Sabre Fencing Analysis – Cyrielle Rioux

Okay so in this video we are going to look at a few touches by Cyriel Rioux from the latest World Cup in Plovdiv. It's a fairly random selection and I'm kind of pulling all of these touches out of context, but the idea is really just to look at a few things that we might be able to apply to our own fencing. To start off we're going to look at this pull. Cyriel prepares slightly ahead of Yang and stops suddenly. So Yang is going to control her prep and look to take over the attack. A feint from Rioux triggers the attack early and Rioux pulls her short. At this point the distance is still really close so she can't rush forwards without risking being counterattacked or hit on preparation. If she makes a step forwards Yang will just retreat maintaining the distance and she's probably too far away to hit with a lunge. So this is where the flunge is useful as driving from the front leg allows her to accelerate earlier than if she was lunging with the back leg. The flunge doesn't cover more distance than a lunge, it just comes at a different timing making it very effective at close distances like this. So the key thing in this touch is the preparation. Notice how Rioux starts slowly and then suddenly accelerates. It's this acceleration with a withheld hand that makes her opponent want to make an attack on preparation which Rioux is expecting so can make a parry riposte. Now this is a pretty risky move because if you pick the wrong parry you are serving yourself up on a however if it does work it can start to put some doubt in the opponent's mind sometimes making them less willing to attack on your preparation. This is a classic action. She prepares with a small slow step giving plenty of space for Such to accelerate into. A half step forward makes it look like she is loading her front foot in order to retreat inviting Such to prepare deeper allowing Rioux to do an attack on preparation. From a refereeing point of view it's important to understand that Rioux wins this because Such makes a mistake. Had Such began her extension before or even as Rioux was lunging then it would be attack counter attack. It's important to understand that an attack on preparation has to be made as the opponent is preparing not after. Just because you do a nice lunge with a quick extension it doesn't mean it's attack on prep. So here both fences step in and stop Such steps back and Rioux takes a reprise with these galloping hops. This kind of movement is good at maintaining momentum at a medium pace whilst also keeping you ready to finish with a counter attack if you have to. It also has a really good synergy with the flunge because they are kind of the same movement. On the bounce the back foot lands then the front foot drives upwards. On the flunge it's the same the back foot lands and then the front foot drives except this time it drives forwards. Basically the kind of bouncy gallop can mask the start of a flunge really effectively. So again both fences step in and stop. This time Such is quicker to take over the attack but Rioux triggers her early with this feint and is able to make the attack miss. On the long attack she really wants to push Such off balance but Such is doing a really good job of staying in control. When Such opens a distance Rioux tries to accelerate into the space but Such is still balanced. At this point Rioux slows down to push Such to the back line checking to avoid any counter attacks. Once Such is pinned to the back line Rioux has the opportunity to finish. So yeah that's the video, thanks for watching. As always would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for watching, see ya.