Whether you’re a fan of the Three Musketeers, Zorro or Captain Jack Sparrow, watching a swashbuckling sword fight is a great way to get your spirits up and your heart pounding. It’s fun to imagine yourself in the midst of the fighting, moving with lightening reflexes and wielding a flashing blade. It’s been said that the tip of a fencer’s sword can move almost as fast as a marksman’s bullet.
While the sport of fencing doesn’t feature leaping from balconies or swinging from ship to ship on thick ropes, it’s a fast-moving sport, with plenty of excitement and fierce competition. Fencing has been featured in every Olympic Games since 1896, and is a year-round sport. Even so, few Americans have ever seen a real fencing tournament, and fencing is rarely televised in the United States.
If you’d like to see real fencers in action, or you’re tempted to give fencing a try, you’re in luck. Fencing is a club and team sport, and you’re likely to find fencing clubs in big cities, small towns, college campuses, and many high schools and prep schools across the country. All you need to do is call them up, attend their beginner classes, and you’re on your way.
Fencing is a combat sport and your eventual goal will be to compete in tournaments. As you progress through your beginner and intermediate classes, you will test your skills against your classmates and other members of your club or team. Fencers face off on a 6-foot by 44-foot strip called the piste, using a wide variety of techniques specific to one of three competition weapons: foil, épée, or saber. You’ll compete locally, statewide, regionally, and if your results qualify you for the big time, you may go all the way to the Junior Olympics (if you’re 19 or under) or the national circuit. The best of the best will compete for spots on the National and Olympic teams, and compete worldwide.
Terms Of Combat
Here are some of the fencing terms you will hear during your training:
- piste – the fencing strip (2 meters wide, 14 meters long)
- en garde – starting position before fencing starts
- advance – stepping toward your opponent
- attack – using any number of strategies to attack your opponent
- lunge – most common attack technique
- parry – defensive action that blocks your opponent’s blade
- remise – attacking immediately after your opponent’s parry
- riposte – offensive action immediately following your parry of an attack
Equipment
When you start your lessons, most clubs will supply you with everything you need. You can show up wearing sweatpants, a t-shirt, and sneakers, and you can either rent or borrow a beginner’s fencing jacket, plastron (under arm protector), glove, mask, and practice foil. After a while, you’ll probably buy your own glove, and then add pieces from there.