written by Arthur Gautier

First, let me introduce myself as I’m not your usual writer. I’m Arthur, Saber Tour® Sporting Director and co-founder, multi-medallist on Saber Tour® competitions and winner of the Open 95 2025 and 2026. In addition to that, I’m a Saber Tour® referee, as well as an epee fencer and referee. In the past, I also fenced saber.

Now, let me explain why this article. Whatever the rules you are using for LED Saber, you have surely found yourself facing someone that each time you try an attack, you miss, or each time, you feel like that your opponent is reading you and always getting the right parry. Even though this opponent may be technically better than you, it is most likely that he manages the distance better than you.

While this article won’t automatically fix that, it may give you some keys, information and exercises to help you get a better understanding and sense of the distance and how to manage it.

What is “The Distance”?

Well, to be fair, I should talk about “the distanceS” rather than “the distance”. Why ? Because there are two components in “the distance”:

1. The distance where you can hit;
2. The distance where you can be hit.

Depending on your opponent, these distances overlap partially or completely. If you are fighting someone with much more reach than you, then the distance where you can be hit is much bigger than the distance where you can hit. Being conscious of this is the first step of getting better at distance management.

These distances should be your measure for your fight. You should try to force your opponent to enter the distance where you can hit, YOUR distance, without being forced to enter the distance where you can be hit, HIS distance.

How Do We Train This?

This exercise is better performed in pairs (in particular for the second part).

First, place yourself at the distance you think you can touch your target on the head, without moving your feet, but with arms fully extended. Do an attack (depending on your system, it can involve a charge). Your blade should touch with his 2-3cm near its top but not more. Touching with less is fine but at the risk of missing more regularly while you are improving. Whether you are too close or too far, adjust slowly. When you are at the right position, move away, and start again, trying to find the same distance.

The objective is to find your distance visually from your opponent, not by helping yourself with external details (floor, walls, …). This distance is yours and won’t change. This is the distance where you can hit without moving.

Second, place yourself at the distance where you think your opponent won’t touch you at all, but barely. His attack follows the same logic: no feet movement, arms fully extended. If you are getting hit, move a little bit away. If you are too far, move a little bit closer. If you are right, have your opponent move and change the distance. Then adjust yourself. The objective is to feel the “danger zone”, the distance where your opponent can hit you without moving. If you find yourself and this distance, you MUST be ready to react to something, and react quickly, as your opponent won’t have to move! Most likely, if you are in this distance by mistake and because you are not trying to provoke your opponent, I would recommend stepping away and leaving it.

But In Real Life?

Ok, I agree, in real life, your opponent is not waiting for you to come and hit. They will move, they will try to counter attack or parry, and so will you. However, you need to know the distance at which you can hit without moving, to know the distance at which you can hit by moving. To work on that, you can have two variants of the exercise above:

1. Try to hit with a step then an attack;
2. Move with your partner and start an attack when you think you are the right distance, say “halt”, both stop moving, and you see if you are able to hit.

Now, the next thing to be aware of, is how the distance between you and your opponent should impact your actions. On any system where you have to charge, this is particularly important because if you step in your opponent’s distance while charging, it is most likely that you will get hit. This is the next thing you should be working on: how do I prepare my attack to reach the distance where I can hit my opponent without being hit myself. There are several possibilities here, that are usually called “preparations”, but it will be a topic for another article.

Your goal here is to have your opponent step inside YOUR distance so you can attack on his step. You want this to happen because it is usually the timing where an opponent will have a harder time to react to your attack and this is the timing where YOU can decide that the distance will be closing, rather than the distance closing randomly, or worse, at your opponent’s initiative.

NB: I am not discussing the case where you prevent your opponent from moving backward because he is close to the border of the arena as this will most likely result in your opponent attacking you as soon as you step in the distance.

How Do We Train This?

This exercise is only doable in pairs.

One will lead the footwork, the other one will follow. First, do it without equipment, then you can do it with an attack when there is a misstep. Also, I recommend practicing this at low speed, because this is the rhythm where you will work best, as speed itself can be confusing. The objective of the leader is to have his partner step in when the leader did not retreat.

To achieve that, you can try several things:

• Fake a retreat: only move your back foot and not your front, and see if your partner commit to a full step or not;
• Move diagonally: if you go around your partner, there is a moment where the distance will close, and he may not see it;
• Play with patterns: two steps, two retreats, two steps, two retreats, two steps, one retreat, one step. Maybe your partner will be surprised.

Ultimately, you will have to find what works best for you.

Some Concepts to Retain

When thinking about distance in LED Saber matches, you should always be aware of 2 distances : the distance where you can hit (either without moving or with one movement) and the distance where you can be hit (again without your opponent moving or with only one movement). These should be the key things you are on the lookout for when in a match.

Both these distances, while they are partially related to the height of your opponent, are not completely correlated, as some smaller fighters are known to be quite explosive and reach very far, while some taller ones are sometimes not willing to extend themselves fully. In addition, these distances put together define a “distance of action”, which can be defined as the distance “where there is a high probability that something happens”, from your side or your opponent’s. That’s what is called the “distance of action”.

With that in mind, constructing a touch can be summarized in two options:
I take the initiative and step in the distance of action to provoke an attack from my opponent, to attack or to provoke then attack ;
I force (or let) my opponent step in the distance of action to provoke an attack or to attack on his step in.

Ultimately, I can not emphasize enough the importance of footwork in your training, because this is what will allow you to step in properly (fast, but not too big) and to retreat even faster (after an attack, when you see your opponent attacking, etc …).

Side note: The Distance and Decision Making

If you have read this far, thank you ! I will leave you all on a side note, and a concept which explains partially why Sebastien is that good : the decision making.

Most people when fighting will have the following decision making path:

• I enter the distance of action;
• I see my opponent’s reaction and take information;
• I decide what I want to do;
• I do the action.

This is too long and the action is ultimately not smooth. When you see the opportunity in your opponent’s reaction, the timing is gone. It is a hint of what you should be looking for in future preparation, but you should not commit there.

Sebastien, however, have the following decision making path:

• He decides what he wants to do;
• He enters the distance of action (confirming what he may have already spotted);
• He does the action.

In this situation, because he decided before doing the action, he is ultimately faster and smoother in his action, which leads to a much more important success rate.

Credits

Concept in this article are from a book called “L’esprit de l’Epee” by Remy Delhomme, Jean-François DI MARTINO and Frédéric CARRE published by AMPHORA.