Discussion History Main / Flynning

Hang on, why so much emphasis that Flynning has nothing in common with even real sport fencing? I\\\'m a former fencer and there IS a degree of overlap between Hollywood \\\"hit your opponent\\\'s sword\\\" swashbuckling and real foil and saber fencing (but not epee). Foil and sabre rules are based around fencing time and right of way where hitting your opponent\\\'s weapon is an integral part of establishing your right to score- the most common way of initiating an attack is to \\\"beat\\\" your opponent by tapping against his sword to move it out of defensive position. Additionally, if the opponent attacks you and you tap his sword before riposting that\\\'s counted as a \\\"parry\\\" and as long as your hit lands you get the point even if his initial strike goes on to hit you first, which is why even a mild parry will force the attacker to pull back his attack to counter-parry your riposte, leading to the \\\"ting ting ting\\\" back and forth exchanges you see in fencing bouts.

Of course, epee fencing is a different matter altogether (first point to connect wins, no questions asked), but that\\\'s beside the point.

And of course, there\\\'s still a great difference between fencing and Flynning (fencing motions are much smaller and less exaggerated because only a small contact is needed to count as a beat or parry and it\\\'s consequently much faster than you see in the movies) but there\\\'s still SOME overlap and I think emphasising \\\"Flynning has absolutely nothing in common with fencing\\\" is inaccurate.