I’ll bite on this.

I’m not sure that the tactical wheel was ever meant to be used by fencers as a way to plan or execute a bout (though I have used it, in foil, when I was fencing against a certain type of fencer). However, as a coach, I’ve found it very helpful when introducing beginning students to tactics. It helps raw beginners to sort out the information coming at them in the first year, when they start to bout. It also helps me anchor the high points of tactics before I get into the more dense actions inbetween, which can overwhelm beginning fencers.

I don't think this contradicts anything Jason is saying: beginning students tend to be “ultimate action” sort of fencers. They rarely prepare (the closest beginners come is sort of an active, frantic, waiting) and their tactics tend to be one dimensional. Beginners often fall into very strict and unique tactical categories: this fencer is an attacker, this fencer is a defender, this one, a counter-attacker, and so on. At this level, the coach can give some lessons around the tactical wheel, and the student has a chance to figure out some rudimentary tactics. The wheel is also a nice "mnemonic" to remember those tactics on the strip.

In light of the fact that many coaches I have met don’t teach tactics at all (and at least one fencing master has insisted to me that it’s impossible to teach tactics to a student), the tactical wheel -- in foil -- is better than no tactics at all, I think. For some club fencers, it’s as far as they will ever get, and it’s all they will ever need.

For a year or less, the tactical wheel is a nice crutch to hang lessons on. Better fencers, however, quickly outgrow it, as their ability to execute actions and recognize situations improves. At this point, the tactical wheel gets abandoned, and the coach moves to lessons based on preparations, rather than simply executing ultimate actions. At this point, the tactical wheel probably never gets mentioned again.



It's also a nice, colorful handout when you have to teach those college fencing classes and give the students something to read.





Allen Evans