When this article was first written, I had not read Professor Zbigniew Czajkowski's excellent book: Understanding Fencing: The Unity of Theory and Practice. In this book, Professor Czajkowski introduces another use of the word "tempo", and that is the tempo of surprise: or the ability to strike when the opponent is least prepared to deal with an attack. However, even the good professor - a world renowned expert on the sport of fencing - spends a number of pages trying to define exactly what he means by the use of the word "tempo" (and what it has meant to past teachers of fencing in a variety of schools). In the end, he admits that the language does not quite describe the concept.

When I wrote this article, I was certainly aware of the implications of the opponent's focus and attention in achieving a one-tempo situation. However, I did not see a graceful way of integrating the sorts of ideas presented by Professor Czajkowski into the thread of the article. Perhaps, at some future time, I might try to tackle the concept myself. However, for now, I would recommend you to the Professor's book.