What I meant was that in contests with blunts, such as competitions or bouts in class, both fencers will sometimes hit each other simultaneously. I perceive a l

What I meant was that in contests with blunts, such as competitions or bouts in class, both fencers will sometimes hit each other simultaneously. I perceive a lot of this as being due to a lack of caution because the participants know they are not really in danger of death. Indeed, some people will simply rush forward to attack, with no thought of defending themselves, in an attempt to hit first and win. However, in actual fights where the participants' life was at stake such double hits also occurred as well; many period authors were concerned about it and discussed tactics and techniques to minimise occurrences. So, I suggest that the effect of the lack of fear is to make an occurrence from "real combat" more likely rather than to introduce a new factor. As an example, here's a book which discussed the matter (here called a "contretemps"). The same author wrote a different book discussing what to do in competitive school play; this one relates only to self-defence, duels and other deadly combat: http://sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Hope/VadeMecum/VadeMecumMSS.php http://sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Hope/VadeMecum/VadeMecumMS... George Silver's "Paradoxes of Defence" complains of the same issue with rapiers: http://sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Silver/Silver.php http://sirwilliamhope.org/Library/Silver/Silver.php N.B. these texts are later than the mediaeval period - I have no knowledge of mediaeval fighting arts.