Learn septime in foil and épée: the low inside parry with lowered point and supinated grip. With routes from octave, quarte and sixte, milestones and riposte.
Septime (parry 7) is a low inside parry for foil and épée: the hand is supinated (palm facing up), the point faces down, and your blade closes the low inside line. It catches attacks that aim from the inside under your arm at belly or hip.
The honest answer to “Why do I need septime if I have quarte?”: because quarte is high. If your opponent attacks low inside, you lack the quarte position and have to bring the blade down. For this there are eight hand positions: four supinated (quarte, sixte, septime, octave) and four pronated (prime, seconde, tierce, quinte). They give the parries their names [1]. For foil and épée, quarte, sixte and octave are among the three most important parries, and septime belongs to the other five [2].
I found no study on septime itself. One observation helps anyway: in a measurement of 24 elite fencers, the defender had a mean movement time of 0.353 seconds for the defence, which gives him an advantage over the attacker [3]. But that only holds if your hand knows where it has to go.
Septime is quarte for the basement: same side, lower line.
Turn your hand so that the palm faces up. That is the supination of septime, like quarte, sixte and octave [1]. Milestone: you show the hand position without help, correct 10 times.
The easiest route to septime leads from octave, because both are low parries. The HFV examination booklet gives exactly “from octave to septime” as an example of a simple parry [2]. You move the blade from the low outside line to the low inside line. Keep the hand at the same height and turn only the wrist, because every additional movement costs time (coaching practice). Milestone: ten changes octave–septime against a slow partner.
If your opponent attacks high and you want to parry low, you change the line. The HFV booklet gives “from quarte to septime” as a semicircular parry and “from sixte to septime” as a diagonal parry [2]. The FIE glossary also describes septime from the sixte guard as a semicircular parry from the high into the low opposite line or the other way round [1]. Milestone: ten parries from sixte and ten from quarte to septime without the blade drawing a loop.
A parry gives you the right to riposte. Under the FIE foil rules it must be made immediately, without indecision or delay, to annul the opponent's next attack [5]. Milestone: ten parry-riposte combinations without an audible pause.
Your partner randomly chooses between a high and a low attack. You choose the matching parry. Milestone: against randomly called attacks you choose the right parry in seven out of ten cases.
Injuries are rare in fencing, but the rate is not zero. In an analysis of 809 FIE competitions, 72.4 % of the time-loss injuries involved the lower extremities, and the most common was the ankle sprain (25.3 %) [6]. A review of fencing injuries found prevalences between 51.5 % and 92.8 %, with low to moderate study quality [7]. Always wear full protective clothing [4], make sure of a secure stance and stop if something hurts. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training or a coach.
Practise septime as part of a quarte–septime–octave series. That way your hand learns the three inside and outside lines in one go. This is coaching experience, not a study.
Septime (parry 7) is a low inside parry with a supinated grip (palm up) and a lowered point. It belongs to the eight hand positions [1].
Both are inside parries with a supinated hand. Quarte closes the high inside line, septime the low one [1][2]. Which one you need depends on where the attack is aimed.
For foil and épée. In sabre, tierce, quarte and quinte are the most important parries [2].
With a simple parry: you move the blade from the low outside line into the low inside line. The HFV booklet gives “from octave to septime” as an example [2].
Immediately. Under the FIE foil rules the riposte must be made without indecision or delay in order to annul the opponent's next attack [5].
Learning the Coulé: The Glide Along the Opponent's Blade