OurGirl: EHPAAAAHHH!

Iñigo Montoya: You are using Bonetti’s Defense against me, ah?
Man in Black: I thought it fitting considering the rocky terrain.
Iñigo Montoya: Naturally, you must suspect me to attack with Capa Ferro?
Man in Black: Naturally… but I find that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro. Don’t you?
Iñigo Montoya: Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa… which I have.

another life ago i fenced in college. at this point, usually someone asks, oh—what did you fence? did you ever get caught?

rim shot.

i fenced foil. it was one of those snap decisions i've made that ended up being the start of something really great. i think that whenever you have a immediate visceral reaction to something, you should not ignore that reaction, but act upon it immediately. i loved everything about fencing. i loved the drilling and the awesome legs that came from lunging up and down the gym. i loved the parry-riposte practice—the back and forth, quick-quick until someone's timing slipped and a hit to the chest would stop the drill. oh, and those hits. i loved, loved, loved holding a foil (italian grip), hearing salute, en-garde, fence and then starting that rhythm—that testing of each other with advancing/retreating, a feint or a quick beat attack. it was all about working the time and then striking with an off-tempo move—a disengage attack, a swift attack out of time or even a quick lunge, straight forward attack. and then, landing that sweet hit—sinking the pointy-end extension of your arm into someone's chest. satisfying? completely. utterly. satisfying.

the closest i get to that feeling now days is when my marine friend puts the arm guards on, holds his arms up either side of his head and allows my girl and me to wail away for a 60 seconds. that's our rest period and then we peel off the gloves and collapse into pushups or sprinting with kettle bells. hitting him as hard and rapidly as possible is very satisfying

but i digress from fencing.

often, when an experienced fencer lands a satisfying hit she/he exclaims, EHHPAHH! sort of a "it is there" expression. my second fencing coach, hassan, would shout: allah akbar! whenever he scored a satisfying touch. both of my fencing coaches were patient in their instructions, but during the drilling they would get bored at a certain point.They both would try this very tricky move where they would parry 7 my blade out and whip their blade back and out and over to touch a hit on my back. ugh. embarrassing. i learned to watch for the tell tale signs. it was hard to figure out a response to the parry. finally, one day, i figured out how to defend and then counter attack. Parry 7s are hard to carry off, so when i would see the blade start its vertical and across descent, the effective solution was to rip my blade up, pushing my coach's blade up and then quickly thrusting in to their belly. the defense worked a few times.

you should try it next time, to see for yourself.