Beginner Lesson Seven

In this week's lesson, we are discussing the half advance and retreat and the feints from cut five.

The half advance and retreat are useful pieces of footwork which allow you to control distance and tempo of the bout to your benefit. When you use either of these, you are going to end up going in the opposite direction the title says you will. Both movements are broken down into three parts:

• The small false step
• The large true step
• The return to en guarde

The small false step is a small step with whichever foot you are feigning the direction you'll be moving. You then make a large step in the direction you intend to go. This step should be larger than your normal advance or retreat distance. You will then bring your other foot to be in it's natural en guarde position.

The feints from cut five start exactly the way the feints from cut three are conducted, with the exception that the feint is to cut five. After you feign your attack to the head, you will then move the blade with your wrist to your intended cut. The 5-3 and 5-4 feints are done similarly to how they are described with the three feints. The 5-2 feint is a difficult one which should generally not be used other than for practice. If you want to use it in a bout, you should target under your opponent's upper arm when they Parry 5.