Hello Saberforum!
This was something I had intended to do for a while now, especially once I was appointed Resident Master. You see, while I have indeed been fencing a long time, I consider this position to be a great honor... one which I seek to live up to. As such, I want to contribute in whatever way I can to discussion about LED lightsaber combat.
In order to do this, I decided to start with what I know best - fencing. From here I can show the basics, then move onto how they are applied in lightsaber combat (most notably in Form II: Makashi). So here we go!
For those of you without knowledge of fencing, there are three weapons - foil, epee, and saber. Each weapon has a different construction as well as different target area. Foil (which is my specialty) has the thinnest, lightest blade. Touches are scored with the tip of the weapon only (no cutting), and target area includes only the torso. Epee has a much thicker blade, with a triangular cross section. In addition, the hand guard (called a bell guard) is much more prominent, which has to do with target area. You see, target area for epee is the entire body... from your head to your toes. As with foil, however, touches can only be scored with the tip. Finally, we have saber... which is popular due to its ability to cut as well as its aggressive nature. Target area for this weapon includes everything from the waist up.
To help you visualize these ideas, here's a pic I found:
As you can imagine, the differing target areas results in a much different style of combat for each weapon. In general, epee is the most careful and controlled, with saber being the most "fast and furious". Foil lies somewhere in between.
Of course lightsaber combat is rather different - a combination of all these different concepts. As with real combat, no area is safe... so target area is much like epee. However, cutting with the blade is possible, so there is some similarity with saber. So how does one pull all these ideas together?
Let's start with target zones. Being a foil guy, I'll just use my own as a base to work off of.
As you can see, there are four main target areas in foil, covering the torso. Upper right chest, lower right chest, upper left chest, lower left chest. As such, there are parries to cover attacks to each of these areas (in fact there are multiple for each zone!).
Here is where I (finally) bring it back to lightsaber combat - by expanding these target areas to the whole body. As some of you undoubtedly were thinking, foil target area doesn't doo much good when the whole body is fair game... which I answer with simple extraplolation! Rather than covering merely the right upper chest, think of the parry as protecting the right upper body, and make it larger if needed. In fact, this image pretty accurately describes the ideas I'm talking about:
As you can see, one additional detail is the head - which I answer by adding in the high parry used in saber fencing (parry 5, or 6). This results in five main target areas to defend or attack.
Anyway, I do hope this helps some of you, especially those interested in Makashi. If you have any questions please feel free to let me know, and certainly tell me if there's anything else you'd like to see. There will definitely be more to come!