Momentum is your Enemy - Balance is your Friend

Last night my Coach and I gave a foil lesson on reacting to a defender's response. (We did the lesson initially for Foil then applied it later to Epee). The basic premise was that you stepped in to engage your partners blade in sixte and they had the choice of two reactions: a) they left their blade still so you attacked down it with coule or b) they evaded your blade with a counter-disengage returning to sixte, whereupon you then beat their blade and attacked with fleche. The objective of the lesson was to be able to execute a brief pause after your initial engagement before selecting and executing the right attack in response to their action. Most of the students contented themselves with mastering the blade work of the two techniques which is a fine ambition but the essential thing that really determines success and failure is your balance and control of your momentum.
When you step forward and engage with your legs too straight and your feet too close together your centre of balance invariably sways over and beyond your front knee. From here you will be unable to execute a controlled attack and will end up in a sort of falling over type effort as you desperately stick your arm out. Conversely, if you have your feet too far apart you will be unable to complete the final lunge as you are already nearly completely lunged anyway. As usual in fencing the ideal is a half way position with the legs bent, weight sunk through the hips and the feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. If you can maintain this position you should be able to control your momentum effectively, pausing before executing the correct attack.
This is a classic example of a circumstance where the attention is drawn to the obvious aspects of the technique (the blade work) when the secret is really in the less obvious aspects (the footwork and balance). In Japanese martial arts this known as discerning the omote and ura of a technique or the 'hidden side' and the 'front side'. All fencing techniques should be examined in this way as there is always something to be discovered behind even the simplest move.