Fencing as contract
Bruce Vail came back from New York with an interesting idea from a coach there. This guy said that you could think of a fencing bout as a series of contracts, in which the two fencers agree to a set of actions or a rhythm until one or the other decides to break the contract. That's when you either score a touch, or settle into a new contract. The idea, of course, is to figure out when to break the current contract in such a way that you score off your opponent. Bruce says he worked some drills on making and breaking contracts. Might be interesting to try one day soon.
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CharlesShapiro - 04 Oct 2001
interesting... consider that this may only apply to epee and foil, though. the action in sabre usually moves too fast for contracts
-Will Tauxe