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donq
USA
384 Posts |
 Posted - 04/05/2004 : 11:01:26
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Zach is a pommeller. By that I mean he uses a french grip foil and holds it way back on the pommel, giving him a four inch reach advantage over traditional methods. This reach is accentuated by his height and long arms. He uses all to good advantage.
A lot of pommellers will just sit back and wait for you to attack, so that they can use their reach advantage to counterattack. Zach will do this, but he is not shy about attacking with fleche. When he attacks up high, his point is right in your face, making depth perception a problem. He can normally evade your first parry. When I fenced (and lost) to him at last years Burton, Ina advised me to do a four/circle four combination to get around his first disengage. It probably would have worked if I'd been quicker to implement it.
He'll also go for toe shots. He doesn't like to infight. If you try to force it, he'll attempt to slip past you, forcing a halt.
Don Q
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flunge
44 Posts |
Posted - 04/07/2004 : 00:05:48
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Zach loves to create illusions in distance -- to withdraw his arm and give the hint of retreat and then pop off a fleche - it can be tricky as all hell. I have had some success by anticipating this move and parrying the fleche, but I haven't fenced him in a while and don't know if he's overcome this
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davesaint
USA
289 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2004 : 16:51:35
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One thing I have noticed about Zack is that he is very good at stealing distance. He likes to move very slowly with small advances and small retreats to almost lull his opponents asleep, then he explodes very quickly on target. I have noticed him do this to a variety of different levels of fencers. It can be very deceiving on the strip.
Dave |
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ina_epee
USA
200 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2004 : 17:20:28
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Zach works exclusivelly high line (rarely does he go for a toe touch- when he does, just back up and stick you hand to hit his). He won't parry (so you will have his extended arm quite often), and will disengage of anything (double cirlce 6 or 4 with good distance could take care of that). If you get him on his initiation he is dead. To be in control of that make him go - you dictate his tempo. You impose your game. It doesn't matter where his arm is, it still has to come to the same target - you. Setting him up with distance is important.
Use your imagination - he is not that difficult. |
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donq
USA
384 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2005 : 12:00:43
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At the 2005 Epee Challenge I must have directed 10 bouts of his, and I had a birds eye view of what he did and did not do. So I'm going to update my previous post with what I saw.
Zach did not react at all to attempts to pick his arm with angle attacks. On the contrary, he used these attempts to continue on with his attack. Sometimes with lunge, sometimes with fleche. And I didn't see one angle attack land on his arm.
For a pommeller, Zach has an unusual grip. He extends his index finger along the side of the grip. When he missed a touche, I heard him muttering to himself "Fingers, fingers..." It appears to me he is using his thumb and middle finger to do vertical disengages, and the extended index finger to do horizontal disengages. Comments?
The guy remises like crazy. So many times I saw an opponent beat his blade and start some complex, bent arm attack, which always ended up with their impailing themselves on his remise. I gather that opponents feel they have to make a long attack to the body because his skinny arm is so hard to his. So they begin with a prep on his blade and then move forward, right onto his point. Beware of his long reach!
Actually I'm a bit surprised no one attempted any kind of bind on him. If he's going to leave his blade out all the time he's asking for it, don't you think?
Don Q
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Zach Dodson