A essential aspect of foil fencing, bladework is how the blades interact and will influence how you score.
Basic Parries:
Parry 4: This involves first extending your hand forward, then rotating your knuckles to your left (if your right handed, if your left handed its to your right). This closes the line (temporarily), (when doing this, make sure you actually hit or “find” their blade, otherwise you wont have ROW), and then rotate your knuckles back into their original position. Finally extend your point forward to hit them in 4. (you can hit them in other lines, but it is easiest and most simplistic to hit in 4)
Parry 6: For this parry you need to first come en garde in 4, your knuckles should be rolled to your left (righty) or your right (lefty). Your blade should also be across your chest, leaving your 6 line exposed. Now rotate your knuckles to the right (righty) or left (for lefties) closing the 6 line. Now simply extend and hit in 4.
Disengaging:
In order to get around the parry, one of the ways you can do this is by disengaging. Which involves making a feint (false attack), disengaging the parry, and then finishing in the opening line (for this drill its going to be 6). To perform a disengage: lunge slowly and extend, and get parried, get a feel for when and where they parry. Now when you lunge extend your point towards 4 to hit, and when they parry go under the blade in a “U” shaped motion, and then extend. This is not a drastic or big movement, the disengage is performed with your fingers (your thumb mainly), very little of your wrist. You push your thumb down to drop the point (just a little, its not pointing to the floor, or anything like that) go under the opponents blade via a “U” shape and then finish in 6.
Cut over/Coupe:
A cut over or the French term “coupé” [cou-pey] is another way to get around the parry. To perform a coupé: lunge, and as you extend into 4 (a feint) you pull your point up, using your elbow and a little of your wrist. Then you finish into 6. You are not pulling it all the way back, simply enough to avoid the parry. This is not broken time: where you withhold the blade while lunging.
I hope you have a clearer grasp on the basics of bladework and the mechanics behind it.
Until next time,
-Fuzzy