Sabre - punishing bad footwork

[flynniec6]

A footwork question - when advancing or retreating, our club tells us that bringing the feet too close together is bad technique. I assume that it's because you can't change direction fast enough. So to my two questions:

1. Am I assuming correctly? What are the consequences of not maintaining the appropriate distance?
2. If the other guy is doing this, and I see it, how exactly do I take advantage of this? In other words, how do I punish him for his bad footwork?

[sabreur]

A footwork question - when advancing or retreating, our club tells us that bringing the feet too close together is bad technique. I assume that it's because you can't change direction fast enough. So to my two questions:

1. Am I assuming correctly? What are the consequences of not maintaining the appropriate distance?
2. If the other guy is doing this, and I see it, how exactly do I take advantage of this? In other words, how do I punish him for his bad footwork?

It is not just that you can't change direction as quickly. It is generally a sign that you are galloping, which means that the tempo of your movements is going to be too long--so it become easy for the opponent to get inside your tempo or steal time from you.

The way to take advantage of your opponent making this error is to take very short steps (if he's galloping, the steps may need to be very quick), and make him flail by a) hitting him in the middle of one of his big steps; b) making a quick retreat when you see he is going to end his attack, so he ends short and you can take over the attack; c) combining your control of distance with bladework--precise, short steps put you in a much better position to parry or pris de fer.

Note that bringing the feet together is not always a sin--it can be a way to surreptitiously shorten distance--the Italian fencers are quite good at this, especially the female foilists. The position of the back foot determines the length of your lunge or your next advance--if you bring the back foot further forward than you normally would, you gain some distance in your next movement in a fairly subtle way.

[rory]

Spot on.
If your feet are too close together, you will be off balance - when changing direction this will cause your upper body to sway forwards and backwards, and slow down the change of direction.

If your opponent tends to do this (or indeed has less than excellent footwork generally)
1) take a couple of short, sharp steps forward,
2) now a large step backward.
3) As your opponent clumsily changes direction, they are likely to make a big preparatory step forward, with their hand back (as a consequence of the swaying upper body).
4) Lunge. Attack on preparation touche.

The goal here is to attack while your opponent is still mid-change-of-direction, as this is when they are most vulnerable.


(Edit: Damn, took too long typing, Sabreur got me on preparation!)

[bigdawg2121]

Generally what they said unless you're doing it for a calculated reason. Sometimes saber fencers will bring their feet close together while attacking to change tempo or to confuse their opponents (essentially you can make it look as though you are actually running and must have crossed your feet to the fencer in front of you), however, if your referee isn't that good or isn't paying attention you can also confuse them and earn yourself a card for crossing. You'll probably also hear complaints from people watching that you crossed as well, but m'eh. Generally though it's just kind of sloppy as noted above.