Oxford System of Tactical Notation
Introduction || Language Notation || Drills and Actions in Oxford Notation

The Language

You don't have to memorize this stuff to know the notation. But it's good to have it around. You can see examples of Notation in action, or visit the drills page.

One line of notation

One line of tactical notation has this structure:

Actor Phrase[, Phrase...] "Fencer's thoughts." {Memo.}

Where…

Actor[l/r]

 

The actor is C or S.
C, S

Coach, student. This can also indicate Fencer A, B — but C & S are used because A & B have other roles in the notation.
l|r

Left or right handed

Phrase
 

The phrase is structured:

[h|f|c|ctr]Action
h,f,c,ctr

Half, feint/fake, circular, counter
Action

Action
 

The action is structured:

Action[target position[adjustor]]
target position

Line, hand, arm, leg, toe, head

Where line indicates a normal target area:
hi = high line
low = low line
4 = high inside
6 = high outside
7 = groin
8 = flank
9 = back
Adjustor

These adjustors can be used to indicate areas on a specific target:
+ = "deep" (As in, deep 4.)
- = "near" (As in, near 4, close to six.)
l = left (if used on head, left cheek)
r = right (if used on head, right cheek)
t = top
b = bottom

Note:
 6 = high outside line
6+ = shoulder (e.g., flick)
9 = back
9+ = deep back (tailbone)
Action

Action includes footwork(lower case) and bladework (upper case). These are, as much as possible, one-character letters.

Footwork actions
a

Advance. "a a" is two advances, "aa" is double-advance.
r

Retreat. "r r" is two retreats, "rr" is double-retreat.
j

Jump
l

Lunge (also abstracted into bladework.)
Other

Nonstandard footwork can be spelled out: Appel, check, steal, esquive, &etc.

Bladework actions
B[n]

Beat [to line]
P[n]

Parry [parry number or line]
R[n]

Riposte [to target]
L[n]

Lunge [to target] (shorthand for "A l")
C[n]

Cut [to target]
H[n]

Hit [to target] (generic term for hitting)
Fl[n]

Flick [to target]
F[n]

Feint [to target]
E[n]

Engage [in line]
I[n]

Invite [to line or target]

Punctuation

All punctuation characters have meaning. They are optional, but can be used to indicate tempo or mood.

.

All stop. Next action is completely new.
,

Pause momentarily.
:

Wait for reaction from opponent.
-

Sudden change or transfer.
!

Emphatic.

Decisions and reactions

Indentation is used to represent decisions or reactions. Each reaction to a previous action is indented one level further than the previous action. When there is more than one action or reaction, these are on the same level. Hence, a long phrase looks like one hierarchical list. For example:

Attack 1

Something happens that starts the phrase.
   Reaction 1

A possible reaction to Attack 1.
   Reaction 2

Another possible reaction to Attack 1.
      Counter-action 1

A reaction to Reaction 2…
         Counter-counter-action 1

…and a reaction to that.
   Reaction 3

Yet another possible reaction to Attack 1.
      Counter-action 1

Something to do against Reaction 3.
      Counter-action 2

Something else.

Final things

Some of these notations are quite rare, and shouldn't be used except when showing off.

To show options or synonyms within a phrase, use a forward slash.
  S P4 R6/Fl6 {Student parries 4, ripostes or flicks to 6.}

To show optional movements, use parenthesis.
  S a (a) {Student advances once, maybe twice.}

To show ongoing repetition, use ellipses.
  S a... {Student does advances.}

To indicate a flying parry, you could write flying, or use a backslash. This is meaningful in modern, open, flicky actions.
  S \P7 R9 {Student does flying parry 7 with riposte to 9.}

To group hand movements and foot movements, use straight brackets [].
  S [appel line] [B a] L {Student appels with a line, beats with advance, lunges.}

The coupé can be expressed with a caret, ^ — mostly because the caret looks like a coupé.
  S F4 ^ H6 {Student feints to 4, coupes to 6.}

Hand location
To show the location of the hand (we normally assume something around the 6 line), you can use I for invitations or F for feints. A phrase that runs Ihi Ilo indicates a hand is low (opening the highline invitation) and then high (opening the low-line invitation). A phrase that runs F4+ F6+ F4+ indicates a raised hand going back and forth between positions that threaten these targets.

Nonetheless, it's nice to be able to explicitly position a hand. Use the at symbol, @. As in, "the hand is at…"
S [a @4] [r @6] [a @8] L8 {Student changes lines w/ advances and retreats, lunges low.]

Other conventions

j usually means jump forward (a jump back is not tactically useful to notate, but can be marked as j back).

A recover after a lunge is a backwards recovery.

Hard-core tempo

The Oxford Notation relies primarily on English punctuation (. , : — !) to indicate tempo. But sometimes a phrase needs to be written out with the tempo of each action.

In this case, the action is followed by a #nn. The # indicates "speed," and the nn is a number from the music world.

1

Whole note… 4 tempos. Very slow.
2

Half note.
4

Quarter note… 1 tempo. "Average" speed (it's all relative anyway).
8

Eigth note.
16

Sixteenth note.

8.

Dotted notes have a dot after the number. This is a dotted eighth note, or 1/8+1/16.

To indicate pauses of varying lengths, use a dash before the #nn. Such as:
  S a aa -#1 {Student strides forward, and falls asleep.}

So a marching attack with invitation handwork might read:
   C [Ihi#4 a#8] [Ilo#4 aa#8] F6+#8 F8#8 j#8 -#4: \P7#16 Fl6+#16
   {Coach prepares forward with fast steps and slow circular hand movement, jumps — pauses for reaction, and picks it up with a flying parry 7 flick to shoulder.}

As you can see, readability suffers! We haven't had a strong need for this tempo notation, except for some of the more intricate absence of blade rehearsed attacks. But if you see the notation, you'll know what it is.

Notation in action

Here are some examples that make use of the Oxford notation system. They can be as precise or vague as necesary.

S A

{Student attacks.}
S A4

{Student attacks to four.}
S Ahi

{Student attacks high-line.}
S Fl4+

{Student flicks to deep 4.}
S Chandb

{Student (sabre) cuts to bottom of hand.}
Sr ctrA

{Right-handed student counter-attacks. The "ctr" is a convenience, but not necessary; it's clear from the action when something is a counter-action.}
S Fhand Fl6+

{Student (epee) feints to hand then flicks to shoulder.
S appel, F4 D6 L

{Student appels with brief pause, feints to 4, disengages to six, and lunges.}
S appel, F4 A6

{A broader way of writing the above.}
S Chead, P4 Rheadl

{Student (sabre) cuts head, holds, parries 4 ripostes to left cheek.}
S ha — r P R

{Student starts forward, changes suddenly to retreat, parries and ripostes. The footwork is a backwards check.}
S rr… Ihi Phi R9/Fl9

{Student is retreating, invites to highline, then takes a parry of highline and riposte to back / flick to back.}
S a l recover esquive

{Student advances, lunges, recovers, esquives.}
S aa: B! L

{Student advances until reaction, beats heavily, lunges.}
S E6. E6. F6 B4 H4

{The classic setup. Engage 6, release. Engage 6, release. Go to engage 6, change beat and hit.}
S Ftoe Hhandt

{Student (epee) feints to toe, hits the top of the hand.}
C Ihi

{Coach invites to high-line.}
C Ihand

{Coach invites to hand.}

 

Next?

It is time to see the drills. (Drill page.)