Techniques

LUNGE: The lunge is the most basic attack. It is a straight-arm extension of the foil, with the tip pointing directly at the on-target area. The legs should be a comfortable distance apart and the front leg should be bent. It will gain right-of-way. The lunge is done arm first, not foot first. You arm moved before you take the step into the lunge. If your foot is constantly moving before you lunge, your opponent can judge when you will lunge and he/she can easily hit you. Footwork also doesn't get right-of-way. The lunge can also be done in doubles or triples. For instance, if your lunge does not hit or is a short distance from hitting, you can transfer the weight to your front leg and step in with your back leg to re-lunge.

ADVANCE/RETREAT: Advancing and retreating is moving back and forth on the strip. It can be done deceptively, to avoid an attack, or simply to move. You should gain as much ground as possible, however, in case you have to give it up later.

PARRY 4/PARRY 6: These are the basic parries. A parry is a block, or a purely defensive move to defend an attack. A parry uses the "pocket", or the small space between the bell guard and foil, to catch the blade. The fencer bends his/her wrist and move it slightly, to a spot where the opponent is no longer threatening their on-target area. This gives you right-of-way. Parry 4 deals with the your body on the left side of your foil, assuming it is being held at your midline. Therefore, parry 4 is to the left, and parry 6 is to the right because it is opposite.

REPOSTE: The reposte is a parry and then attack. The attack may be a full-on lunge. However, the lunge can also be the arm extension. This is another reason why your lunge should always be arm-first. If you move foot-first, those fractions of a second longer that it takes to extend your arm gives your opponent time to parry after he/she sees your foot move. The repost is extremely fast.

DIESNGAGE: The disengage is a deceptive move. The fencer attacks, and at the last moment, just before the other person's parry hits his blade he ducks his blade directly down, just enough to be beneath the opponent's bell guard. Then the fencer swoops his blade in a semicircle around their blade to end up on the opposite side. By this time the other fencer has done a full parry and there is space open to easily hit. It must be done so that the other fencer can't parry quicker or realize what you are doing. You can also disengage multiple time in one attack, so that they do not know when you will hit.

COUPE: The coupe is an extremely fast move done to both move the opponent's blade and get a touch. It is done by starting with your blade on the other person's bell guard. You flick your foil up, along their blade, until going just over their tip and coming down just as fast. The action of flicking up their bell guard should move their blade to the side slightly, enough so that when you come down you are not necessarily in a different quadrant (see picture), but you are coming down their midline.

BEAT AND GO: A beat and go is just as it sounds: you beat your opponent blade off-line and strike them with a lunge. Your tip should say threatening the on-target area, and your beat should send their tip flying out of the way.

WRAP-AROUND: The wrap-around is an aggresive move. If the opponent has his blade slightly extended, you can pick it up in the pocket, make a circular motion with your wrist, and bend your wrist to bring their tip away from your on target area. Then lunge and hit. You can pick up their blade with both sides of your blade.

PARRY 7/PARRY: Parry 7 and 8 are parries downwards, in the lower quadrants. They aren't used much.

PARRY 1/PARRY 2: They are parries upwards, for strikes down or jump-hits. They aren't used much.

JUMP OUT OF BOUNDS: You can attempt to jump as high as possible and hit your opponent while in the air. You must land your hit before touching the ground. The most common hits are on the sides or the area just behind the arm. You should utilize the flexibility of the foil and whip it in the air so it bend and hits.

AROUND-THE-HEAD HIT: This attack requires a lot of skill and blade discipline. You parry your opponent's foil sideways, with your tip pointing straight down and bell guard up. Then you have to push your blade away from you, towards the side of the strip, at the same time that you lean diagonally right. In this position your arm should be across your body and your head over your arm. Then you slide your blade down their's, this being your parry, and you bring it around and over your head. You should begin to stand up straighter as soon as the blade is over your head, so that you can lean into a lunge.

THE JP: In this move you start with your foil on the 6 side. You are going to whip it straight down and then straight back up around their entire foil. However, this is different from the disengage in that you hit with your arm turns all the way over. Effectively, when you hit, you duck down, turn your shoulder over, and whip your foil up to hit. If done correctly it is hard to parry.

FEINT: A feint is any movement or sound that distracts or causes movement in your opponent. It could be a stomp on the floor, a head movement, shoulder shrug, fake advance or retreat, or a feint attack. It can be utilized to make them react. Action is faster than reaction, so you can control your opponent by doing this. You should feint often.

CROSS-OVER: The fencer crosses his feet before a lunge to gain more ground. Be careful, as it can lead to falling.

FLICK: A fencer uses the flexibility of a blade to bend it past the opponent's foil.

FLECHE: You perform a cross-over and sprint past your opponent, hitting on the way. It has to be very fast.

RASP: You use a rapid action of moving your blade down theirs to make friction, which throws their foil off-line. It is a fairly small action.

CUT-OVER: A move made by flicking the point of your foil up and then directly down or vice versa. Be careful as you won't get right of way, so the other person would get right-of-way (you went side-ways/circular, they went straight).

BEAT-GO (OUT OF BOUNDS): This move starts with a beat-go on the 6 side, sending their blade to the 4 line. With the energy from that beat, you let your blade reflect off of theirs and as you jump, you should naturally let your blade fall into a flank shot (on their side).