THE TACTICAL WHEEL HAS FALLEN OFF: PART II: EPEE

Affordances: A New Understanding of the Tactical Game

There’s been so much really good writing and analysis about epee of late so I thought I’d focus down on this single weapon to get some key points across about an ecological view of modern fencing tactics. In some ways, epee is easier to write about because of the absence of a right of way. Maybe. I think it has been more helpful by the relatively recent adoption of the idea of the single tempo moment. I think the idea of tempo helps to elevate the conversation away from single movement pattern solutions to a better appreciation of tactics as a manipulation of the distance-timing relationship. In this newsletter I want to trace how thinking about tactics evolved from a techno-rational explanation of the technical game and to take a look over the horizon to where I think the coaching of tactics is heading.