Sabre

A sabreur. Valid target (everything from the waist up, including the arms and head, but excluding the hand that is not holding the weapon) is in red.

The sabre is one of the three weapons of modern sport fencing, and is alternatively spelled saber in American English. The sabre differs from the other modern fencing weapons, the épée and foil, in that it is possible to score with the edge of the blade; for this reason, sabreur movements and attacks are very fast. For the other two weapons, valid touches are only scored using the point of the blade. Like foil, sabre uses the convention of right-of-way to determine who acquires the touch.

The term sabreur refers to a fencer who fences with a sabre. Sabreuse is the female equivalent.

Sabre was the last weapon in fencing to make the transition over to using electrical equipment. This occurred in 1988, 31 years after Foil and 52 years after Épée. In 2004, immediately following the Athens Summer Olympics, the timing for recording a touch was shortened from its previous setting dramatically altering the sport and method in which a touch is scored.

The target area originates from dueling sabre training.^{[citation needed]} To attack the opponent's leg would allow him to "slip" that leg back and attack one's exposed arm or head given that the higher line attack will outreach the low line (there is a classic example of the leg slip in Angelo's "Hungarian & Highland Broad Sword" (PDF). http://www.thehaca.com/pdf/HungarianHighlandBroadsword.pdf. ). The target area is from the waist up excluding the hand not holding the weapon. Right-of-way applies, much as it does to foil.

A common misconception concerning the origin of sabre's target area is that the legs are removed as targets due to sabre's origin as a cavalry weapon. Essentially, this line of reasoning goes, the legs of a horseman were not a valid target in war, since cutting the leg of a man riding a horse would not stop that man from continuing his charge. This myth has largely been refuted and several older texts demonstrate low sabre parries to protect the mount's flanks and the fencer's legs.^{[citation needed]}

The weapon

The cross-section of the sabre blade is Y- or V-shaped, unlike the quadrangular shape of the foil, but not as stiff as the épée. Adult (Size 5) blades are 88 cm (35 inches) in length. At the end of the blade, the point is folded over itself to form a "button", although no actual button exists. The bell guard of the sword is curved around the handle, giving the fencer hand protection. On electrical sabres, a socket for the body wire is found underneath the bell guard. A fastener known as a pommel is attached to the end of the sword to keep the bell guard and handle on. The handle of a sabre is standardly a French grip, as most other grips are incompatible with the bell guard. The entire weapon is generally 105 cm (41 inches) long, and 500 grams (1.1 lb) in weight. It is shorter than the foil or épée, and lighter than the épée, making it easier to move swiftly and incisively. Many equate the sabre's blade to a matchstick, in that they are easy to snap but relatively cheap to replace.

Unlike the other two weapons, there is very little difference between an electric sabre and a steam or dry (non-electric) one. The blade itself is the same in steam and electric sabres, as there is no need for a blade wire or pressure-sensitive tip in an electric sabre. An electric sabre has a socket, which is generally a 2-prong or bayonet Foil socket with the two contacts shorted together. Early electric sabres were equipped with a capteur socket. The capteur was a device that was intended to detect a parry by use of an accelerometer. If a parry was detected, the electronics were supposed to invalidate any subsequent closing of the scoring circuit due to the flexible blade whipping around the parry. This device never worked as intended and was quickly discarded, and the whipover effect was greatly mitigated when the FIE mandated stiffer sabre blades in the S2000 specification. The electric sabre also has insulation on the pommel and on the inside of the guard to prevent an electrical connection between the sabre and the lamé. This is undesirable because it effectively extends the lamé onto the sabre, causing any blade contact to be registered as a valid touch.

A right-handed electric sabre

Target area

The target area for sabre consists of the torso above the waist, as well as the arms and head (excluding the hand not holding the weapon). When fencing with electric equipment, a manchette, or sabre cuff, is used in conjunction with the lamé and electrically conductive mask to ensure that the entire target area forms a single circuit.

Because touches can be scored using the edge of the blade, there is no need for a pressure sensitive head to be present on the end of the blade (thus having the button). When fencing "electric" (as opposed to "steam" or "dry") a current runs through the sabre blade. When the blade comes into contact with the lamé, the electrical mask, or the manchette, the current flows through the body cord and interacts with the scoring equipment.

Scoring

Sabre uses two lights (red and green lights, known as primary or scoring lights) on the scoring device (generally referred to as the box). A red or green light shows a positive touch, red being a touch from the left fencer and green being a touch from the right fencer. A sabre action has three possible outcomes. Either one of the scoring lights turns on, both turn on, or the referee stops the action before either turns on.

Lockout

A lockout is when only one of the scoring lights turns on even though both fencers have hit each other. This occurs because the scoring apparatus measures the time between the earlier fencer's hit and the later fencer's hit and if the time delay is over a prescribed threshold, the later fencer's hit is not registered.

The lockout time for sabre was originally 300 to 350 milliseconds (varying by the reliability of the machine used). In 2005, however, the FIE voted 51-33 to decrease the lockout time. They then proceeded to vote 50-32 to decrease it to the specified time of approximately 120 milliseconds.

Changing the lockout timing effectively changed the way sabre is fenced, perhaps equivalent to if a piece used in chess had a different movement pattern assigned to it - although the essential nature of the game would remain the same, the strategies for attack and defence would need to be rethought.

