Fencing
Fencing is a combat sport with blades: two fencers score by touching each other with a weapon on a long, narrow strip called the piste. There are three weapons — foil, épée and sabre — each with its own target and rules. Fencing is an Olympic sport, and touches are usually recorded by an electric scoring system.
What it is for
Section titled “What it is for”- Speed, reaction and precise control of the hand.
- Leg strength and footwork — much of fencing is moving forwards and backwards on the piste.
- Tactics: reading your opponent and choosing the moment to attack.
- Concentration and self-control under pressure.
- Competitions for every age, from children to veterans.
Equipment
Section titled “Equipment”- Foil: a light, flexible weapon. Touches count only with the point and only on the torso. If both hit, right-of-way rules decide who scores.
- Épée: heavier and stiffer. Touches count with the point anywhere on the body, and whoever touches first scores; if both touch at the same moment, both score.
- Sabre: touches count with the edge or the point, anywhere above the waist, including the arms and head. Right of way applies, as in foil.
- Protective kit: a mask with a mesh front and a bib, a jacket, an underarm protector (plastron), a glove on the weapon hand, knee-length breeches with long socks, and a chest protector for women. Electric fencing adds a body wire and, for foil and sabre, a conductive jacket (lamé) over the target area.
- To start: long sports trousers and flat indoor trainers. Clubs usually lend beginners the mask, jacket, glove and weapon.
How training goes
Section titled “How training goes”- Usually 60–90 minutes, sometimes longer.
- A warm-up and footwork: the en garde position, advance, retreat and lunge. Footwork is a big part of every session, especially at first.
- Blade work: attacks, parries and ripostes (the counter-attack after a parry), in pairs or in a short individual lesson with the coach.
- Free bouts, usually to 5 or 15 touches, with a referee or an electric scoring box.
- Clubs usually start beginners on one weapon — often foil, sometimes sabre or épée — and most fencers later specialise in one.
- A first class covers the stance, footwork and safety rules; you fence in full kit once the coach says you are ready.
Who it suits best
Section titled “Who it suits best”- Children and adults: many start young, but adults can start from zero too.
- People who like tactics and speed, where timing counts as much as strength.
- Anybody who wants a combat sport without punches, kicks or throws.
- Those who want to compete — there are events for every age group.
- It is less suited to anybody with knee, hip or back problems: the lunge loads the front leg, and one side of the body works more than the other. Ask a doctor, and tell the coach about any injury.