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Originally Posted by seizei
I did kendo for a year, and I thought it was ridiculous. Perhaps it was the school, but I just couldn't agree with their concepts. In sparring, my impulse was to sidestep attacks and counter, and I was actually told that I shouldn't move side to side, only forward and backward.
Perhaps that was because I was beating them all by acknowledging that there are other directions of movement besides front and back.
This is after 15 years of martial arts, so I just couldn't stand the style anymore.
I'm gonna try to look into European fencing sometime - sounds fun!
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i also did 12ish years of MA and went to sport fencing. its good, if your tendancy is to counterattack, you're gold. come join the ranks
re: sidestepping stuff
bullcrap, there is totally sidestepping in sport fencing. greg700 referred to an inquartada (thats the correct spelling), which is kind of a side step, but it gets its effectiveness when you quickly twist your torso, displacing the target and making it much harder to hit. yes, things are fenced on a strip, but the strip isn't a tightrope. its 2ish meters wide. you have room to move. you can totally sidestep something if you feel like it. of course, thats not really the best idea in the world, but you can do it. you'd generally want to sidestep in conjunction with other things. also, running by an opponent is a pretty common occurance, which could be seen as sidestepping (since you're running off to their side), but again its in conjunction with another action.