S10.b. Dr. Breck's Sabre Parries

Dr. Edward Breck, an active fencer in Boston, Massachusetts and the editor of the Amateur Fencer's League of America's magazine, The Swordsman, authored a booklet that was combined with the Senac's and published in 1926 in Spalding's Red Cover series of sports handbooks.  This does not appear in the earlier Blue Cover series handbook with content by the Senac's, so we can only be sure that it reflects sabre technique before 1926.  Breck's material covers 45 pages, of which 9 are devoted to sabre.  This is hardly an exhaustive treatment of the sabre, but it includes an interesting selection of parries that merits examination.

Breck includes familiar sabre parries common in any system at the time, but adds three parries which he defines as being done in the same way as foil parries.  His list of sabre specific parries is:

HEAD PARRY - a parry executed with the weapon arm oriented forward and bent with the hand above the head and in pronation, the blade held horizontally.

LEFT CHEEK PARRY -  a parry executed by raising the hand to the level of the inside breast, approximately 6 inches from the body, the blade held vertically upward, the edge turned slightly to the inside.  This parry also protects against shoulder cuts.

RIGHT CHEEK PARRY - a parry executed by raising the hand to the level of the outside breast, approximately 6 inches from the body, the blade held vertically upward, the edge turned slightly to the outside.  This parry also protects against shoulder cuts.

BREAST PARRY - a parry executed by carrying the weapon arm across the body to the inside, the forearm held horizontally at chin level or slightly above, the blade held almost vertically with the edge to the inside, the weapon hand in pronation and approximately 9 inches forward of the body.

GIRDLE PARRY - a parry executed as the breast parry, but with the arm at or below chin level.

FLANK PARRY - a parry formed by a downward movement of the hand, the forearm level at waist level and the blade sloping downward with the edge to the outside, the hand moved to the outside and turned into pronation.

Note that these parries are identified by the type of attack they defeat as opposed to by numbers.  To defend against the point thrust, Breck identifies three parries by number and notes that they are done as a foil parry is done:

TIERCE - an opposition parry executed with the forearm and blade sloping upward as a unit, the hand moved slightly to the outside and turned into pronation. This parry also protects against the arm cut.

QUARTE - an opposition parry executed with the hand brought across the lower chest to close the line in the inside, the forearm and blade sloping upward as a unit, the bade directed at the opponent, and the hand rotated past the thumb-up position toward supination.

SECONDE - a parry formed by a quick downward movement of the hand, the forearm and blade sloping downward as a unit, the hand moved slightly to the outside and turned into pronation.

Finally, he identifies two avoidances as defenses against cuts to the forward targets.  If you accept the Italian theory of parry by distance, these can be counted as parries, although does not call them such.

AGAINST THE ARM CUT - performed by withdrawing the weapon hand from range.

AGAINST THE THIGH CUT - performed by withdrawing the forward leg to the rear.  Whether by reassemble, retreat step, or pass of the forward leg to the rear is not specified, but a picture of the thigh cut shows the fencer attacked withdrawing his leg by passing.  He notes that cuts to the thigh were not allowed as valid in the Amateur Fencers League of America rules, but that it was desirable to nonetheless practice this defense.

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III

Dr. Breck's Sabre Parries by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

S10.a. Hutton's Sabre Parries

Captain Alfred Hutton occupies an important position in the development of fencing in the classical period.  He made a mark on the organization of fencing as a sport, serving as the first President of the Amateur Fencing Association of Great Britain.  He was a strong advocate for the military use of the sword in a day when the sword was clearly becoming obsolete on the battlefield.  And his writings still today are followed by fencers who fence with the so-called Hutton sabre.  

Two volumes in particular Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre (1889) and The Swordsman (1898) (both available in reprint), lay out Hutton's approach to the use of the sabre.  One area in which his method is clearly distinctive is in his selection of parries.  The system he advocates is complex, even when compared to sources that use a French approach to sabre, and requires some study because of its use of a significantly different numbering system than that of the contemporary Italian numbering of parries.  The result is 17 parries:

PRIME - the weapon arm brought across the body to the inside at shoulder height, the hand in pronation, the guard and front edge turned to the inside, the blade near vertical, point down.  This parry defends the inside line against a descending cut from the inside.

