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Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology

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Abstract - Varieties of Sensory-Motor Responses in Fencing

All branches of sport have many common traits and also many different ones. Some branches of sport have only one closed (intrinsic) sensory-motor skill (weight lifting, field-and-track events), no direct opponent, no tactics. Some branches of sport have many closed (intrinsic) sensory-motor skills (figure skating, artistic gymnastics), no direct opponent and no tactics. The accuracy and beauty of predicted movements in those sports are assessed by the judges. Fencing and other combat sports, games and team games differ considerably: many open (extrinsic) sensory-motor skills, facing directly the opponent, a great importance of tactics. In fencing it is not only important, how to execute a given fencing action (sensory-motor skill), but even more important is, how to apply chosen action in a bout. Important are technical-tactical and tactical abilities. In fencing sensory-motor skills – various fencing actions (offensive, defensive, and counter-offensive) are mostly applied in a bout as sensory-motor responses: simple motor response, choice motor response, differential motor response, sensory-motor response to a pre-signal, sensory-motor response to a moving object, switch-over response (change of decision while executing a foreseen action), intuitive response.