At least when I fenced foil in high school in the late 90s there was a move called the flick that involved whipping the foil over the opponents shoulder and having it bend sufficiently to depress the tip on his back. Fencers that mastered this technique dominated our level (perhaps Olympians could counter it, I don't know) but I don't think it has any analog in terms of real dueling. It seems like the flick is a quite good analogy for the debate 'spreading' the article talks about.