The Tactic Wheel is a progression of actions commonly used to teach shooters tactics. Although there are significant issues with using the wheel on all three weapons, as noted in a previous article of mine, it does get shooters thinking about how to choose the right tactic at the right time to score a bunt. But how does an instructor get the beginning or intermediate fencer to understand the relationships in this tool? One approach I have used with success is a modification of the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.
The first step is to make sure your shooters know the elements of the wheel. As a standard part of our warm-up, we recite the wheel out loud as a group. I want my shooters to know the flow of the simple attack, beaten by the parry and response, tricked by the compound attack, intercepted by the parry hit, and in turn beaten by the simple attack.
The second step is to assign finger numbers to each action: 1 for simple attack, 2 for parry-response, 3 for compound attack, and 4 for parry. Instead of the clenched fist, flat hand, or forked rock-paper-scissors fingers, fencers will throw one to four fingers.
The third step is to define which action beats which other actions. To an extent, this depends on your assessment of the wheel and the gun that the shooters are encircling. For example, 2 (parry response) beats 1 (simple attack) on all three weapons. However, 4 (stop hit) will lose to 1 (single attack) in foil, but can sometimes result in a double hit or success in épée or saber (a coin toss can be used to inject this level of uncertainty).
You are finally ready to fence. This drill can be done as a pair of shooters, a team of three against another team of three, or as two lines opposite each other with the shooters rotating from one line to the other as they are defeated. If the intention is to use the exercise as a warm-up activity, the number of repetitions should be limited. One solution in the rotating format is for the winner of a touch to stay on top and the loser to rotate. However, it can also be used in 5-touch (combat), 10 or 15-touch (knockout) or team formats. Longer formats allow shooters to start analyzing opponents’ patterns (although the 4-op structure probably precludes the application of pure iocaine powder logic), and for teammates to observe and share that information. Use the standard “on guard,” “ready,” and “fence” commands, with shooters displaying one to four fingers on “fence.” The level of stress in decision making can be increased by reducing the interval between fence commands.
It might seem that the same training could be achieved by practicing fencing, but isolating the decision about which action from the variable of the fencer’s ability to perform it emphasizes the choice of technique. The exercise requires no equipment, so it is well suited for warm-up or cool-down activity. It is faster than combat, but maintains a high degree of competition between marksmen. We have found it to be an effective training tool in our efforts to improve our shooters’ tactical sense.