Bouting Tutorial #4: Control
Control
This is the fourth in a series of bouting tutorials we're creating in order to help the members of our online program who are at that stage in their broadsword training. All members of our Apprenticeship Program- especially those who are bouting- should study this video and article very carefully. Each tutorial will have a different theme, and the theme of this one is "Control." All of our bouting tutorials will be explained on the basis of our "seven words": wait, provoke, overwhelm, simplify, deceive, disrupt and change.
Predatory defense (the "waiting strategy") is extremely effective, but it is open to one criticism. As the person applying the waiting strategy, you cannot predict or control the opponent's actions, so you have to be ready to respond to anything. Once you have mastered the "waiting" strategy (which will take a few years) you have another option. By using the concepts of "provoke" and "deceive," it is possible to manipulate the opponent into attacking in a way that you can predict and counter. If you can succeed in doing this, your victory is assured- but it isn't an easy thing to do.
To control the fight from beginning to end, to make not only your own decisions but your opponent's decisions- this is a goal that is rarely achieved. That makes it all the more appealing for an experienced broadsword fencer, to pursue an ideal of total victory in which there are no chance strikes.
Bout #1- One method for provoking the opponent into attacking is to create a feeling of intolerable tension. The waiting strategy requires constant attention, and if you make this as difficult as possible it will become increasingly exhausting for the opponent who is trying to wait you out. Chris uses the traverse to threaten Matt's flank, knowing that Matt will be more and more tempted to attack as time goes by. (In our `Predatory Defense" video you can see a few bouts where Matt successfully uses the waiting strategy against this type of stalking behavior. The difference is that Chris is now using the traverse as part of a deliberate strategy to control Matt's actions. If Chris's attention wavers and Matt's does not, then Matt will still prevail.) Matt cannot know when Chris intends to launch a decisive attack, so his nerves are going to be on edge as Chris creeps closer and closer. As the tension begins to get the better of Matt, he becomes not only more likely to attack but also to make a nervous and ineffective attack. Why is this? Because the decision to attack is not really his; he is attacking, in a sense, involuntarily because of the tension he feels. In this bout, Matt attacks with a thrust and Chris parries and strikes the inside high. Note how Chris's final attack is explosive and fast, with a completely different feeling and emotional energy from the slow and tense approach. This is an important aspect of the strategy. Patterns and emotional states are somewhat "contagious." If you are fighting with a certain feeling- it might be a feeling of bigness or speed or aggression or slowness- then the opponent will tend to catch this feeling and fight in the same way. What this means is that you can impose a certain emotional tone on the fight until the moment of your final attack, when the sudden change will catch your opponent flat-footed. You can see this effect in our first clip, where Matt actually makes the correct parry and yet fails to stop the attack, because he is still moving at a slower pace and with less energy.
Bout #2- Chris uses the same strategy in the second bout, but Matt manages to keep him at bay for some time by remaining patient and calm and using effective footwork to keep Chris from flanking him. As MacGregor tells us, the man in the center of the circle has a smaller distance to walk than the man on the circumference of the circle, so he can in theory maintain the situation indefinitely. In the end, however, the psychological tension again leads him to attack, and Chris ripostes to his head.
Bout #3- The third bout looks like the same strategy, but it succeeds for a different reason. The slow and almost lackadaisical way that Chris is moving creates an emotional tone or mood that spreads to Matt, making it difficult for him to maintain the alertness needed for the waiting strategy. Chris traverses into close distance and strikes Matt in the arm before he can react.
Bout #4- This is another way to apply tension in order to provoke an attack. Instead of traversing, Chris is constantly pushing forward on a straight line, edging into Matt's space and creating a feeling that he might attack at any moment. This has the same effect as before- Matt is provoked into attacking, and Chris ripostes to win the bout.
Bout #5- This is another version of the "provoking" strategy. Chris uses a continuous series of beats against Matt's blade to literally irritate him into attacking, giving Chris the opportunity to parry-riposte.
Bout #6- The first five bouts focused mostly on "provoke." The remaining five will focus on "deceive." In the sixth bout, Chris uses a more focused application of the contagion concept. He changes repeatedly between the inside and outside guards, and Matt does the same in order to maintain the True Cross between their blades and avoid leaving an opening. (A better option for Matt would have been to either retreat or take a hanging guard, which would have preserved the True Cross without getting drawn into a pattern set by Chris. Remember, "if the opponent wants it, don't allow it.") Matt gets drawn into both the pattern and the lazy feeling of Chris`s movement, so that when Chris suddenly times his arm it catches him by surprise. Even though Chris has mostly been working with this lazy feeling for the past few bouts, don't get the idea that this is the preferred approach- it's just one option among many. You can use big and sweeping actions to get the opponent to do the same so that you can use a slip. You can use fast and subtle blade work that suddenly changes into a violent and powerful attack. There are any number of effective options.
Bout #7- In this bout, Chris pushes on Matt's blade with his own. Matt pushes back. While providing just enough resistance to be convincing, Chris allows Matt to push his blade offline- which also causes Matt to come out of his guard, exposing him to a thrust to the body. Chris's actual agenda was to get Matt to lower his guard. His strategy for achieving this goal was to convince Matt that he wanted something else, which was to push his guard aside. This is one of many ways in which you can lie to the opponent.
Bout #8- Mathewson and the Highland Officer both advise us to appear "unsettled" so that the opponent will be unable to read our intentions. In this bout, Chris fences in a seemingly hesitant and pointless way in order to disguise his intent to attack the arm.
Bout #9- This is another example of lying to the opponent. Chris begins to traverse, thus giving the appearance that he intends to move out along the circle when he actually intends to attack on a straight line.
Bout #10- This is the same strategy as the previous bout. Chris actually begins to take the next step along the circle, but converts it suddenly into a linear attack. In a five-touch bout, you can often use one touch to set up later touches. For instance, if you score your first touch or two by using the tension-inducing "provoke" strategy of flanking the opponent, he will then be primed to believe that you are going to do the same thing again, and plan his counter accordingly. By changing to a different strategy, you can take advantage of the fact that he thinks he knows what you're going to do. This is the strategy of teaching the opponent to believe the lie. Once he knows that you might not do what he expects you to do, you can go ahead and do it again, using his doubt to get another touch as he attempts to anticipate your trick. This is the strategy of teaching the opponent to doubt the truth. However, "you can't bluff a dummy" as the saying goes. If the opponent isn't skilled enough to have a sense of strategy, you can't set him up for most of these tricks and would be better off just using a simpler strategy.
Closing Comments
Don't be restricted by what you see here. The whole point of control and manipulation is that your real agenda must remain opaque, so it would be pointless to limit yourself to any set of pre-established techniques with which your opponent might become familiar. Once you reach this stage in your training, you must constantly be thinking of new ways to deceive and manipulate your opponent. Use your creativity, your imagination and your cunning.
Part of the fun of working with this strategy is that it's a rare opportunity to play at being Machiavellian without actually harming anyone. This also has the side-effect of training you to recognize strategies of control and manipulation so that you can protect yourself from them in your daily life. As a Gaelic proverb says, "The man with many turns is worthless- but the man with no turns is worthless too."
