Hi Stu, especially about the refs briefing wanting to call more actions together, maybe they should let the fencers in on some of this, I saw Tarentino getting his black card after he nearly hit an official, If the fencers know how the referees are going to call things, they are not going to blow their top. Also interesting to compare the Romanian an Russian warm up, the Romanians got an individual 'technical' warm up one after the other and the Russians under got a very good team warm up - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLZih9afmt7FYoE.html & kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mbthpNCIrtCXYJs.html , but as I recall the Germans beat them largely with energy and determination.

Raymond Koren that’s what many sport fencers believe, but nothing farther from the truth. Sport saber fencing comes from late Italian sabre dueling, which was a manner of arranging disputes with a set a rules and not a duel to death as many believe. Which was then made into a sport. If you think about it it’s impossible to face the same way fencers do on foot, than on horse. Most modern fencers are clueless of their own history, unfortunately many of them only care for the sport aspect.

@@eoagr1780 Not true about the dueling actually, this same type of fencing was taught in Italian as well as Hungarian military academies for the purpose of killing.

More range with the sliding

Yes I agree, I was taught that it was a fault and it is possible to retain contact with the strip with the sole, making it easier to come back out of the lunge...but the classical ideal doesn't necessarily win championships. 😁

Helps slow down, also full flexion of ankle is used at a tiny angle when lunging on the run. If you lunge shorter from standing still you can leave the foot flat to prepare a continuation of the attack like reprise. This is more important for actions in the first 4m in modern fencing. In modern fencing the speed is higher and also the referee will not permit a continuation of a long attack except for a massive error from the defender. Since continuation is a loosing action most of the time, the foot placement is disregarded and slower speed lunges are not emphasized (too easy to miss and give away a valuable opportunity to attack to the opponent). Instead, recovering backwards is emphasized to prevent loosing the double hit and lunging with some speed is emphasized to prevent escape of the defender which gives them a turn to attack. A flat rear foot makes no difference in recovering the lunge backwards which initiates from the front foot and to make the foot flat can also shorten the extension phase of the lunge and compromise its top speed.