HIGH PRIME - the weapon  arm is across the body and extended to the inside front with the blade and guard up, hand in pronation, the point approximately 6 to 8 inches below the horizontal.  This defends against a descending cut from high inside. 

LOW PRIME - the weapon arm is across the body with the guard at waist height, hand in pronation, guard and blade turned to the inside front at approximately 45 degrees and near vertical point down.  This defends against a rising cut from the low inside.

SECONDE - the weapon arm is carried to the outside with the guard at waist height, the hand in pronation, the guard and blade turned to the outside front and the blade near vertical point down.  This defends against the rising cut from the low outside.

HIGH SECONDE - the hand in pronation is raised to shoulder height with the arm extended in the outside line, the front edge of the blade to the outside front, and the blade held vertically with the point down.  This defends against a horizontal cut from the outside line.

TIERCE - the arm is bent with the forearm and hand at waist or lower chest height, the blade raised at an angle and blade and guard turned to the outside, the hand in pronation.   This defends against a descending cut from the outside line.

HIGH TIERCE - the arm is raised from the position of tierce so that it is bent, the hand at head height, the guard and edge to the outside, and the blade inclined upward over the body so that the point is well above the inside line.  This defends against the vertical descending cut.

LOW TIERCE - from the position of tierce the hnad is dropped to the level of the forward thigh.  This defends against a horizontal cut from the outside.

QUARTE - the forearm is carried across the body at waist or lower chest height, the blade raised at an angle and blade and guard turned to the inside, the hand in supination.  This defends against a descending cut from the inside. 

HIGH QUARTE - the arm is raised from the position of quarte so that it is bent, the hand at head height, the guard and edge to the inside, and the blade inclined upward over the body so that the point is well above the outside line.  This defends against the vertical descending cut.

HORIZONTAL QUARTE - the guard is dropped onto the forward thigh, the blade edge downward and the blade horizontal across the body.  This defends against a rising vertical cut.  Hutton attributes this parry to the Italian School, but it is not commonly pictured in Italian texts..

LOW QUARTE - from the position of quarte the hand is dropped to the level of the thigh with the blade inclining at approximately 45 degrees to the inside front. This defends against a horizontal cut from the inside.

SAINT GEORGE'S or HEAD PARRY - the upper arm  is at shoulder height to the outside with the forearm near vertical and the hand slightly above the head in pronation, the guard and blade up, the blade pointing to the inside front and the point slightly lower than the guard.  This defends against the descending vertical cut.

SIXTE - the arm is bent, held to the outside with the guard at lower chest level, point raised, the edge to the inside, hand in supination, protecting the outside high line with a back edge parry.  This protects against a descending cut from the outside. 

SEPTIME -  the forearm is carried to the inside and lowered with the hand in supination in line with the rear hip, the guard and front edge of the blade to the inside front, the point slanted forward at about ankle height.  This protects against a rising cut from low inside.

OCTAVE - the weapon arm is lowered forward, the hand in supination, the guard at waist level, the blade protecting the outside of the forward leg with a back edge parry, the point below the level of the knee.  This protects against a rising cut from the outside. 

HIGH OCTAVE -  the upper arm  is at shoulder height to the outside with the forearm near vertical and the hand slightly above the head in supination, the fingers are relaxed to all the blade to hang vertically, guard and edge to the outside front.  This defends against the descending cut from high outside, particularly a coupe riposte to the fencer's right cheek.  This parry is identical to the Italian seventh parry.

In 1889 Hutton specified that all parries are executed from the medium guard between tierce and quarte.  At the same time he indicated that the most effective parries against attacks with the point were Quarte, Tierce, Seconde, Septime, and Prime.

