A to Z: Assault?

The A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behavior.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. This awesome challenge is hosted by founder Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick, and Nicole at The Madlab Post

My A to Z theme is fencing and swordplay, focusing mainly on fencing terminology, but with a few favorite movie fencing moments thrown into the mix too. Why: I love fencing and swordplay!

Our first term just goes to show that formal fencing terms don't often fit regular definitions for words.

Assault means: a friendly combat between two fencers.

Foil fencing practice . . .friendly combat.


Other awesome A words for fencing and swordplay:

Absence of blade: when the blades are not touching; opposite of engagement.

Advance: a movement forward by step, cross, or balestra.

Aids: the last three fingers of the sword hand.

Analysis: reconstruction of the fencing phrase to determine priority of touches.

Attack: the initial offensive action made by extending the sword arm and continuously threatening the valid target of the opponent. Attack au Fer: an attack that is prepared by deflecting the opponent's blade, eg. beat, press, froissement.

 
And, a late, but most important addition to this post:
ARLEE BIRD ROCKS!!! He started A to Z, and he keeps this blogging community close and thriving.