A basic training guide to Epee

Epee concepts:

 

On guard

Place the non-weapon hand between the elbow and chest and spread the fingers.  The thumb should touch the chest and the tip of the little finger the elbow.  Take care that the fore-arm is level with the ground in this extended position.  Thumb is at 1 o’ clock for right-handed fencers (11 o’ clock for left-handed fencers).  The feet are slightly closer to each-other than in foil (by half the length of the leading foot) although care should be taken not to assume an upright stance.  Be aware that as soon as you enter a threatened area, you should be ready to place 60% of your weight on the rear leg.

 

Distance in epee is measured by the weapon hand and not the torso as in foil (we call it the middle distance of the hand).  Thus you will have to lunge fully in order to reach the opponent’s hand.  This is the initial distance and further maneuvering will be used to lure the opponent within reach of a half lunge.  Bear in mind that this brings you within reach of his attack.  Vary the length of various attacks and in doing so make it very difficult for your opponent to predict the intended distance from which you are going to launch your attack.

Hitting various targets with the proper angulation.
The there are four main angles of attack: Inside, outside, above and below.

Guards and parries
With epee, a good opening guard is octave as it invites the high line attacks and lends more momentum to the percussive parry.  Parries should always be percussive as it misaligns

the opponent’s tip and forces him to use one tempo to realign for another attack.

 

Remise

Upon being parried by an opponent with a tendency to delay his riposte, simply renew your attack along the initial line.  If the parry is excessively wide, disengage to return to the target.

 

Half lunge

Many attacks in epee are delivered with the half lunge.  This gives the opportunity to remise and it allows for defensive actions during the opponent’s counter attack. 

Countering remises
Counter attacks in opposition: (High line and middle line)
Counter attacks to counter low line attacks while removing the leg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The basic point control exercises:

1) (The following is practiced at short distance of the hand) Fencer 1 stays on guard in octave and allows fencer 2 to hit with extension.  Fencer 1 now attempts to engage 2’s blade with a small circular action ending yet again in octave.  Note that only the tip describes a circle and that the arm remains motionless.  This gathering of the blade is performed in both clockwise and counterclockwise manner.  Fencer 2 will now remove his tip during a small controlled disengagement to avoid the attempt to take the blade and ends by hitting the same spot after moving his tip around the guard of 1’s epee.

 

2) Fencers are in short distance of the hand, blades engaged in the high line while fencer 1 leads the repeated advance-retreat distance routine.  Fencer1 will now arbitrarily extend the arm slightly while at the same time opening the outside line of the arm (imitating an attack with weak cover).  Fencer 2 now hits the arm by extending in opposition and covering the proper line, thereby preventing a counter attack.  No movement of the feet is needed during the attacks. Only the movements of the arm are being exercised.  After the hit, both fencers return to on guard.

 

Another variation on the above.  Now fencer 1 presses 2’s blade out of line.  Fencer 2 now disengages to return to the line of attack and hits the arm by extending in the line that covers him from counter attack from fencer1.

 

3) Fencers stand in long distance of the hand.

Fencer 1 leads by advancing and retreating 1 step (always one forwards followed by one backwards, sometimes varying the length and speed of each step).
Fencer 2 keeps the distance and arbitrarily stands his ground when 1 advances, thereby shortening the distance to middle distance (passive shortening of distance since the opponent did the moving).  Fencer 2 should now immediately perform a full lunge to hit the arm of 1.  Fencer 2 recovers and retreats with a firm step (arm still extended).  The exercise now repeats.