Coup de vitesse

From Honorverse

Coup de vitesse was a martial art developed on the planet Nouveau Dijon in a further development of Oriental and Western Earth forms. It had reached mature form by about 1103 PD.

Coup de vitesse was primarily an offensive hard-style form, a combination of cool self-control and go-for-broke ferocity designed to take advantage of a taller person's larger size and longer reach than many opponents. The form concentrated on abrupt violent attacks, and made far less effort to use an opponent's strength against her than many older (largely Old Earth oriental forms), largely at the expense of centering and defense. It had borrowed freely from other forms such as Savate and T'ai Chi.

Honor Harrington and Iris Babcock had both long since earned black belts in the art. (HH2)