high school sabre simultaneous touches

[sabre saber]

Hi, I am a begging sabre fencer, fencing at the highschool level.
I was wondering, what do some of you guys do to avoid simultaneous touches with out retreating and giving your opponent right of way. Also, any tips on drills I could do to improve my game real quick? I have a large tournament for sophmores coming up in less than two weeks, so I would like to learn some kind of skill that could give me the advantage when both me and my oppent rush in.

Thank You.

[Inquartata]

The flip answer: parry.

The real answer: there are a number of things one can do. I confess that I have difficulty with the "all attack, all the time" sort of opponent, myself, so I am trying to work on this, too, so far without much success.

One cannot really do much, other than attack as well, against someone who merely launches whenever the ref says "Fe---", without "giving up the ROW. Except perhaps to get faster, increase your reaction time, make a clearer attack, etc. One must relinquish the attack in order to take it away convincingly. You have to make the other persons attack break or stutter or fall short, or you have to parry or beat into preparation, or do second intention actions, or what have you. Most of these are done while retreating, or at least while not attacking yourself...

[Dalton]

Here are some things you might want to consider:

1. Ok, let your opponent have his precious 1st attack. From "fence!", take two small steps forward, feint counterattack, then move quickly away. As your opponent swings wildly and misses, finnish him with a quick lunge.

2. Use the line. Let the other guy even take the prise-de-fer, but again step away from the cut. OR, just let him run into it.

3. Make simultaneus, but invite your opponent to a certain line, then at the last moment, parry-riposte.

Basically, it all depends on footwork and balance. If you can control the distance, you can do just about anything with your opponent. Vary counter-attacking and parrying. Use second intention. Once you have shaken your opponent's confidece in attack, you can start surprising him by going on the attack yourself.

[AndrewH]

Hey! As a HS fencer myself, I remember being frustrated when I couldn't make the opponent react. We do a drill at my school, the girls call it "In & Out", us guys just call it "break tempo". Basically, the idea is that after a few simul touches, you want to change up your tactics and break the tempo. So you and an opponent get on guard, and have someone call "fence". For the first 10 touches, both people simul out to a predetermined line. Then, one fencer keeps attacking while the other breaks tempo in one of 3 ways:

1) step forward, then back, parry, step in and riposte. (this is also good for "feeling the tempo" of the bout)

2) step forward, step again & beat attack

3) step back, back again and distance parry, then in and riposte

Then after 10 touches, you attack and the other fencer breaks. Make sure that while you're doing simul touches, you have someone watch to make sure no one's hand is coming out late.

Good luck!

Andrew

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by Inquartata
The flip answer: parry.

Dang it! You beat me to it!