How to Outsmart your opponent - 10 Thrusting Tips - HEMA 

Very useful advice! & you explained it brilliantly 1) Be mindful of measure 2) Fully extend the arms 3) Arms 1st, before feet 4) Bind awareness 5) Gain degrees (Bind a stronger part of your blade, in comparison with the opponent's, before thrusting) 6) Contact before opposing/defending 7) Use opponent's time/movements to your advantage (effectively doubling 1's speed) 8) Don't tense up before striking 9) Use confusing rhythms 10) If it doesn't work, adapt 😄

Your valley is looking beautiful

As a modern Epee fencer these are the exact tips I tell students and other fencers so it is awesome to see this great list with clear explanations! Thank you for taking the time to make this!

I've found that newer fencers (who know how to execute the thrust correctly) often don't fully extend their arms because they're worried about hurting their opponent. If they make contact (or think they might make contact) they'll collapse their structure almost entirely. I guess it just takes time to get comfortable making committed strikes against other people. Although when I first started we'd test gorgets by taking turns stabbing each other in the neck with aluminum swords (not to date myself) which I think helped rapidly build trust in the protective equipment.

Hello Federico, your videos are clare, concise, on the point and contain amazing views of nature. They are a very good supportive material for my longsword learning, which I've just recently started. Thank you and I wish you a lot of success in growing up your channel. It has the qualities required to do so.

HEMA 🧡

As basic as gaining the blade is, it's something so many longsworders don't remember.

I really really value this as a moderately experienced fencer. Even these more middle or fundamental techniques are so important to review. Frankly, I get way more out of them as an experienced fencer than I did as a beginner

Thank you for another excellent explainer video. I really love the 'make a rhythm, break a rhythm' concept.

Point 8 is key. It’s true for so many actions!

Mille grazie!

Excellent advice.

Thank you Federico. Please visit China some time in the future. Our hema community really likes you.

Good!

Excellent video, great advises, easy to apply also in rapier fencing. I actually am getting a bit of Fabris vibe from some of them, well done!

Cool video, detailed analysis of binding is very helpful. Theorethically its obvious, but you showed it realy clearly and belivably on video examples. I have some additional toughts: there is a thing about positioning pelvis - if you wrap your pelvis up (as if youre doing hollow body or hip thrust exercises, or simply sitting), not only you gain better balance in combat stance, but also, with wrapped pelvis, your back leg does not cause your upper body to tense up, so you need less effort to aim and thrust, so you telegraph less, so your thrust is more dangerous. This is sick! Sitting more on the back leg as in some of Italian rapier sources gives, suprisingly, similar advantage, although the body mechanics is also present in horseback fencing. Leading with the sword (arms first, feet after) is much deeper than ppl think. While it's the rule that sometimes can be broken (to change rythm, confuse, body feint, zucken and what not) its also the key to solve most problems. Not only it hides your action, gives you better bind position and makes your attack harder to exploit via counters if in proper distance, but also: makes it possible to change intention (you have more time to reposition blade to feint, parry or counter if hadn't moved the feet yet), makes it possible to aim (once you moved your feet, you moved your aim, this is reason for a lot of missed actions), it scares the opponent - increasing chances of succesfull feint or compound action - as the opponent isn't afraid of your advance but of your weapon moving towards his eyes (would be better to hit opponent, but its better that he frantically parries, than frantically doubles), it makes it easier to gain reach (I can always add more footwork that carries me further, but I have only one arm extension) and much more. Pseudo Danzig (Liechtenauer glossa) describes all of that as one of two ways of seeking the opening: ,,from approaching, following enemy sword and shooting the longpoint". The other way is to seek weapon positioning that steals enemy's options (in pseudo Danzig winden and versetzen, in 1.33 obsessio, in Italian rapier contraguardia, guandanare and stringere). Its important to note, that both ways have their place and time, as anything in fencing its not a style I can choose, but rather an opportunity I need to recognize (once I saw it happening randomly, or after I anticipated or created it) if I want to use it.

Very nice video! A weak on weak bind can be a good tactic (and is in the correct measure) for setting up a disengage-thrust. When you engage in the bind and displace your opponent's blade, as soon as you feel your them pushing back on the bind, just disengage below their blade (a fast, small circle) and thrust into the unguarded side of the torso. If the opponent does not respond to the pressure of your bind, then you can just continue the original thrust without disengaging (using, of course, all of the tips you have presented in your video). A 'fleche' style running thrust can also be a useful tactic, using fast, crossing footwork (a quick, short sprint really) to run past your opponent on one side or the other while thrusting (and remembering to protect your back or flank with your blade as you run past).

🙏🙏🙏

You go further when you thrust first, step after, as well. Honestly, tip#0: just solo practice thrusting 100 times a day until you actually figure out the mechanics before you try doing it against someone at all. Way more complex than it actually seems. Also, some gloves don't allow for full extension of the arms in all thrusts, so sometimes adjustments have to be made.

Fantastic video, Federico. Each point is good advice, but the last is particularly important. It's so easy to get fixated on a particular technique. You want it. You plan it. You *see* it. And this traps you.

Thank goodness, I always wanted to know some good thrusting techniques. My lady said I was slacking

Yeahhh... Do not tense up... That's really hard to acheive for me. Here's the area to work.

The innuendo is certainly strong in this one 😂 Good vid though ;)

Che tristezza! Sto guardando il video e realizzato di fare ciascuno di questi errori 😂 Per fortuna sono un novizio e ho ancora il tempo per migliorare!

Frederico, if there are no instructors I can reach in my country, would you recommend learning from the sources and videos like yours?

Advice 7, is basically the "Indes" in german fencing terminology. What is the italian word/equivalent ?

Русы, пейте воду из Байкала, да агитируйте в тик токе!