Starting sabre as additional weapon to epee

[lfortier]

Hello, last night I took a sabre lesson and I just LOVED it! Currently, I am an epeeist (fencing for almost 6 months) wanting to do sabre as well. What is it going to be like if I start- hard?challenging?more tiring than epee? the right of way issue? cost? misc. stuff? Any knowledge on the subject matter would be much appreciated!

[Craig]

You're going to move a lot more, but since you've done epee you can be a stop-cutter and pop that wrist as you get out of distance each time.

Cheers,
Craig

[a517dogg]

ask ouiyt, he does it.

i wouldn't recommend fencing two different weapons after only 6 months of fencing. maybe switch to just sabre. doing both will screw up your reflexes.

[ShaggyShaw]

Epee makes an incredibly good compliment to sabre... but sabre makes a really bad compliment to epee. A fun thing, going from epee to sabre, is attacking, with compound attacks, disengadges, makinglike you're going to cut and just flicking it across the wrist.

Bad thing about going to epee from sabre, is you get too used to hitting not very hard, and with the side. bad news for any epee fencer. Also, it's going to take you a while to get the parry 5 and it's going to get mixed up with epee. I still occasionally do a parry 5 in epee out of reflex.

So, if you decide to fence sabre from epee, go for it, you'll have a jump-start and a few advanced skills. just be prepared that if you do it alot, I can almost guarentee it's going to mess up your epee.

[oiuyt]

I agree with ADogg, I'd suggest just focusing on one weapon at a time when just starting out. Whether the "right" one weapon for you is epee or sabre depends on a host of factors including you, your club, your coach, etc. It is clearly possible to be good at more than one weapon, but for now you'll almost certainly be better off focusing and learning to fence first. After you've good a solid understanding of fencing translating that to a second (or third) weapon is much easier than trying to learn two very different things at the same time.

When I first started fencing I did both epee and SCA rapier. I had MAJOR problems with the overlap and with trying to sort out my learned reactions (especially as regards the use of the off hand). I dropped rapier (I much preferred sport fencing). After 5 years of epee I started playing with sabre (due to a lack of epee fencers at the time). I discovered I was both good at it and enjoyed it and have been fencing both ever since, with an increasing emphasis on sabre. Much of what you will learn in one weapon will carry over to the other two, fencing is fencing and the differences are significantly smaller than the similarities.

My suggestion: pick one weapon, stick with it for at least the first couple of years. If you still want to fence both, or if you want to fence the other weapon, pick it up again at that time. You'll likely be better off in the long run.

-B :)

[Marcos]

I once fenced all 3 weapons for my university, 12 bouts in each weapon over the course of a day

by the end of it i didn't know what was in my hand!

If you are just fencing for fun then have a go at as many weapons you want, but to get really proficient you need to focus on just the one

[AndrewH]

I fenced epee and sabre for all of 2 months. Then I lost interest in epee as sabre took over. So be prepared, sabre will grab hold of you and never let go....

[Capt. Slo-mo]

Originally posted by lfortier
Hello, last night I took a sabre lesson and I just LOVED it!

[ventilator sound] "Princess Leia, come towards the Dark Side!"

See, didn't I say you'd be a great sabre fencer? Seriously, many epee fencers who try sabre say it screws up their point control.

But hey, just do a lot of point attacks in sabre to keep your coordination.