I spent some time teaching at the Borgosesia Historical Fencing Meeting 2019, and after the event, I had the opportunity to do some additional training and sparring with Mauro Carapacchi, who is an excellent fencer and has a very good understanding and performance of Fiore.
Mauro is a very tall person and his reach with the sword is significant. This meant that if I wanted to do anything at all, I had to close in and come to My striking distance. I couldn’t even afford to hang back and play a game of parrying and riposting, because my ripostes had difficulty reaching him unless I moved forward!
Therefore, my strategy for this fight was to be constantly moving in on my own terms and making the fight happen at a distance where I could land my hits without too much difficulty. Of course, sometimes this strategy went wrong, and I got hit on my way in or because I couldn’t quite cover my head sufficiently. However, sometimes it went very well, because I managed to distance well and was therefore able to capitalise on any openings I saw or managed to make.