The Sport Where You Stab People

Fencing has three main parts. Foil, Épée, and Sabre. I fence Foil, so let me start with an easier weapon to explain than Foil.

Sabre: It’s primarily comprised of two people running at each other and trying to be the first to stab the other. (of course, this is not a professional opinion.) The Sabre has an oddly shaped handle, and big bell-guard, (the thing that protects your hand from getting hit.)

Épée: You try to hit the other person anywhere on the body, and make your light go off before the other person. (also not a professional opinion.) The Épée has a bigger bell-guard)

Foil: (Here’s where it gets more difficult for me.) So in foil, you try to accumulate points. Usually to five, or fifteen. The thing is, there’s right of way. This basically means that even if you both hit. Whoever has the right of way gets the point or off-target, (that’s what happens when you hit someone off-target. The target is pretty much the upper body without the arms.) The Foil has a small bell-guard.

So that’s basically a ruff sum up of the different weapons/styles of fencing there are. But there’s more… there is also a problematic string of wires and cords that plug into things, (AKA I can’t explain it.) The cords connect to boxes that light up when one fencer hit’s the other no matter what weapon is used to do it. Those box wires connect through the weapons through different cords that you need to wear to connect to the box. These wires all have a pulley at the end of the fencing strip (the space in which you fence) so that you can move freely with the wire and plug on you. Like I said… difficult to explain and understand. Basically, it all works so that when you hit the person, you are fencing, your light goes off and you get the point unless you hit off target in which you would take a step back and continue fencing.

In foil, you have specific steps to take to get dressed. First, you put on your knickers (fencing pants.) Then you put on your chest plate (plastic with straps,) and plastron (arm pad.) After that, you grab your body cord (AKA wire,) and you put on your jacket. Then you put on your lamé (not lame) and put on your mask/helmet and glove. Then you grab your foil, and you plug in the wire into the slots, and that’s all! Oh, and don’t forget fencing shoes. The metal strip can be very slippery!

For me, I’ve been fencing for about 7 years. Every day for two hours from 6:30 to 8:30 I spend it fencing and sweating. You may not think it, but wearing 15 layers in a room temperature facility can make you sweat. Also the constant movement and activity. Fencing is my definition of hard work. Yes, school puts you through seven hours of lectures, homework piled onto you, and a “small” sense of boredom, but fencing is two hours of basically running up and down the strip to try and hit someone with your blade. Every day I would have to bandage my fingers because they got slashed, or my legs. Every day, I would show up to school with my arms and legs covered in greenish purple bruises. So yeah, fencing’s not a super easy sport.

Fencing is a sport where a lot of things break, really easily. Think about it, you’re hitting someone at who knows how many mph, with a thin low carbon steel blade that’s maybe the same width as your pinky. I’ve broken probably 5 blades. Twice on someone's leg, once on someone's arm, once I just touched it and it fell apart, and once because someone ran at me and it broke (I beat them.) When something breaks you have to buy a new one or fix your old one, both options drain the bank. Then you have things like your body cord which can snap, stop working, or just continually go off-target. (You also have to fix that,) and your lamé can just stop working, or also frequently go off-target as well.

As you can probably see, fencing is a challenging, hard, and weary sport. Fencing, however, does keep you fit, and strains you both physically and mentally.

I’ve fenced for a long time, I went to tournaments, lost, won, and bruised myself, but I still love the sport of fencing no matter how much pain can sometimes be caused.

Diagrams 1, 2, and 3