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Angled footwork can be used in 2 different ways: to attack and defend. When a rushing oppnent comes in as in Fencing a simple 45 degree angled step to the off weapon hand side and a curve with the rear leg allows you to avoid this "bum rush" and strike the opponent as they attempt to enter. Much like in boxing where you can angle off and counter strike.
This is where I see Fencing to be inpractical as a knife defense. In Fencing you are limited to a 6 foot wide strip. You are limited to coming straight on rather than using angles. You also plunge into each other where it seems like a kamikazi mission of scoring your point first regardless of being stabbed yourself.
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I see what you are saying, however in fencing there is seldom a Bum Rush. You can't bum rush a closed line. You'll just run into the point of the point. Fencers with a good foundation in the movement usually stay in a position to move forward stop move backwards, forwards, more forwards, whatever. Attacking a good one is like being in a vacuum, you get the feeling over never quite reaching them. I experienced this at at Tournamnet once. I got within an inch from this asshole, but never even touched him once, and I caught it from top to toe everytime. It was a a real lesson.
And those guys do angle. They do angle. Just not big swoopy angles like most of Martials arts.
There is some Kamikazi to it sometimes. Its usually a miscal of timing on both guys part. That's why you keep working it to become a better master of the distance. I'm not talking specifically sport fencing because in a tournament you're trying to win a point, and you know its a game, so that shit happens.
I took Fencing from a guy who competed for France back in 1948. There wasn't any fly-casting like moves back then, just straight on, classical stuff, because their teachers were just getting removed from the generation that still dueled each other in Europe. I lost a few matches to fly-cast sport fencers and thought nothing of it, because I nailed right when I hit them.
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When you say catch your hand do you mean that they were catching as in boxing, catching as in attempting a disarm, or slashing or stabbing you knife hand?
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You tell me.. I wanted them to chase my hand. I had trained for about 3 years by then and was really getting a good arm for epee. Sliipery disengages were my mainstay, so I thought it was great that anyone would try and grab my hand or disarm or catch my knife hand. When they went for it, It put it somewhere else. When they hesitated I stabbed them and jumped back. Its just training for reacting to the moment. Dealing with the distance.
See maybe what you don't notice so much just looking at fencing, and I'm talking people who have done it more that a year and have made some progress with it is that its really about reading the body language, and knowing when someone is in your space, or not and how to get into theirs and strike without them realizing it. A lot of times they good guys will look slow moving at or way from you. its almost like slight of hand. The next thing your way too close, and they got you. And in a lot of those cases you can attack them and they won't even block, they'll just divert a little, and attack right through your attack. You'd have to experience trying to hit a good fencer. Go look for some, (that aren't pussies) and try and con them into a rubber knife match. It would be good for both of you.
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I lke your comment on economy of motion and closing distance. i work on this everyday and train my guys in this as much as possible. IMO Kali's footwork incorperates this very well.
Thanks for your insight to this matter. You have persuaded me to buy Nardi's book "On Fencing" to learn more about Fencing. But I do have to disagree for the time being that Fencing is a practical knife defense.
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Ever watch the scene from Game of Death where lee has that bamboo stick and he has it out with Dan Inasanto and the two Kali Sticks. All that broken rythum, etc, etc He was fencing in that scene, totally. He was just using the distance, and the tempo, and the movement, to strike and not be hit.
If you're going to get an Aldo Nadi Book, by all means Get "The Living Sword" That one is a hoot. All the stoires of the women he humped, and dealing with the pinheads in Hollywood, and the Duel he actually participated in, and all that. Vastly more entertaining the On Fencing.
That's it.