{"id":2064,"date":"2019-04-29T14:44:50","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T22:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:32:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T01:32:34","slug":"fencing-john-omeara-strategy-and-tactics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/2019\/04\/fencing-john-omeara-strategy-and-tactics\/","title":{"rendered":"Fencing John O&#8217;Meara &#8211; Strategy and Tactics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In mid-2011 I began training to face the Chicago Swordplay Guild&#8217;s John O&#8217;Meara.\u00a0 He&#8217;s explosively fast, tall, skilled, and he uses Fabris which is a very good book.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2011_Puck_John.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2069\" src=\"http:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2011_Puck_John.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"539\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2011_Puck_John.png 539w, https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/2011_Puck_John-300x261.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 539px) 100vw, 539px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this time the Italian rapier practitioners seemed unstoppable and successful examples of Spanish Fencing against high level Italian practitioners were rare.\u00a0 Certainly there wasn&#8217;t much on YouTube and the understanding when you fence at the WMAW gala is that within a day your fencing will be watched, scrutinized, and perhaps praised or criticized for years to come.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a high-pressure situation.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing this was coming and knowing that we wanted to represent the tradition well I worked with and trained with my two friends and classical Italian Maestri, Eric Myers and Kevin Murakoshi.\u00a0 (Unknown to me John O&#8217;Meara had also been training and had worked with Charles Blair to train a local fencer of my height and relative fencing profile as best they could as an analog of what John would be fencing against.)<\/p>\n<p>In secret, both of us trained against the other for 3 months.\u00a0 Friendships and memories are made from such as these.<\/p>\n<p>In order to train we applied the True School Destreza tradition in its purest form; as a theoretical science to guide training.\u00a0 What are the causes that form John&#8217;s fight?\u00a0 What are the causes that form mine?\u00a0 Knowing these things can we form a training plan that will allow us to beat (or at least touch) an adversary with greater reach, a longer weapon, and a broader community in which train?<\/p>\n<p>We broke John down into causes and patterns and then from these we created a training tree.\u00a0 (Which I have shared below.)<\/p>\n<p>The fight is presented here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nZSGaqlpJgg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Did we succeed?\u00a0 I&#8217;m not the person to answer that with any certainty but I think we demonstrated that someone practicing La Verdadera Destreza can compete well against a top level Italian fencer.\u00a0 \u00a0It&#8217;s my hope that no viewer thinks I intend to represent all of the tradition and, if you view the tree below, you can see it&#8217;s an abbreviated subset of the tradition tuned for this adversary.<\/p>\n<p>Is it perfect?\u00a0 Certainly not.\u00a0 Looking at it now I would have preferred my footwork to be more active and I would have hoped to have been aware enough of my surroundings to see the bit of ice that had fallen off the table which created a slippery surface.\u00a0 It&#8217;s too much of a burden for any one person to present themselves as the sole representation of the tradition and it&#8217;s not something I would try to claim.\u00a0 It was fencing within its time and I see both good and bad, but it served its purpose in that moment.<\/p>\n<p>With love and affection for my friend John, I share this advice on how to fence against him (and perhaps many other Italians as well)<\/p>\n<h3><b>John O\u2019Meara vs. Puck Curtis &#8211; Decision Tree<\/b><\/h3>\n<h4><b>Inside Line<\/b><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atajo Inside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary does nothing<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attack with half reverse, transverse right, and Atajo again<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or attack by thrust with transverse left<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks by disengagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convert the adversary\u2019s attack into a Line in cross with transverse right<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or place an Atajo on the outside<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary uses movement of increase to attempt to take Atajo inside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yield into circular reverse with a movement of conclusion and footwork left<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Invite with the Right Angle on the Inside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks with engagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yield into circular reverse with a movement of conclusion and footwork left<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks without engagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Place an Atajo over the attack<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use a circular reverse (like a Narrowing) to pick up the attack while stepping left (either counterattacking or just attacking the adversary\u2019s weapon)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Outside Line<\/b><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atajo Outside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary does nothing<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attack with half cut, transverse left, and Atajo again<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or attack by thrust by glide<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks by disengagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convert the adversary\u2019s attack with narrowing and transverse left<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or place an Atajo on the inside<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary uses movement of increase to attempt to take Atajo outside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yield into circular cut with a movement of conclusion and footwork right<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Invite with the Right Angle on the Outside<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks with engagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yield into circular cut with a movement of conclusion and footwork right<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adversary attacks without engagement<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Place an Atajo over the attack<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use a circular reverse (like a Narrowing) to pick up the attack while stepping left (either counterattacking or just attacking the adversary\u2019s weapon)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In mid-2011 I began training to face the Chicago Swordplay Guild&#8217;s John O&#8217;Meara.\u00a0 He&#8217;s explosively fast, tall, skilled, and he uses Fabris which is a very good book. At this time the Italian rapier practitioners seemed unstoppable and successful examples of Spanish Fencing against high level Italian practitioners were rare.\u00a0 Certainly there wasn&#8217;t much on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,1,13,4,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2076,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_puck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}