Fencing - The Perry and Repost

George Slay: Good evening, I am George Slay, instructor with Recreational Fencing of Manassas. Tonights lesson will be the Parry Riposte from either position six or position four. Before we do that Ill show you actually what coming on guard and position six is and then position four and I allow you to see this as if you were an opposing fencer.

Now, I am on guard. Ive my Foil held outside. This is fundamental position for six. Now, Ill bring the Foil across my body to protect another area of my body, this is position four. These are two classic Parry positions in fencing. Now, were going to join, have our two students join us. Don, Ivan; each one will come on guard in position and were going to demonstrate, first a Parry, in position four or Parry four.

What the objective here is to knock the opponents blade away and regain priority and as we discussed in our earlier lesson, regaining priority is the key for you to score. So, Don, will first attack or make an attempt to attack Ivan directly. Ivan will execute a Parry four, striking Dons blade, you hear a sharp click.

Ivan will then attack Don and score. Well repeat from both sides so that you can see. Again, thisll be Parry four and Riposte, Riposte being the quick strike. Gentlemen! Salute. Masks on. On guard. Don advance on Ivan and attack when you feel ready. Riposte. Good, recover. Lets take a look at that again from the other side. Gentlemen go back to your on guard positions. Now, I am going to ask Ivan to advance on Don. Don, execute Parry four across the body and then Riposte directly in to Ivan. Okay. Return to the on guard line, you can. Remember, the key is to bring the Foil really directly across the body and then directly into the opponents target area. One more time Don, I like you to advance on Ivan. Ivan, Parry four and Riposte. That was excellent. Youve to be very fast. You dont have much time to hang onto the blade before you loose the priority.

Gentleman! Return to the on guard line. Were going to try Parry six. Parry six instead of coming across to the inside of the body; were working our way outward, again, to the outside. Don, I want you to advance on Ivan, attempt to hit Ivan. Ivan, execute a nice Parry six Riposte and hit Don. Good. Return to the on guard line.

Lets see that one more time in slower motion. Don, advance, excellent. The Parry Riposte six is always little bit more difficult. Gentlemen return to the on guard line. This time, Ivan, Id like you to advance on Don and attack. Turn to the on guard line. We have just covered where they Parry Riposte four and Parry six Riposte; both of those are designed to protect against high line attacks, those that are to coming up here. There are others that use an intermediate fencing are low line Parries. What we going to look at next though is how to avoid such a Parry, and thats called the disengage and thatll be the subject of the next lesson.