In 1898 Hutton adds to the diagrams from 1889 to show the relationship flowing between Low Quarte, Quarte, and High Quarte, and the same for Low Tierce, Tierce, and High Tierce and for Seconde and High Seconde.  In essence these parries from a steel curtain to defend the vertical inside and outside lines.  Similarly Low Prime, Prime, and Saint George form a flowing defence against a transition of an attack from the inside line to the vertical cut.  And by 1898 he no longer includes the High Prime, Octave, or Horizontal Quarte parries in his method.

Also in 1898 Hutton divides the parries into parries of primary importance and auxiliary parries.  The primary parries are:

• Quarte with High and Low Quarte
• Tierce with High and Low Tierce
• Seconde
• Septime

The auxiliary parries are essentially parries of opportunity, parries taken against a riposte or counterriposte when the fencer is not in a position that would allow the use of one of the primary parries.  These include:

• High Octave
• High Seconde
• Prime with High and Low Prime
• Saint George

This is a complex defensive system.  Having 17 parries at one's disposal would seem to offer something for every situation.  However, achieving the ability to automatically choose and rapidly execute this many different parries under bout conditions would require considerable practice, and the designation of primary parries may have been an attempt at a solution to that problem.

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III
 

Hutton's Sabre Parries by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

B.2. The Vice President of the Jury

A Jury for a classical bout is normally composed of one President and four Judges.  The Judges and the President together determine the materiality of a hit (whether or not a hit arrived on target, at all, or not at all); the President determines the validity of the hit (whether or not a touch is awarded based on the rules of priority for the weapon).  However, for a brief time in the 1930s a sixth member could join a Jury in Great Britain, the Vice-President.

The position and functions of a Vice-President are detailed in the 1937 Rules for Competition published by the Amateur Fencing Association.  The Vice-President as a member of the Jury was first adopted by the Amateur Fencing Association in 1933.  The Vice-President position had evidently disappeared by the time of the publication of Professor Roger Crosnier's A Guide to Judging and Presiding at Foil and Sabre in 1950.

The Vice-President appears to have been an individual, probably qualified to serve as a President, whose primary function was to vote in the place of the President when the President was of no opinion on matters of either materiality or validity.  The assumption that he or she was probably qualified to serve as a President is based on the responsibility of the Vice-President to vote on matters of validity when the President had no opinion.  The specific duties of the Vice-President were to give his or her opinion (in other words, cast 1 1/2 votes as to materiality or rule on the validity of a touch):

• If the President had no opinion in the case of one Judge voting "no," "yes," or "yes but not valid" and the other Judge abstaining.  Note that "yes but not valid" is not specified as a vote in the 1937 rules. 
• If the President had no opinion in the case of the two Judges voting in opposition to each other (one "yes" and one "no") or if both Judges abstained.
• When the President had no opinion as to the validity of a touch or as to the priority in time of a hit in epee.

What does the Vice-President bring to the bout that justifies having an additional official in the Jury?  The simple answer is that the presence of a Vice-President reduces the probability that a particular phrase will result in a doubtful hit or an inability of the President to determine the priority of the action.  This does not mean that the Vice-President necessarily increases the accuracy of calls.  

A Vice-President is merely replacing the abstaining President in the decision process and has just as much of a chance to make the wrong call as the President did.  And if the President has an opinion, even if it is seen by the Vice-President as being clearly the wrong call, the Vice-President has no vote.  Although it may be tempting to think of the Vice-President as serving in the function of the modern video referee in coming to a consensus decision as to the validity of a hit, that would be an error.

Why did the Vice-President not survive into the modern era?  The available information does not suggest a reason.  However, there are two obvious possibilities.  First, finding sufficient skilled Presidents, Directors, or Referees to staff a tournament has never been an easy task.  Tieing up two qualified Presidents on a piste halves the number of pistes that can be run and reduces the availability of reliefs when a President is tired and starting to make fatigue-driven errors.  Second, actual use of the concept may have demonstrated an added level of complication with no great increase in utility.

Copyright 2019 by Walter G. Green III.

The Vice-President of the Jury by Walter G. Green III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.