It’s always fascinating to see consider how tense A-grade sabreurs are during matches, despite the immense physical skill and years of combat experience. It’s usually pretty obvious to an experienced observer from the increased size and reduced complexity of their actions, compared with the jaw-dropping speed, precision and sheer neatness they display during training. Then again, sometimes you get exchanges where my mum would watch a few seconds and say “Wow, they need to relax.”
In today’s epic hit, Luigi Samele faces off against Aron Szilagyi in a close semifinal at the 2013 Chicago World Cup. The initial exchange has got everything: perfectly coordinated fall-shorts, lighting counterparries, powerful attacks – then this.
It’s so long I’ve had to reduce the GIF size, so click on the image for the original full-size HTML5 version.