(01-08-2015, 03:04 PM)Gegenji Wrote: It just seems like he has all his bases covered (which is a big red flag to me)... until I actively remember that he's rather small, so things like reach and such come into play.
Reach has a lot less impact than you'd think, mainly because there's an equivalent "inside" distance for weapons. One of my favorite opponents when I fenced was a young woman who stood about 4' 2". Our bouts would usually consist of starting out beyond my reach, having a bit of a back and forth where I'd test her defense and she'd prove that it was solid, and then a very quick set of attacks and replies which either ended up with me getting the touch or her backing me into a wall with a non-stop advance inside my weapon's range. I use a size 4 or 5 foil (the longest), and she uses a 1 (the shortest), and she really capitalized on her size and short weapon reach by consistently working to get inside the reach of her opponents.