when you’re thinking through an exchange.
Let’s start with the beginning of an exchange:
What is your job at the very start of an exchange?
To control distance/measure (and start out of your opponent’s distance)
To control your opponent’s options (to take away their initial line of attack and be prepared for their response)
If you aren’t doing these two things, you will get hit more often. Period. If you find that you’re getting hit as soon as you step into range, then go back and work on these two skills. I discuss them in more depth here and here.
Once the fight has started and you have survived the first second or two, there are four general categories of things that can happen.
The four branches:
So, you’re standing in measure - what four general things can now happen? And bonus points - why does it help to categorize it?
The opponent runs away (or, you know, you do) (e.g. someone moves out of measure).
They attack and you aren’t ready for it/didn’t provoke it.
You provoke an attack or a movement (e.g. you coerce them to act in some way)
Actively
Passively
You attack into their stillness (always be aware that it may be an invitation you’re reacting to).
So let’s go through these one at a time. Note that I’ll be describing frozen moments of time - you will need to think through these, and then practice them up to speed.
1) Someone moves out of measure
You’ve now moved into wide measure and you’ve covered your opponent’s line. And they step back out of measure.
On the one hand, no harm to you! This just means whatever plan you had you need to reset, or it gives you a chance to come up with a new one.
But on the other hand, I’ve had opponents that just wouldn’t let me get close enough to start initializing actions. And they weren’t interested in bringing the fight to me either. There’s a video of this happening in Olympic style fencing where the end result was that the actual rules were changed to add penalties for not engaging over a set amount of time. See it here.
There are things you can do if they keep backing up while you try to close:
Leg them - when you step in and they start moving back, if their leg is the last thing to move back, hit it. In the SCA you’ll usually drop them so they can’t move around easily. In most HEMA tournaments you’ll at least score a leg shot.
See “make them come to you” below - there are tactics you can practice to try to get them to close.
2) They attack seemingly un-provoked
First, let’s get this out of the way. You DID provoke them. You closed into measure. Moving close enough to get hit is absolutely a provocation, as is every movement you make once you’re in measure.
If you weren’t ready for a response, that’s what you need to work on. That’s where your current decision tree stops. See my first numbered list, above. Your job at the beginning of any fight is to start out of measure, and cover their direct attack as you step into measure.
So when you’ve stepped into measure, you’ve provoked them, and you need to understand that and be prepared for it.
3) You provoke an attack or a movement
So you’ve closed into measure and you’ve constrained/controlled their direct action. You’ve made the first provocation by entering measure, as I said above. But now you’re safely in measure, you need to start making the opponent dance to your tune.
You might start with sussing them out - determine their speed and experience/nerves when you can. Here are just a few ideas on where to begin:
If you’ve moved into measure and they haven’t done anything, you can inch forward again and see what they do, as long as you maintain control over their blade.
You can do this in a big, performative way that’s likely to get a reaction.
Or you can do this more subtly, with more of a goal of getting closer without their noticing it. The more experienced fencers will notice it though, trust me.
Sniping for hands or arms is a decent place to start at wide measure.
Don’t lose control of their blade when you do this. If I’m constraining their blade and I want to test their hand reactions, then I might quickly drop my tip toward their sword hand and just as quickly recover to maintain the constraint. I and some others are actually fairly skilled at hitting the hand just over or through the hilt. But actually hitting the hand doesn’t have to be the goal here. Threatening it to see how they react is the primary goal. And it’s actually a historical tactic - at least one 17th century author advises to target the hand from range, because you may stab the hand, but you may make them move it and uncover something better.
Note when you target the hand this way that there’s a split second where you have given them your debole! A very experienced fencer can gain the advantage on you then and there, so 1) only do this from wide measure, and 2) be very ready for any reaction on their part.
This can, however, be the first step in overloading their tactical computer (see below).
Make some other ‘safe’ threatening moves at wide measure and see what they do.
Make sure you have them constrained, as I’ve mentioned several times! Don’t make the mistake of losing control of their blade in order to test their reactions!
You can also always break off out of measure to reset if it doesn’t feel right.
Actively - you want to be intentional about your provocations. Remembering that everything you do in measure is a potential provocation. Every motion you make is something they may react to. And even if you stay still too long, they may take that as a time to act.
So once you’ve entered measure you want to mindfully drive the game, or get out and reset your head. I do not recommend staying in measure very long. Do your thinking and planning from out of measure. Then, when you have a plan, move in and apply the plan, then get out.
