Provocations with Sidesword

Invitation: We start with the opportunities and provocations based around moving into range and change guard when in measure.

Threat: Often the best opening move is an attack. A well placed attack must be challenging to defend against, constrain the opponent in a significant fashion, and make their next action predictable. We will explore various types of opening attacks and the strategy you can employ to choose the best openers of your own.

Deception: A feint is a false attack designed to draw a predictable response from the opponent. An ‘attack to miss’ is an attack intentionally designed to miss its target while still drawing a predictable defence. In these two lessons we will explore how you can use both of these techniques to draw the opponent out of position and strike them with your true intention.

Engagement: In our last lesson of provocations we look at how we force our opponent into predictable action by engaging their sword directly. This lesson explores direct engagement and engagement of line, and we see how the concept of stringere is applied in sword and buckler.