1. Is it possible to counter or dodge an attack when you are in the middle of using a heavy attack with the long sword? It never works when I try it so I use the short blade every time I fight a large group of enemies.

2. Sometimes when I get into a fight I want Altair to use the hidden blade or his fists. He always switches to the short blade or longsword after I lock on to a guard so I need to switch back to the weapon I wanted him to use. How can I prevent this from happening

I have the playstation 3 version of Assassin's Creed.

1. no u can't, if they attack to, ur out of luck

2. no way to prevent just lock and then switch if u want to fight like that to save some seconds