Passively - It is possible that something you didn’t know you did provokes a response. In that case if you have controlled measure and are constraining their sword, you are still far safer than if you leave yourself open to their attack. So if you have the gain and they do something unexpected, you can retreat while keeping control of their blade until you’re out of measure. Then collect yourself and go again.
Make them to come to you!
This is pretty much Capoferro’s entire game. You provoke them and make them launch the long, fatal attack, and then you counter it. Here are some ideas to help:
You should create an invitation at wide measure.
I believe the Vienna Anonymous even explicitly says that invitations are only to be done at wide measure. Once you close, it’s too late to try to pull one off.
There are of course subtle ways to do this, and very overt ones. If they are not letting you get close enough to engage and keep backing off, you probably want to entice them subtly so they think you’ve messed up and left a vulnerability.
You should have a good idea of their options and always be controlling their blade at all times as they close and act.
You should be prepared to change the angle or distance - and have back up plans.
The rules of a first intention attack also lend themselves to a first intention defense - so expect to block the obvious attack, and be looking out to counter at least one other, possibly more since they may not go where you plan them to.
You should force them to have to act. Technically this is what a stringere is. It is a gain that forces the opponent to have to act. Even if that means getting out, it’s still a stringere. But in the end, to make Capoferro’s plates work, you are forcing the opponent to make an injudicious decision to attack you in a way that you’re prepared for. And that entails taking away their options and guiding them with coercive invitations.
Get closer while remaining protected?
When you’ve closed into measure and remain protected, the tactics laid out in the Vienna Anonymous have you gaining new (and closer) advantages every time you force them to move or shift in some way. You take away their direct attack and make them nervous, so they shift or cavatione. In that tempo THAT YOU WERE EXPECTING you regain or maintain the advantage while sliding closer. So:
Force them to shift/move and use that tempo to gain an advantage
Gaining an advantage should often/usually entail getting closer, even if by only inches.
But also you should continually be keeping them from a straight/unimpeded shot. If your provocation makes them cavatione, then as you slide closer you will also need to regain their blade. And you’ll do this all in the tempo that they took to move.
You want to get close enough that they can’t parry your point in time.
This also is helped by keeping your debole away from their forte.
Most fencers will only need one or a couple shifts to get close enough to end it.
But really, your percentage chance goes up the closer you get IF you are still in control of their lines.
However, remember this is all happening in slices of seconds. An entire series of actions that leads to a hit is often only a few seconds long.
Use your body and legs to your advantage, ala Fabris and CF. (e.g. steal distance with out them knowing it, or “feint” an attack by just leaning forward, giving the illusion that you’ve suddenly stepped closer).
4) You attack into their stillness.
Should you lunge from wide measure? In what situations is it a good idea? When is it a bad idea? What do you have to do to make it more likely to work?
Lunging while in wide measure is a long tempo. Capoferro calls it a tempo-and-a-half. Attacking from wide measure into a stillness therefore has a low percentage success rate. Is it possible? Yes. But it’s not the best idea, and both Capoferro and the Vienna Anonymous avoid it.
In order to pull it off you need to either take advantage of the opponent’s lack of readiness (attack as soon as you enter into measure and they are unsettled - making sure to control their blade as you do)
…or you must ensure that you have actively provoked a movement on their part big enough to act on.
And really, attacking into a stillness in any distance is a bigger risk than I want to take UNLESS I have full control of their blade. And even then, my full control may be an illusion that my opponent is using against me.
So IMO it’s better to make your opponent move injudiciously in order to draw them out and put them in a place you generally expected and have a counter for. If they’re moving in a way that isn’t threatening to you, then they are giving you a tempo to act in.
Conclusion
The overall idea to skilled fencing is to overload the opponent’s tactical computer. For some, specifically against the inexperienced, simply throwing a competent attack can do this. But for more experienced fencers you need to effectively get them tied in mental knots. You want them solving the puzzle you presented while you’re already on to the next action/puzzle. So effectively you start at the trunk of your tree (the things you always should be doing at the start of an exchange), and then move to a branch, and then further out to a secondary branch, etc.
Practice these movements with one person doing nothing but closing lines and parrying. The initiating person needs to create the situation so they can be more likely to find success.
To answer the bonus question, above - categorizing the branches helps because it allows you to build sets of responses. Effectively we categorize things in order to be able to apply the proper tools when they happen.