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Step 1
Hold the sabre correctly. The guard of the sabre is the curved metal portion of the hilt of the sabre and is different from the hilt of a foil. This is to help protect the hand since a strike on the hand earns your opponent a point. Hold the sabre so that all of the back of your hand and knuckles are under the guard of the sabre and shielded by the guard when you strike.
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Step 2
Know your target. When you use a sabre in fencing, hitting any part of your opponent's body from his waist to the top of his head earns you a point. It's fair to strike an opponent on the torso, hand, back, arms or head if you're using a sabre as a weapon. Using a sabre gives you many more options to strike your opponent and keeping all of these target areas in mind can help you score.
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Step 3
Give your opponent as few openings as possible. Because there are so many areas of the body that are fair to hit when using a sabre, you need to be extra careful not to give your opponent an opportunity to strike any of these areas. Pay extra attention to your hands, arms and other areas of the body that are legal to strike when using a sabre as these are areas that your opponent is likely to target.
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Step 4
Thrust and cut when you use the sabre. Thrusting involves hitting your opponent with the tip of your sabre, using a thrusting motion to poke her with it, while cutting uses the length of the blade against your opponent's body. Both of these techniques earn equal points so utilize both of these methods of attack.
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Step 5
Keep it simple. It's fun to try to pretend to be one of the medieval swordsmen in the movies and make a grand sweeping gesture when attacking your opponent, but this is ineffective and also gives your opponent time to strike back. Avoid making extra movements or flourishes when thrusting or cutting your opponent; a smart opponent will take advantage of those few extra seconds to deliver a quick hit and earn a point.
