Practicing switch-over reaction is a great way to reduce double hits

Have you ever been in a situation, where you both stand in vom tag, and you think to yourself “this is a great time to throw a zwerch”? Then a fraction of a second after you execute your brilliant plan your opponent throws his own zwerchaw resulting in a double hit. Been there done that.

There’s a way to prevent this, and it’s called training the switch over reaction. Switch-over reaction essentially is change of original intention during your strike, when you notice that your opponent is doing something you didn’t expect ( Hence the name switch-over, you’re switching from plan A to plan B on the fly ). Switch over reaction can be practiced during first intention or second intention attack.

Here are a few simple examples of how you can apply the switch-over reaction to your training:

As first intention: Coach stands in pflug, student waits in Vom Tag. When coach lifts his sword to vom tag, student attacks with a zwerchaw. Every once in a while ( like 1/6 – 1/10 ), instead of the coach just standing there and taking the hit, after going to vom tag he immediately throws his own zwerchaw ( during student’s action! ). The student should apply switch-over reaction, and on the fly immediately use countertime and take a parry followed by a riposte.

As second intention: Coach stands in pflug, student waits in Vom Tag. When coach lifts his sword to vom tag, student attacks with a right oberhaw – left oberhaw feint ( and coach ofcourse gives the appropriate parry for the first oberhaw ). Every once in a while, instead of letting the student succeed in his feint, the coach unexpectedly after his first “failed” parry tries to hit the student in the head / hands. When this happens, instead of following his second intention action trough, the student will switch-over to take a parry followed by a riposte.

Notice that when practicing switch-over reaction it is extremely critical, that the students intention firstly should always be on hitting his coach with his first or second intention action. The student should not “wait” to see if the coach will do something unexpected during his attack, he should always try to hit the coach. You want to train switching original intention, not doing an attack where you watch your opponents reaction and respond to that. Doing these exercises at speed helps you to keep your actions honest. Also the coach should use the “wrong” action rarely, because otherwise the student will learn to expect it, and will not try to hit the coach as his first intention as he should.

You can and should apply these kind of drills to other fencing phrases. Look at where you have a double hit problem and apply switch-over training there if it seems sensible.