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Sabre is derived from the sword used by the cavalry in war time. Reflecting its more warlike past sabre is often considered the most aggressive of the three weapons, but at higher levels the techniques employed by sabreurs are extremely intricate and require great control.
The greatest distinction between foil/epee and sabre is that the side of the blade can be used to score a hit. This reflects the slashing motion made on horseback as you charge through. The blade is slightly triangular in shape, and has no button at the end. Unlike foil and epee the whole of the metal blade can be used to complete the circuit when it connects with the metal of the opponent’s lamé and mask. The guard is as wide as an epee’s but has a portion than extends down to cover the knuckles to be used in parrying from the side.
In recognition of the value of your opponent’s horse (and the fact that if you beat him you win it) the lower part of the body is not target in case you hit the historical horse. The head, torso, arms and wrist are target, but not the hand. This is scored electrically through the use of metal mask, and full upper body lamés. Wrist overlays are worn to cover the glove.
Sabre has the Right of Way rule similar to that of foil, but because of the high speed of sabre, more general rules of thumb can be used to guide President’s in the application of the Right of Way rule. Generally speaking, the fencer moving forwards has right of way, the fencer with a straight arm has right of way, and the fencer definitively moving their blade to attack has right of way. These of course are general rules, and are subject to the overriding rule that if an attack is parried it no longer holds right of way.
Sabre fights are often over much more quickly than foil and epee fight. Therefore in competitions breaks in matches to 15 are often given at 8 points rather than 3 minutes.
With the head as a target the type of parries used differ from foil, but their importance is by no means less. The sabre specific parries are tierce and quinte although all other parries do apply as well. In sabre the stop cut is a useful technique, similar to the stop hit in epee, although you must have begun you attack before your opponent begins theirs in order to gain right of way, thus stop cuts are often referred to as Attacks on Preparation.