Drill of the Week - Cooperative Drill: Cavazione di Tempo (01-July-06)

Description
For this rapier drill, the fencers begin in measure and in guard. The Agent finds the sword of the Patient. However, before the Agent finishes the motion, the patient attacks by performing a cavazione with a lunge in the tempo of the Agent's attempt to find the sword (i.e. the Patient performs a Cavazione di Tempo). Once the Patient is comfortable with this, the Agent begins from one step out of measure. As he steps into measure, he also attempts to find the sword of the Patient. If the Patient takes the tempo correctly, his attack should hit before or as the Agent finishes his advance.

Prerequisites
Finding the sword (with or without contact), the lunge and the cavazione must be mastered before performing this drill.

Goal
While the mechanics of this drill are very simple, learning to take the tempo correctly is somewhat tricky. As the fencers practice this drill, they will begin to feel the rhythm of taking the tempo correctly and should quickly become accustomed to sensing when the attack was on time or late. If you are late in taking the tempo, a skilled opponent would be able to defend against your attack relatively easily; worse, he would have a good chance of countering your attack with an attack of his own.

Notes
Since no fencing can occur until the fencers come into measure, this is a fundamental technique. (Obviously, a fencer stepping into measure does not have to find his opponent's sword, but the technique against that is just a straight attack in the tempo of the step into measure.) Master this technique, it is described by every Italian rapier master and it holds the very essence of Italian Rapier fencing. The next step for this drill would be for the Agent to counter the Cavazione di Tempo with a Contracavazione (with a void, if desired), with the final step being the Patient countering the Contracavazione with a Ricavazione (this is very difficult).

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