Learn seconde in foil and épée: the low outside parry with lowered point and pronated grip. With milestones, the difference to octave and the riposte.
Seconde (parry 2) is a low outside parry for foil and épée: the hand is pronated (palm facing down), the point faces down, and your blade closes the low outside line. With it you catch attacks that aim below your arm at belly, hip or thigh.
The honest answer to “Do I really need seconde?”: less often than quarte and sixte, but when a low outside attack comes, nothing else helps. The FIE glossary lists eight hand positions, four with the palm turned up (supination: quarte, sixte, septime, octave) and four with the palm turned down (pronation: prime, seconde, tierce, quinte). They give the parries their names [1]. For foil and épée, quarte, sixte and octave are the most important parries first, and seconde belongs to the other five [2].
I found no study on seconde itself. What research shows applies to all parries: the more options your brain has to choose from, the longer the reaction takes. In one study with 20 fencers, beginners were 25 to 35 % slower than experienced fencers [3]. That means: a parry you rarely practise also comes slower.
Seconde is the parry you only need once all the others are too high.
Turn your hand so that the palm faces the floor. This is the pronation that belongs to prime, seconde, tierce and quinte [1]. Seconde closes the same outside line as octave, but with a pronated instead of a supinated grip [1]. Milestone: in the on-guard position you show the hand without help, correct 10 times.
Lower the point so that it points to the floor while the hand stays roughly at height. The blade closes the line from the opponent to the low outside target. Milestone: your coach slowly puts his blade into the low outside line, and you catch it 10 times.
You parry with the strong part of your blade, i.e. the part near the guard, which according to the FIE glossary is used for parrying and taking the blade [1]. The opponent meets your strong blade, not your target. Milestone: ten parries in a row in which the opponent's blade clearly passes beside the target.
A parry gives you the right to riposte. Under the FIE foil rules the simple riposte may be direct or indirect, but it must be executed immediately, without indecision or delay, to annul any further action by the opponent [5]. Milestone: ten parry-riposte combinations in which no audible pause arises between the two.
Your partner randomly chooses between a high and a low attack. In the reaction study, reaction time rose with the number of response options [3]. That is exactly what you train: choosing the right one quickly from several options. Milestone: against randomly called high and low attacks you choose the right parry in seven out of ten cases.
Injuries in fencing are rare but not impossible. In a five-year analysis of 809 FIE competitions, 72.4 % of the time-loss injuries were in the lower extremities, and ankle sprains were the most common single injury (25.3 %) [6]. A low parry requires that you hold the position well: knee over foot, upper body stable. Always wear full protective clothing [4]. Stop if something hurts. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training or a coach.
Practise seconde together with octave in a series: octave, seconde, octave, seconde, against attacks on the same line. That way your wrist learns the difference between supination and pronation. This is coaching experience, not a study.
Seconde (parry 2) is a parry with a pronated grip and lowered point that closes the low outside line. It belongs to the eight hand positions: four supinated (quarte, sixte, septime, octave) and four pronated (prime, seconde, tierce, quinte) [1].
Both close the low outside line. In octave the hand is supinated (palm up), in seconde pronated (palm down) [1]. Which one you take in which situation is a question for your coach and the weapon.
For foil and épée. Sabre uses other parries: tierce, quarte and quinte are the most important there [2].
No. Quarte, sixte and octave come first [2]. Seconde is a building block for later, when your coach trains low attacks.
Immediately. Under the FIE foil rules the riposte must be made without indecision or delay in order to annul the opponent's next action [5].
Learning Parry 7 Septime: The Low Inside Parry with a Supinated Grip