The Courage of the Straight Arm

I read an interesting article in 'The Sword' magazine this week (it's published by British Fencing for it's membership) written by Prof William Gaugler on the merits of the straight arm in foil fencing. (it's important to think Foil because the straight arm is a whole different beast in epee). The basic proposition of the article was that a fencer persistently presenting a straight arm will be very hard to overcome, particularly if that fencer is adept at deceiving any attempt by the opponent to take or beat the blade or otherwise assume the right of way. I was discussing this with a friend at the club and we decided to have an experiment with it. It quickly became apparent that this was easier said than done and the fencer with the straight arm would need to have superlative technique in order to make it work, particularly when it came to responding to a beat on the straight arm. (Probably the only way to respond would be to parry riposte the resultant attack I guess....) However we did agree that the straight arm has many things going for it. It is intimidating and once it is out there the opponent has to do something about it in order to score. Their possible offensive options are somewhat limited so if (and it's a big if) you've comprehensively trained yourself to respond to the right things in the right way you do have a chance to gain a significant advantage. You also have to have an iron-like unshakeable confidence in your own application of the technique as it is very easy to chicken out and withdraw that arm! Is it an invincible strategy? Probably not. Will it work well in certain situations? Probably yes. The best thing about articles like Professor Gaugler's is that it makes you think about your fencing; and that's most of the fun!