Contrary Ladder

This lesson will look different from the other lessons I've provided, partially because this lesson involves multiple responses to a single action.

One tool that can help your students is the contrary ladder. To begin, introduce all the skills you will need to succeed in this lesson:

• Straight thrust
• Disengagement
• Glide
• Simple Parry
• Single Feint

After that, begin with an action on the blade. I personally like to use the blade seizure with a newer student. From there, introduce the contrary to each action. Note that there are two responses to the disengagement in time; I recommend following the "dead end" (time thrust in countertime) first and then covering the other responses second.

Note that there are two ways to cover the contrary ladder. 

1. In one model, the instructor and student switch roles (who does the blade seizure) so that the instructor is always the one being struck at the end of the action. 
2. The other way to do this is to keep the roles consistent and the student and instructor take turns being struck at the end of the action. This is a controlled way to get your student used to feeling and accepting hits in rapier.

While students won't be thinking about the contrary ladder when they're actively fencing, this tool is useful for thinking about fencing theory and looking at how counterattacks and countertime work (note that according to Gaugler, counterattacks are offensive actions against attacks, and actions in countertime are opposed to counterattacks).

When you're teaching this skill, make sure that the parry/riposte action is distinct from the time thrust action. New students tend to bleed actions together and counterattack when they should be parrying and riposting.