h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I do foil, its all I can really afford to do at the moment, as I can get instruction in foil for £10/year, the other would be a lot more expensive.

I was wondering though what the other weapons are like. I've seen people fence sabre and epee. Sabre seems to involve a lot more physical stregnth than skill since it seems to focus on blocks rather than parrys. Epee looks very dull, it seems to be over in a flash and there does not seem to be a lot of thinking or interaction between the fences. I also know that what I have precived about these two is likely to be completely and unequivicably wrong, it just seems that way from watching a few rounds, if I were doing it I would undoubtedly percive things differently.

So can someone have a shot at explaing to me the attraction to these different weapons so I can decide which I'd like to try next if I ever get the chance.

Saber requires quite a bit of skill. It's more footwork-oriented than foil; since parrying a properly executed saber cut is tougher than parrying a foil attack, one can't as easily use nifty bladework to make up for footwork mistakes. Epee typically is the slowest of the 3 weapons in terms of the average length of a bout, and involves lots of strategy. It's a bit different than saber strategy, however (mostly thought up between touches, since there's little time to do it on the fly) or foil strategy (which typically centers on right of way).

Why is it harder to parry in saber. Do you need more strength? Are you moving the sword through a larger amount of space to get to the parry position? Do you need to place the sword more precisely to block the attack?

What exactly is it you mean by strategy? Can you give a concrete example?

Thanks for your help.

You don't need any more physical strength to parry in saber, no. But, all your opponent has to do to score is touch you the slightest bit with any part of his blade. In foil, he has to depress the tip, on a smaller valid surface too. The same "tap" parry will work in either weapon, so long as the director sees it, but it turns out that the option to cut gives the attacker more ways to avoid a parry and still hit the target than he has if he must arrive to depress the electric tip.
An example of epee strategy that doesn't occur in foil or saber is: okay, I'm fencing an opponent who is 4 inches taller than I am, and ahead 2-1 in a 5-touch bout. He's proven thus far that he can pick off my wrist as I extend to double me up or get a single-light touch. He will probably be looking to do this to me every time I begin an attack. Thus, I must take his blade on my attack and hit him while closing out his counterattack.

Ah, here comes the eternal battle between sabreurs and foilists.

I'd have to say, I rarely see the sabreurs I know using "good footwork"

The Professor
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In sabre footwork is restricted by strict rules, in sabre you're not (or didn't uswed to be, it's been about 5 years ) your feet, this came from so many fleching accidents and the only way to guarantee people aren't fleching is to prevent them from crossing their feet.

In Epee (which, finally is becoming popular in the UK) the target area is the whole body and whilst I was still active (I understand it may have changed in the last couple of seasons - anyone got a recent BFA/FIE rulebook?) you can both score a ht at the same time, their being no right of way as there is in Foil and Sabre.

"you can both score a ht at the same time, their being no right of way as there is in Foil and Sabre."

Both what? sorry, that was very confusing

The Professor
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