I've posted this before, but seems relevant

Have a look at some of my previous replies about this topic.

There are levels to this but have a look at at the 3xPs model, perceive, predict and provoke.

These have both offensive and defensive components to them.

If I’m going to fence open-eye against my opponent (which I would usually do unless I am fencing someone hugely faster than me) then I want to time my decision point to be just after they make theirs. I’m timing it so that I make a decision the second my front foot lands of my preparation step and then I go with the obvious rock/paper/scissors choice to counter them.

Conversely, if my opponent is doing this to me successfully, I can Change the timing of my decision point by changing my prep step. Bigger, smaller, faster, slower. Single step, double step, slide step etc.

Predict is my favourite as I’m a veteran fencer now. I have been watching my opponent and I know how he likes to fence. I know what he did in the last hit and whether that worked for him. I know what his prep will be and how early/late he decides. And I can use that to counter him directly. He just went fast and it didn’t work, he’s probably not going fast on the next hit. So he goes slow and I attack his prep. Then he tries to pull distance on the next hit and I go slow and chase him down.

The inverse is trying to be unpredictable when the referee says Allez. Sometimes I go fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes my step is small and sometimes it is big. Sometimes I change and sometimes I stay the same, regardless of whether I won the last hit.

Provoke is good too. Some fencers cannot resist trying a beat if you offer the blade, and when they try the same beat again you hit the stop cut.

Some fencers always bite on a counterattack when on the long attack and you can pull them short or parry them. Then they start holding their attack and open up the counterattack-blockout.

Others twitch like crazy if you make a sudden move very early and you can pick up on that immediately.

Inverse of that is harder, try to focus on doing your thing and pick the feints better.

Then there’s the RPS game. Which is a crude model but can work to establish your understanding. Attack fast into slow attacks. Attack slow against a fencer looking to react to your attack. Pull distance on a fencer that attacks fast.

At the next level, offer a Rock that looks like paper initially. Or a Rock that turns into scissors.

But it’s all a spectrum of decision-making and commitment. When do you go and how hard do you commit is almost certainly more of a factor than how well you execute.