If you ever watched foil fencing after 2016 and thought, "Hmm, why are they just holding their arms back and marching forward really slowly?", yah - that was invented by Daniele Garozzo.
Fencing used to be more distance control/punish/drawing out attacks, then around 2011 Andrea Cassara of Italy figured out that if you beat the opponent's blade a million times while attacking then finish your attack, the opponent doesn't know what to do about it.
This worked well since Cassara was a huge left-handed fencer who can reach around his right-handed opponent's weapon hand to finish on their back, but then Alexander Massialas, a tall right-handed fencer realised that, you don't have to take the blade that much if you just hold your arm back (so the opponent can't parry you) while doing a break time attack, or hold your arm back and you only need to take the blade once before you finish.
Then around 2013, Daniele Garozzo, the most average build human to fence on the circuit - not that tall and right handed - took this a step further. Don't even take the blade or do a break time attack, just walk forward really slowly and hold your arm back, so your opponent can't parry you), and if they try to parry you, they have to commit really far, so you can punish them when they try to recover.
Then something even more tragic happened, Garozzo realised that, even that kind of BS skillless attack required too much thinking. Don't even punish them when they miss the blade and recover, just finish your attack the same time as the opponent, and since [attack in preparation] and [attack stop, attack touche] is too complicated of a concept for your average brainless referee, you will get the point for no commitment at all.
Then Garozzo and Massialas won the Gold and Silver Medals at the Rio Olympic Games, and people realised that their style of fencing was here to stay.
This style of attack, which became known as "marching" or "brainless bs" quickly destroyed the previous generation of distance traps to get [attack no, attack touche] on defence, and turned foil fencing into a game of "Your turn, my turn". In 2017, almost all bouts consisted of one fencer marching the opponent down the piste, and they either get twisting counterattacked or the opponent takes over the march and then the first fencer has to try to counterattack them.
Now, since then, fencers have worked out what active defence is. But marching is still pretty much the set-up to every offensive strategy in foil fencing, and we have this man to thank - Daniele Garozzo.
I could write more about his career, but this is the thing he will be remembered for the most. He didn't just win a Gold and Silver Olympic Medals and four World Championships medals. He changed the entire way fencers think about fencing forever.
7 июн 2024
