Decresere is essentially stepping back, retreating. In Italian Decresere literally means to decrease, and so it can also refer to moving your arms back or out of the way as well. When you retreat it’s often to keep a distance and measure, measure is the distance you want your opponent at to actually reach and strike them. One of the tools we have as swordfighters is committing to actions even when retreating. That means not only can we parry, but riposte and attack as well. It can be difficult as you must keep good footwork so you don’t lose balance or strength, the timing must be perfect. You can move into an action as you’re stepping backward, but the bind, strike or parry (contact) must be executed when both feet are on the ground. This gives you the strength to actually carry out the action. Practice fendente’s and thrusts, as you retreat, to interrupt or even take down your opponent. This video shows an aggressive thrust from me that got effectively defended, however then as the opponent in red pushes forward and applies pressure with a cut, I (the fencer in black) turns my parry into a cut, which then turns into a thrust! When contact with the opponent is made, I then stood my ground, ended the Decresere and the fencer in red ran himself through my blade. Practice action in your retreat slowly, controlled, then go faster. Understand you need to have these moves memorized in your body, otherwise you may have a tendency to flail or lose control during the retreat. Retreat is not losing, it’s resetting, and even in a retreat, you can set your opponent up to lose!

When distance is locked in (you can’t really move in any direction to correct your course, whether because of your posture, or your opponents strikes) there is a sweet little trick from the Italian method. It’s a rapid change of attack direction mid attack, or even mid defense. This can be either a fendente to sottano (downward strike to upward strike) or vise versa. This video shows a fendente to sottano. I struck downward from my weak side (fendente reverso) then when my blade was low and passed the opponent, I turned the blade so my strong side faced upward, and did an upward cut from my strong side (sottano mandritto). I may have hit with my fendente but two things caused the sottano. One I didn’t think I hit hard enough that a judge would see it, second I had a threat here from my opponent and used the sottano to keep me defended. I had no time to move, and my blade was low. This switcharoo must be fast and clean. Practice this combo slow and clean first, then work on getting faster and faster. Commit it to muscle memory and it becomes a powerful tool!

This video shows a solid use of and attack from Coda Lunga. A risky posta where the sword is held behind you on your strong side (I’m a lefty, keep that in mind when you watch this). Regardless of handedness, it is used the same way, to draw in your opponent, create false distance (because your sword is behind you, your opponent doesn’t really know your reach and often will walk inside of it). The fencer in black is the one using this technique. The second strength of Coda Lunga is its power. The farther away the punta (point) of your sword is, the more velocity and power the strike has. In this video it’s used to draw the opponent in for an attack, and the power will sweep the attack away and cut across the torso. The catch? It’s slow to reach a target, and far from any weak side attack. Best used when you either know and can sense your opponent, or if your opponent has a particular tell that will allow you to safely use it. If you sense danger, take a step back and switch to punta longa (long point). This will get you out of danger and keep your opponent at a distance at the punta della tua spada (point of your sword). A great posta for our arsenal, but one to be used cautiously.