Fencing - A Conversation of Blades
Fencing: A Conversation of Blades
Not many years ago, a well-dressed man would not be seen without his sword, and he would not be considered properly educated unless he knew how to use it. We no longer sort out our little disagreements at sword point, so why is the ‘noble art of defense’ still around? Well, for one thing it’s fun. It’s also one of the most directly competitive activities there is. You literally win by sticking someone with a sword.
That’s about as direct as you can get.
There are two flavours of fencing on offer these days – historical and sport. Some clubs do both but by and large they tend to be separate. Historical fencing uses traditional weapons such as the rapier, the military sabre and the medieval longsword. There’s something deeply satisfying about bashing someone with a huge sword, but we’ll look at that another time. For now, let’s focus on modern Olympic-style sport fencing.
Sport fencing uses three weapons: the Foil, the Epee and the Saber. The basic technique with each is standardised, which means that you can drop into a club in Brazil, Britain or Bhutan and not be out of place. Equipment is also the same everywhere. To fence safely you need a mask, a glove, breeches and a jacket, plus a half-jacket called a plastron that goes underneath. Most of that stuff is made of Kevlar.
Hang on. Kevlar?
Yes Kevlar. These are swords, remember? They’re designed to be safe but they do break occasionally. If that leaves a sharp point, and someone is lunging at you with it, then your day might become significantly shorter. So yes, Kevlar. Fencing is totally safe 99+ percent of the time.
And for when it’s not? Kevlar.
Okay, so that explains the tight white breeches and jacket. What about the swords? Well then… the Foil is the lightest of the fencing weapons, though ‘light’ means something different when you’re in the middle of an intense bout. It’s a thrusting sword, so you can only score with the tip. That creates a very fast, tactical style of swordplay based on thrusts and parries. Seriously; foil play is fast. Really fast. Blink-and-you’re-dead fast.
The tactical challenge is intensified by the fact that you can only score by hitting your opponent on the torso. That might sound easy enough – it’s a big target, right? Well yes, maybe it is, but there’s a guy trying to stop you hitting him. Oh yeah, and he’s also trying to hit you. So you have to flow between attack and defense, using the sword to threaten your opponent and defend yourself. The best way to get a hit is to set up your opponent to make a mistake. That means out-thinking him while you’re attacking and defending at about three times the speed of light.
Still think it sounds easy?
The Epee is also a thrusting sword, but it’s heavier than a foil. This makes it a different challenge. With the Epee, you can score by hitting any part of the body. It’s fun to suddenly stab your opponent in the foot, but you have to be sneaky about it. With a heavy sword like this, you may not be able to recover from a mistake. Epee bouts can be insanely technical as both fencers try to maneuver one another into a vulnerable position. They call it ‘chess with swords’, but nobody ever got stabbed in the foot in a chess game.
The Saber is lighter than the Epee, and it’s a cut-and-thrust sword. You can score by striking the opponent anywhere above the waist with the point or the blade. Why above the waist? That’s because the Saber was a cavalry weapon. Slashing a cavalryman’s leg might inconvenience him, but in the meantime he’d probably run you through. That’s not a good bargain.
Saber play tends to be fast and very mobile. You can parry an attack or just move back enough to make it miss, then lunge in to score. That requires incredible reflexes of course, and you’ll know if you made a mistake – being hit over the head with a sword is a clue that things didn’t go according to plan. If fencing is, as some like to call it, a ‘conversation of the blades’, then a saber bout is a rapping contest.
Most people who take up fencing are taught Foil first, since its skills are common to the other weapons. It’s possible to study fencing for decades and still find new stuff, but the basic technique doesn’t take all that long to get the hang of. That means you can get into actually fencing pretty quickly. Friendly non-competitive fencing is called ‘freeplay’, with scoring on an honor system. That means when someone is hit they acknowledge it by pointing at wherever they were stabbed or slashed.
Competition is judged using an electric apparatus. That’s what the shiny metal jackets are for; they make a circuit with the blade to indicate whether a hit landed on a valid target or not. Since the Epee uses the whole body as its target, you don’t need to worry about that. A contact on the tip of the weapon indicates that it’s hit something, and it’s usually pretty obvious whether it was the opponent or something non-valid like the floor or an innocent bystander.
There are no weight classes in fencing. Some fencers are taller and have a longer reach than others, but there are other advantages to be had. In fact, it’s common for men and women to fence against one another in freeplay, and an increasing number of competitions are mixed. Truth is, this is one of the few arenas where men and women can compete on an equal footing. After all, three feet of steel is a great leveller.
So if the idea of being handed your sorry ass by a woman offends your male pride then the best advice is; train hard, get good. Because that’s not some weak and feeble female over there: that’s an opponent. And given half a chance she’ll run you through.
