Thursday, April 4, 2013

A to Z: Disengage

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!

D is for Disengage: a circular movement of the blade that deceives the opponent's parry, removes the blades from engagement, or changes the line of engagement.

Disengage is my all time favorite type of attack or riposte while foil fencing, and when I fenced I found a great deal of success with it. There is nothing else like circling your blade around and around in an attack while your opponent tries to parry it unsuccessfully.

Other Good "D" fencing terms:
  • Deception: avoidance of an attempt to engage the blades; see disengage
  • Derobement: deception of the attack au fer or prise de fer.
  • Direct: a simple attack or riposte that finishes in the same line in which it was formed, with no feints out of that line. .
  • Displacement: moving the target to avoid an attack; dodging.
  • Double-time: also "dui tempo"; parry-riposte as two distinct actions.  
  • Dry: also steam; fencing without electric judging aids.

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    23 comments:

    Michelle said...

    More interesting words and fencing concepts.
    The double-time manoeuvre sounds interesting!

    TaMara Sloan said...

    Very interesting! I don't know very much (anything) about fencing other than it's done with blades.

    Thanks for visiting me over at Tales of a Pee Dee Mama

    TaMara

    Julie Flanders said...

    This sounds like a fun move! And one that would drive your opponent crazy. :D

    Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

    This is a great little lesson. I always wanted to study but our college didn't offer it like many do.

    Misha Gerrick said...

    Going to go fence on Saturday! So excited to get back into the sport. ^_^

    Joe Lunievicz said...

    Julie, from above told me about your site and I had to check it out. I love fencing too. Wonderful posts on one of the greatest sports/martial arts.

    Ida Thought said...

    I love sport and I love words. This was easy to read and revealing. I love that it was favourite move, I guess it's the emotional equivalent of detachment, which is also a defenceless defence.

    Grover said...

    This is really interesting, thanks for educating me! I've never tried fencing, nor did I realise there was so much to learn!

    Grover
    Inane Ramblings

    Tyrean Martinson said...

    Michelle - it sounds hard, but it's actually one of the first ones that most fencers learn.

    Tamara - glad you found it interesting!

    Julie - Yes, and Yes! Very fun, and great for driving an opponent crazy especially if you're left handed fencing against a right hander.

    Susan - my college had only a fencing sport club instead of a team, but we went to small competitions anyway.

    Misha - That's awesome!!! Have fun on Saturday!

    Joe - Cool!!! Thanks for visiting. Fencing is one of the best sports, ever.

    Ida - yes, it's similar to that, but it's also about continue to drive forward while evading your opponent.

    Grover - You're welcome! There is a lot to learn, but usually you don't get all the vocab at once. It comes in bits and pieces as you learn the moves and hang out with other fencers.

    Mark Means said...

    A lot of cool "D" words you have there.

    Learning something new, everyday, and still loving this theme :)

    Tyrean Martinson said...

    Thanks Mark!!! I'm glad you like it. :)

    Unknown said...

    Wow learning so much and here I thought it was just something I did when I was feeling overwhelmed! Such fun posts.

    Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

    Plus is just looks cool!!!

    Tyrean Martinson said...

    Julie - Thanks!!! I had fun writing them. Most fencers learn these terms as they go and not all at once.

    Alex - yes!

    Elizabeth said...

    One of the things I love about A-Z are all the interesting things I learn. A very informative post!

    Nick Wilford said...

    I would have thought disengage meant pulling out of a fight! Such a great, informative theme. With all your knowledge will you write a novel about fencing?

    David T List said...

    This is my first time stumbling across your page and I instantly feel that the sword fight scenes in my first book are shameful compared to your knowledge! If you haven't read Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber series, you should. His sword fight scenes are amazing.
    Happy 'A to Z'ing. I'll be back!

    DL Shackleford said...

    I don't know anything about fencing other than what I have just read here. Thanks for teaching me something.

    Al Diaz said...

    Disengage, it sounds cool too. :D

    Brett Minor said...

    I've only fenced once. Of course, being my first time, I got my butt kicked.

    Dropping by from the A to Z Challenge. It's my first year.

    Brett Minor
    Transformed Nonconformist

    Unknown said...

    Very interesting,I've always thought fencing was such an awesome sport watch, but I know nothing else about it. Thanks for the lesson.
    Connie
    Checkin' in from the A to Z Challenge.
    Peanut Butter and Whine

    Samantha May said...

    Do this very thing with my pens when class is especially boring :D

    Fencing sounds like a ton more fun though!

    Natalie Aguirre said...

    Disengagement sounds good to me too. There's so much to this fencing.