“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die,” a six-fingered Spaniard cries before leaping into an intense sword fight.

As this famous character from The Princess Bride is able to battle his way through the movie, he demonstrates a lot of techniques and tricks that he uses against his opponents. Watch the short clip of his fight against the Dread Pirate Roberts to see some of these tricks.

In this video, there are many fencing terms and techniques exchanged between the two fighters. Each is reading their opponent’s movements just before it happens and planning ahead for their next move. Then, they reveal the ace up their sleeve, that they are not left-handed! Though this is a scripted movie, it still demonstrates that, in the real world, all of these planned moves and deceptions are how they “play the game” of fencing. Just as a chess player must carefully move their pieces, any defender must have a carefully construct a plan of attack.

Lesson #5: Play the game

For every physical component of a fight, there is a mental one as well. Though any scenario requiring self-defense is a serious situation, the strategies used is like that of a game. It has these implicit “rules” and requirements for a “win.” For example, a “rule” of a fight might be that the attacker can’t make too much noise that may attract attention. Then, you could exploit that by yelling yourself to try to find help. Or maybe you can’t get too close to the attacker because they might be able to grab onto you. These “rules” can change but can be assessed and exploited during a situation. To win, it usually requires getting out of reach of the attacker and alerting the proper authorities of what happened.

Going back to the scenario where you may be cornered with an attacker closing in, what do you do? There are mere seconds to quickly improv a way out. Remember, their “win” condition is grabbing or harming you, so how do you avoid that? If you can, run. Find a public area, since one of the attacker’s “rules” is to not be discovered. If you must fight, what can you use to your advantage? Is there anything around you to use? There might be a trash can to throw or something to put in between you and the assailant. In Inigo’s fight, he pretended to be left-handed to hide his full skill from his opponent. You could do the same if you appeared unarmed. The attacker may believe you to be an easier target if unarmed and be lulled into a sense of security, but if you have pepper spray, a pen, or even a key, you can turn that into an improvised weapon for a slight advantage. If not, fall back on trying to hit the SING areas.

Though this lesson did not teach any new techniques, I hope it gave some insight on how to think about a precarious situation.

Original video: https://youtu.be/GT0TBWg3C3k

“The Princess Bride.” Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1987.