Not many years ago, a well-dressed man would not be seen without his sword, and he would not be considered properly educated unless he knew how to use it. We no longer sort out our little disagreements at sword point, so why is the ‘noble art of defense’ still around? Well, for one thing it’s fun. It’s also one of the most directly competitive activities there is. You literally win by sticking someone with a sword.
That’s about as direct as you can get.
There are two flavours of fencing on offer these days – historical and sport. Some clubs do both but by and large they tend to be separate. Historical fencing uses traditional weapons such as the rapier, the military sabre and the medieval longsword. There’s something deeply satisfying about bashing someone with a huge sword, but we’ll look at that another time. For now, let’s focus on modern Olympic-style sport fencing.
Sport fencing uses three weapons: the Foil, the Epee and the Saber. The basic technique with each is standardised, which means that you can drop into a club in Brazil, Britain or Bhutan and not be out of place. Equipment is also the same everywhere. To fence safely you need a mask, a glove, breeches and a jacket, plus a half-jacket called a plastron that goes underneath. Most of that stuff is made of Kevlar.
Hang on. Kevlar?
Yes Kevlar. These are swords, remember? They’re designed to be safe but they do break occasionally. If that leaves a sharp point, and someone is lunging at you with it, then your day might become significantly shorter. So yes, Kevlar. Fencing is totally safe 99+ percent of the time.
And for when it’s not? Kevlar.
Okay, so that explains the tight white breeches and jacket. What about the swords? Well then… the Foil is the lightest of the fencing weapons, though ‘light’ means something different when you’re in the middle of an intense bout. It’s a thrusting sword, so you can only score with the tip. That creates a very fast, tactical style of swordplay based on thrusts and parries. Seriously; foil play is fast. Really fast. Blink-and-you’re-dead fast.
The tactical challenge is intensified by the fact that you can only score by hitting your opponent on the torso. That might sound easy enough – it’s a big target, right? Well yes, maybe it is, but there’s a guy trying to stop you hitting him. Oh yeah, and he’s also trying to hit you. So you have to flow between attack and defense, using the sword to threaten your opponent and defend yourself. The best way to get a hit is to set up your opponent to make a mistake. That means out-thinking him while you’re attacking and defending at about three times the speed of light.
Still think it sounds easy?
The Epee is also a thrusting sword, but it’s heavier than a foil. This makes it a different challenge. With the Epee, you can score by hitting any part of the body. It’s fun to suddenly stab your opponent in the foot, but you have to be sneaky about it. With a heavy sword like this, you may not be able to recover from a mistake. Epee bouts can be insanely technical as both fencers try to maneuver one another into a vulnerable position. They call it ‘chess with swords’, but nobody ever got stabbed in the foot in a chess game.
The Saber is lighter than the Epee, and it’s a cut-and-thrust sword. You can score by striking the opponent anywhere above the waist with the point or the blade. Why above the waist? That’s because the Saber was a cavalry weapon. Slashing a cavalryman’s leg might inconvenience him, but in the meantime he’d probably run you through. That’s not a good bargain.
Saber play tends to be fast and very mobile. You can parry an attack or just move back enough to make it miss, then lunge in to score. That requires incredible reflexes of course, and you’ll know if you made a mistake – being hit over the head with a sword is a clue that things didn’t go according to plan. If fencing is, as some like to call it, a ‘conversation of the blades’, then a saber bout is a rapping contest.
Most people who take up fencing are taught Foil first, since its skills are common to the other weapons. It’s possible to study fencing for decades and still find new stuff, but the basic technique doesn’t take all that long to get the hang of. That means you can get into actually fencing pretty quickly. Friendly non-competitive fencing is called ‘freeplay’, with scoring on an honor system. That means when someone is hit they acknowledge it by pointing at wherever they were stabbed or slashed.
Competition is judged using an electric apparatus. That’s what the shiny metal jackets are for; they make a circuit with the blade to indicate whether a hit landed on a valid target or not. Since the Epee uses the whole body as its target, you don’t need to worry about that. A contact on the tip of the weapon indicates that it’s hit something, and it’s usually pretty obvious whether it was the opponent or something non-valid like the floor or an innocent bystander.
There are no weight classes in fencing. Some fencers are taller and have a longer reach than others, but there are other advantages to be had. In fact, it’s common for men and women to fence against one another in freeplay, and an increasing number of competitions are mixed. Truth is, this is one of the few arenas where men and women can compete on an equal footing. After all, three feet of steel is a great leveller.
So if the idea of being handed your sorry ass by a woman offends your male pride then the best advice is; train hard, get good. Because that’s not some weak and feeble female over there: that’s an opponent. And given half a chance she’ll run you through.