STRATEGY. Epee competitive strategy is mostly a blend of three actions - attacks, defense with ripostes, and counterattacks. A truly good strategy should be a blend of all three, but most fencers will settle into an approach that uses one action more than the other three. The most important, and often the hardest, aspect of any strategy is the concentration and focus you need to find, follow, and hit target when target is available. You need to be able to process information - at first, simple things picked up in training, then competition follow-up information (you need a trained observer to tell you what you've done wrong and how to correct it), then competition-day advice from a coach (you'll find, early on, that such advice is more confusing than useful - that's pretty normal). If you have the type of coach who can sit with you alongside the strip and analyze the fencers in your pool, take advantage of it - at first, you'll find that it doesn't seem to help much, but eventually it will, and much later it will make it possible for you to do it yourself. Next, you'll be able to step on to the strip with some sort of plan specific to certain opponents - sometimes it will work, sometimes not, and you'll have to decide if it's a planning problem or an execution problem. There will be a frustrating period during which you'll get flashes of insight just after a bout (I should have done this!!!!), but that stage for most people leads to the ability to think, strategize and adjust during the actual bout. So, for most experienced people, "bad days" will be lapses in focus rather than failures in techniques.

ATTACKS. A fencer whose main strategy is to attack must continually look for openings. First, analyze the basic on-guard position of your opponent - what hand and arm target seems to be open? Remember, you're not going to hit them with your eyes - the openings have to be in respect to your blade and point. Some targets are reachable with some angulation - "coming around the corner" of the bell guard - and some may be reachable with a "flick" that bends the blade in around that same "corner." The best angulation is delivered with a normal thrust and a movement outward with the hand during the attack - angulation with the hand out at the beginning provides counterattack target to your opponent and too much warning of your intent. Flicks are difficult to do without opening hand and wrist target to a counterattack. Also, flicks are best perfected in practice on either a dummy or a well-padded partner - badly-done flicks are brutal, and I would not recommend numbing your opponent's arm as a sporting strategy (be aware that some fencers do use it as just that, however). Both of these attacks can usually be defended with a slight adjustment of the bell guard position, rather than a blade-on-blade parry.

The other parts of on-guard to analyze is the position of the front foot - is it close enough to hit? Remember, however, that attacks to the leg or foot open your arm to counterattacks, and so of limited use against someone who usually counterattacks - a high feint with a drop to low target is more likely to work against fencers who are trying to defend, or who back away but are slow removing that front foot. Look, too, for your opponent's balance point - if their weight is primarily on one foot or the other, this will affect how well they move - if on their front foot, they will retreat faster than they advance, and vice versa for the rear foot.

Analyze, too, the initial reaction of your opponent to your attacks. If they parry, is it always the same way? You may be able to take advantage of this. Remember, however, that in many cases you may want them to actually parry - the contact will often cause a break in their rhythm, and of course for that split second you will know exactly where their blade is. From the contact, a quick redouble - move the point quickly to open target somewhere else - will beat a riposte. A foil-like feint that evades a parry will often cause them to keep trying to parry, and that may block your disengage, especially if the opponent has earlier foil training. Another reason that you may want to provoke a parry is that foil-trained fencers will parry, release your blade, then riposte, leaving you an opportunity for a quick remise into the now-opened target. Look at the section on defense for a discussion of ripostes.

If your opponent counterattacks, is it coming from a predictable angle? You may be able to adjust your hand position so that their counterattack is diverted from your target, or just to cover the target that you're opening during your attacks. Use your opponents' points to tell you what you are showing to them - if they keep hitting something, you must be leaving it open. Many counterattackers have good focus and point control; one of the common mistakes made against counterattackers is the attempt of an attack where your intended target is much too deep - you're trying to reach the body and getting hit on the arm as you try it. Against many counterattackers, you may need to attack the blade, disturbing their focus and forcing them to take time to regain their point control. Sometimes a simple beat will do this, especially if executed (as they are supposed to be) as an early-to-middle part of your extension, so that your rebound from the beat puts you very close to their target while they are recovering from the beat. Beats in epee are less effective at opening target than in foil, usually, and can be tricky to deliver against a blade that's almost parallel to yours - you will often have to angulate the blade slightly to make good contact. Beats can be from the inside out (attacks up the arm are good from this), from the outside in (easier against an opposite-handed fencer), up from underneath (can be quite disorienting to an opponent, but also harder for the attacker to recover from), or down from above (better on a grounded strip, because the point may be driven into the floor). Attacks on the blade may also provide you with enough time to allow you to attack to your opponent's body, or may offset a reach disadvantage. It's important to remember, when you are first starting, that it's target, not the other weapon, that is your first consideration - swinging at the other weapon won't score many points.

An important aspect to attacks (or counterattacks) is the angle of delivery. You are much better off moving your point forward in a direction where, if it misses your intended target, it continues into other target. For instance, an attack to the arm that, if it misses, tracks off into the air is not as good as one that continues up the arm and may hit higher up.

Attacks may consistently fail against a good defender or counterattacker - if you don't feel comfortable moving to another strategy, try changing your rhythm, or try feinting an attack, dealing with their response, and then hitting them. Fleche attacks can be effective if unexpected, but usually need to hit immediately - a fleche attack carried to a second or third step requires fast handwork from a fairly awkward position to keep you from being hit. You should also actively practice how to deal with a fleche attack that is unsuccessful.

Footwork is critical to any epee strategy. For attackers, forward controlled speed is very important. You want to land in a position to deal with an unsuccessful attack. Don't overlunge, leaving yourself off balance and often your hand low. Be balanced enough that, if your point is near target and you are not in immediate danger of being hit yourself, you can continue to move in. How often do you get that close to open target? Be ready to get out as well, or continue in if that is advantageous. For defenders, a judicious retreat that still leaves them close enough to riposte is very important. For counterattackers, an immediate retreat that stays close enough to deliver the counter is most important.

For most epee grips, point control comes from the first two fingers and the thumb - holding or squeezing with the back fingers makes point movement slow and large, and may dip the point (if your point consistently dips at the end of your attacks, relax your grip). It is easier to aim early in an attack and deliver the point with your footwork; a loose grip makes the fine-tuning of this approach possible. Aiming done in the middle of an attack is possible but harder to do consistently. If your blade is bent, you may need to turn your hand so that the point hits target flatly and will push in. It is also a good idea to aim slightly "through" target - if you've miscalculated the distance, or the opponent moves back, or their jacket is a bit loose, you may need the extra distance. Try not to run them through, however - beside being rather unsportsmanlike, it tends to bring habitually in closer than is good.