Truro Fencing Club

A male sabre fencer is known as a sabreur, while a female sabre fencer is called a sabreuse.

Young fencers usually fence with a size 2 blade which is a few inches shorter than the adult size 5 blade which is 35" in length (or 41" including the handle).

The Fight

Hits can be scored anywhere above the waist, and with any part of the blade.
A referee controls the fight. In the event of both fencers hitting each other at the same time (within 120 milliseconds) the referee will award the point to the fencer who was judged to be the attacker (going forward and threatening the opponent) - this is known as 'the right of attack'. If a fencer is threatened by an attack they should block or evade the attack, before trying to hit the opponent. When a fencer's attack has been blocked, or if he misses the opponent, the right-of-attack changes to the other fencer. During a single point the right-of-attack can change many times in rapid succession. The concept of the right-of-attack may seem complex at first, but sabre fencing is fast and exciting, and easy to follow after a few minutes.

The Competition

Competitions are in two parts; the poules and the direct eliminination (D.E.):

The Poules - The organisers will split fencers up into small groups (ideally 7 fencers) and every fencer will fight every other fencer in that poule. Fights within a poule usually go to 5 points. The results of all the poules are used to rank fencers in the D.E.

The D.E.- The direct elimination is very similar to that found in many other sports. Two fencers will fight and the winner will go through to the next round; the loser is out of this competition.

One variation on the D.E. is "repechage". Occasionally a competition organiser will arrange the D.E. in such a way that a fencer will need to lose twice before they are out of the competition.