The timing change was initially greeted with a degree of controversy, as many fencers were accustomed to having the longer timings. This made the techniques, currently employed, vulnerable to fast stop-cuts (a hit made by the defender that lands whilst the attacker is still beginning their attack) or remises (a second attack made by the original attacker after the first has technically finished). It was commonly regarded that the shorter timings would only encourage poor technique and an 'attack only' mentality, negating much of the art of the sport.

Remises and stop-cuts would not normally score a point as a hit by the attacker would take priority. However the hit made with priority may arrive too late under the shorter timings to register and so the stop-cuts and remises would indeed score.

As a result of the narrower timings, the efficacy of attacks into preparation was increased, meaning that it was now more critical that the preparing fencer must already have begun an attack by the time the two fencers were in hitting distance of each other.

The techniques of how to parry and riposte have been extended. The solid parries, used extensively before the change of timings, would be supplemented by an additional step back by the defender to avoid the attacker remising (continuing to push their blade after their attack has technically done) or else the defence to be performed as a beat-attack, an extending arm that deflects the oncoming attack halfway through the extension before hitting the original attacker's target area.

With hindsight, the shorter timings seem to have encouraged a tightening and refinement of the original techniques with smaller, neater moves so that, on the whole, sabre became faster and more precise than it had ever been before.

Right of way

When both lights turn on, it rests upon the referee to decide which fencer scores the point. The decision is based on the concept of Right of Way (RoW) which gives the point to the fencer who had priority, i.e. the attacking fencer. Priority is gained in many ways:

• Establishing a point in line prior to the opponent initiating an offensive action
• Attacking the opponent. (In fencing the word attack is defined as: is the initial offensive action made by extending the arm and continuously threatening the opponent‘s target, preceding the launching of the lunge or flèche. In sabre the threat may be established with the point or the cutting edge, and the end of the attack coincides with the moment the front foot touches the strip).
• Executing an attack which is preceded by a beat on the opponent's weapon
• Deceiving the opponent's attempt to beat the blade
• Executing an immediate return offense following the opponent's failed attack; this can be the result of a parry, or because they have fallen short of the target.
• By continuous offensive action; avoiding an opponent's defensive actions and continuing to maintain a threat, by compound attack or by redoublement.

If neither fencer has priority in a double touch situation, the action is called simultaneous and no point is awarded.

Referee

The referee may halt the action for reasons such as a safety hazard, fencer injury, or violation of the rules. When the referee says "halt", no further action may score a point. For cases of rules violation, the referee may choose to either warn the offender or show him or her a penalty card. A warning has no scoring implication. Cards, on the other hand, have further penalties:

• Yellow Card: Offender's touch is usually annulled
• Red Card: Offender's touch usually annulled, point awarded to opponent
• Black Card: Offender is removed from the tournament and the building. The team (if on one) is also removed.

Technique

At sabre, it is generally easier to attack than to defend (for example, the timing favours remises) and high-level international sabre fencing is often very fast and very simple, although when required, top sabreurs do display an extended repertoire of tactical devices. In response to the relatively high speed of sabre fencing, the rules for sabre were changed to prohibit the forward cross-over (where the back foot passes the front foot) - it is now a cardable offence. Thus, the flèche attack is no longer permissible, so sabre fencers have instead begun to use a 'flunge' (flying lunge). This attack begins like a flèche, but the fencer pushes off from the ground and moves quickly forward, attempting to land a hit before their feet cross over. Similarly, "running attacks" - consisting of a failed flèche followed by continuous remises - have also been eliminated.

Sabre defense comprises the three primary parries:

• Tierce, high outside
• Quarte, high inside
• Quinte, head

and three secondary parries:

• Prime, generally taken in a sweeping motion to cover the entire inside line - often used instead of quarte when moving from quinte
• Seconde, either guarding the low outside line - often used instead of tierce when moving from a "point-in-line"
• Sixte, Blade up and to the outside, wrist supinated. This parry can be Lateral or Circular.

It follows from the nature of sabre parries (they block an incoming attack rather than deflecting it as in foil and épée) that they are static and must be taken as late as possible to avoid being duped by a feint attack, committing to a parry in the wrong line and being unable to change parry (which often involves completely altering the orientation of the blade while moving and rotating the wrist and forearm) to defend against the real attack quickly enough.

World Rankings

MEN

• 1. Nicolas Limbach (GER)
• 2. Nicolas Lopez (FRA)
• 3. Aldo Montano (ITA)
• 4. Julien Pillet (FRA)
• 5. Luigi Tarantino (ITA)
• 6. Rares Dumitrescu (ROU)
• 7. Gianpiero Pastore (ITA)
• 8. Tamas Decsi (HUN)
• 9. Alexey Yakimenko (RUS)
• 10. Jorge Pina (ESP)
• 11. [[Stanislav Pozdniakov]](RUS)

WOMEN

• 1. Mariel Zagunis (USA) - Twice-Reigning Olympic Champion
• 2. Olga Kharlan (UKR)
• 3. Sophia Velikaia (RUS)
• 4. Ekaterina Diatchenko (RUS)
• 5. Ilaria Bianco (ITA)
• 6. Xue Tan (CHN)
• 7. Leonore Perrus (FRA)
• 8. Azza Besbes (TUN)
• 9. Irene Vecchi (ITA)
• 10. Olena Khomrova (UKR)

NOTE: These rankings are accurate as of August 13, 2009^{[citation needed]}

References

• Amberger, J. Christoph (1998). The Secret History of the Sword: Adventures in Ancient Martial Arts. Burbank, California: Unique Publications. ISBN 1-892515-04-0.