On Tue, Feb 08, 2005 at 09:14:57AM -0600, Joshua Kronengold wrote: > As a fencer, well, yes, there is. Attacking allows you to frame the > nature of the conflict, forcing your opponent into a specific set of > responses (a largish set, but still smaller than those available when > neither is attacking). It also allows the possibility of a a mistake > that leads to the immediate end of the conflict (ie, a hit). I forgot to mention in my post that I've done some SCA-type fencing. I was overjoyed when I got my first real feint to work. I faked throwing a shot up the middle, my opponent parried, and then I threw a real shot up the middle that hit. I think that was my first experience against a human in any game/sport where I feinted an attack with the intent to provoke a *specific* response (and had it work). Kat