The bind is simply when fencer A's and fencer B's blades are touching, likely because Fencer A has parried Fencer B, or vice versa.
The bind is where the interesting stuff happens. It is also where the fencers try to work Indes. The most likely scenarios are these:
Fencer A has parried Fencer B's attack. Fencer A leaves the bind to riposte.
Fencer A has parried Fencer B's attack. Fencer B leaves the bind to attack a second time.
Fencer A has parried Fencer B's attack. Fencer A works in the bind to make an attack, while controlling Fencer B's sword.
Fencer A has parried Fencer B's attack. Fencer B tries to work in the bind to make a second attack, while controlling Fencer A's sword.
The purpose of this post is not to cover absolutely everything you can do in the bind, but it is to cover the fundamental principles.
The bind isn't a protracted and deliberate 'rubbing of swords'. It isn't where two opponents come in close, hurl insults and then push each other back, like in a Hollywood film. The bind can last milliseconds to a few seconds at most.
Hard binds
Orange has parried Blue's attack. This could have been done in a number of ways, but Orange has an Overbind on Orange's sword. Either Orange has a particularly hard Overbind with the point offline, or Orange's point is online and sword is in a Plough position.
This looks like this:
Orange is hard in the bind. S/he is hard because a) s/he has an Overbind, b) s/he is putting pressure on Blue's sword, c) is in control and d) Orange's strong (half of the blade) is on Blue's weak (half of the blade). For b), the pressure is either being applied as a rotational pressure (i.e. redirecting the blade outwards), or the pressure is being applied at the hilt, pushing the cross guard out and up underneath Blue's blade.
Likewise, Blue is Soft in the bind for all the opposite reasons: a) Underbind, b) not able to put pressure on Orange's sword, c) not in control, and d) has weak on strong.
However, let's say that Orange made a bad parry, and both fencers ended up with their blade dead centre:
In this example, both fencers are soft in the bind. Generally, if your hilt and your tip are on the centre, you are soft in the bind. One fencer will want to go hard in the bind, either by rotating out their tip, or their hilt, or doing both. This is called a Wind. In the image below, Orange has first rotated the tip out to gain an Overbind, and then has quickly Wound the hilt out into a Plough position, catching Blue's weak on their strong, sliding their blade into the cross guard. This winding action naturally brings the point back online. Lastly, Orange continues to Wind upwards into an Ox position, all the time maintaining forward pressure with their hilt, and thrusts Blue in the face. Strictly speaking, the second image from the left is not necessary, but makes it easier to get in the bind.
These are the two hard binds and winds. They can be done on both sides, depending on whether Orange's sword is on the right side of Blue's sword, or on the left (I've just mirror flipped the image below, so they are now fighting lefthanded, but assume they are righthanded and you should get the idea).
That makes a total of 4 hard binds and winds: Plough and Ox on the left, Plough and Ox on the right, depending on which side the opponent's sword is. The hard bind is always into the opponent's sword, not away from it.
Soft binds
Let's assume Blue is hard in the bind. Blue is trying to force Orange's blade offline, therefore Orange can 'give in' to this pressure by winding out into Plough and Ox away from Blue's sword. This allows Orange to get their point online and should lead to Blue's blade sliding towards Orange's hilt and following its path offline. In the image Blue is pushing Orange offline with the tip, but the same principle should apply even if Blue was pushing with the hilt. The key for making this work is Blue is maintaining forwards pressure along the length of Orange's blade as s/he pushes a thrust in; Blue's blade is just following the path of Orange's blade because of this pressure, like a train on a track. It is sort of like a bridge collapsing underneath the weight of the train.
This means, as well as the 4 hard binds, there are 4 soft binds: Plough and Ox on the left, and Plough and Ox on the right, depending on which side of the blade the opponent has bound. The soft bind is always away from the opponent's sword, never into it.
Do the maths
There are 8 winds, and each can deliver a thrust.
However if you are too close to the opponent a thrust may not be possible, in which case you can deliver a cut by adding some lateral rotation - basically using the sword like a lever.
However, if you are too close for a cut, or if your thrust misses, you can turn this into a slice by drawing the blade across the opponent.
This means there are actually 8 x 3 = 24 Winds. But not really! They are all done with the same basic motions, they just hurt the opponent in different ways depending on how close you are to them.
Do the geometry
I might be wrong, but basically, the bind works like this:
A sword is a straight line.
Its ends can be in different places - online, offline.
If your blade is pressing against my blade (or vice versa) maintaining some pressure and it slides forwards, your blade is going to follow the path of my blade from tip to hilt (or vice versa), like a train on a track.
By going hard or soft in the bind, we direct the other person's point online or offline.
Without some sort of pressure, our actions in the bind do not work as expected.
What else can you do in the bind?
Using these principles, there are a couple of extra things you can do, while still in the bind. If you are soft, you can Duplieren. If your opponent winds up into Ox, but is soft, you can Mutate. If you are both hard in the bind, you will both end up with sword and hands above your heads, which leads to grappling. The other thing you can do is leave the bind. I will do a separate post on these actions.
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