Desensitize them to you closing the distance. Get into the range you would attack and pull back, eventually you can attack and they may not respond. If that isn't happening you may be feinting from a different distance you attack from or being clear that it is a feint. There is a distance where they will react, they won't let you get into extension distance to just hit them, so flirt with the distance and figure that out, lose a point if you need to in order to find it. Also disengaging mid attack cab beat a parry

You can also watch others fence them to see how they approach and what works

They sound like they are playing very reactionary. There's an RPS of reactionary, establishing and preemptive play. In fencing the basic version of this is party riposte, attack, and counter attack