Fencing . skilled in the use of his legs. Thefirst step may be a feint at the head or body, and the seconda real hit. The distance covered by a good man—Mace, forexample^s almost incredible, and seems to take the assailantmore than half-way across the ring. For the defence take aspring back to clear the first hit, and use the right-hand guardor left-hand counter for the second. Leading off with the right is dangerous and difficult. It isgenerally preceded either by a hit or a feint with the left. Alittle practice will enable you to get out the right almost as faras the left; But the blow is al
Fencing . skilled in the use of his legs. Thefirst step may be a feint at the head or body, and the seconda real hit. The distance covered by a good man—Mace, forexample^s almost incredible, and seems to take the assailantmore than half-way across the ring. For the defence take aspring back to clear the first hit, and use the right-hand guardor left-hand counter for the second. Leading off with the right is dangerous and difficult. It isgenerally preceded either by a hit or a feint with the left. Alittle practice will enable you to get out the right almost as faras the left; But the blow is altogether different, and dependsfor its value on different principles. Although in a lead-offthe arm will be straight and the hit come from the shoulder, itsforce is derived partly from the twist of the body by which theshoulder is brought round to the front. It is a sort of com-promise between a half-arm blow and a blow with the straight arm,and it requires far more muscular action and less mere utilisa-. Figure XIII.—Right-hand lead-off at the body THE ART OF BOXING i6r tion of balance and weight than the other. Tn delivering itthe palm of the hand is downwards, the head kept well to theleft and the knee bent very much forward. As the right armcomes forward, it is likely to meet with the left fist of theadversary coming out with a counter ; and the idea is that itwill force this fist back and penetrate in spite of it to his face,There is, however, much fear of its failing to do this ; and asit does so fail the leader-off has to take the counter in full face,meeting it with the weight of his body as his right shouldercomes forward. Moreover, if the adversary should take it intohis head to lead off at the same time with his right, he is almostsure to get home and give at least as much as he takes (see ). So dangerous a manoeuvre, of which the effect may be sodamaging, should not be attempted until the beginner hasceased to be a beginner. The other right-hand lead off
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