Brighton Midsummer Fencing Festival – 2026 – Instructors – Duncan Fatz

Instructor – Duncan Fatz, rapier

Workshop: Sense and Sensibility in Close Measure Training, Two Senses That Can Help in a Tight Spot

Having initially studied sports epee with a thwarted Olympian more than 40 years ago, it wasn’t until he undertook armoured combat that Duncan discovered how much a sword can really hurt. However, he persisted, until the day when he saw his friend, in full armour, being propelled ten feet backward through the air, and he himself was folded in two by a member of the American military applying a battle axe with force into his midriff. At this point he quite literally thought, “Sod this for a game of soldiers” and left with his friends to set up what would become the SSA in 1997 and study more refined techniques. One of these friends was Andrew Feest and, like true brothers in arms, they laughed together, cried together, studied together and beat the living daylights out of one another.

Over the course of his studies Duncan has tried many weapons and has felt a rapier through his hand, a longsword cut into his skull, and a broadsword chip his elbow, which all contributed toward his wish that, when he dies, he will be buried in a bog so that future archaeologists may unearth him and be bewildered by the kind of warfare that must have been going on in the 21st century.

Through a combination of not wanting to be an overzealous collector of injuries, natural cowardice and a drive to study and explore, Duncan became extremely proficient in defence and also a highly technical fencer and teacher, always striving to enable his students to answer those fundamental fencing questions of why, where, when, what and how.

For over 20 years Duncan has taught extensively at home and abroad, appeared in films, conducted demonstrations at venues such as the National Army Museum and the Wallace Collection, given talks at venues such as the Leeds Armoury and put his thoughts into commissioned articles and even written and appeared in two sword-related plays to help promote the SSA martial approach, and was honoured and rewarded by being elected President of the SSA in 2014.

Duncan took the decision to retire from conducting workshops several years ago, but, as this is a hosted SSA event, he agreed to step back onto the workshop floor for two days only.

Workshop: Sense and Sensibility in Close Measure. Training Two Senses That Can Help in a Tight Spot

Weapon form: Single Rapier

In an ideal world and the perfect fight, coming into close measure would be like a good plumber arriving at your home: they go in, they do the job and leave swiftly without having to leave you for two days without heating as they go to look for parts. However, we are nature’s fools and normality can become distorted as things shrink ever inwards. This phenomenon is well known in physics and, due to it, for many years Schrödinger’s cat has been in a state of high anxiety, hooked on valium, and has dead-locked the door to its box from the inside.

Such a subversion of normality is also evident in fencing when it is often seen that, as two fencers come into close measure, emotion overcomes them; they forget the expensive swords they have in their hands and they suddenly rush forward to embrace each other. This hugging can go on for some time until they eventually fall to the ground, rolling around in each other’s arms and whispering into each other’s ears such phrases as, “I could have hit you with the blunt end.” Eventually, as a bystander, you feel obliged to step forward and state something along the lines of, “I say, old things, this is becoming a bit embarrassing, could you get up please?” at which point there is a dialogue between them in the order of, “You let go first,” “No, you let go first,” “No you,” “No you,” until at last, shame-faced, they do rise, step apart from each other and normal decorum is returned.

If one wishes to avoid such social embarrassment, as hitherto described, the fencer can aid their cause by training their senses, and specifically the senses of touch and proprioception.

Many might be of the opinion that they are well acquainted with the sense of touch and it has acquired a number of names in different fencing systems all with their own nuances of meaning and, to misquote Sherlock Holmes, many may touch but they do not feel. Understanding, recognising changes in the feel of the blade and immediately processing and acting appropriately upon those changes can help you out of a tight corner.

Ah, but some might cry, “What use is training in the use of touch when there is absence of blade?” The point is that training in the feeling of a blade informs and helps in the training of the sense of proprioception, which is of use even when there is absence of blade.

Proprioception is your body’s innate knowledge of where it is positioned within time and space and is informed by proprioceptors which exist in muscles, tendons, joints, skin and bone and kinaesthesia uses these receptors to inform movement. The interesting thing is that although it is an innate system it can be trained and retrained so that an instantaneous understanding of where you are and what options are available to you can be gained, which is invaluable when time and measure is short. It is also a big factor behind the answer of the how, to the statement given by some experienced fencers of, “I don’t know how I do it, I just do it.”

As a fencer and physiologist I will lead you through this practical workshop and examine the training and understanding of those systems using rapier encounters as the framework and hopefully show you how you can get out of a tight space when death and honour are on the line.