A little about fencing

• The world’s fastest combat sport.

• One of 5 sports contested in every Olympics

•  Emphasis is on agility, alertness and endurance. Is a great cardiovascular exercise, using several sets of muscles. With its complex physical maneuvers, fencing helps develop muscle strength, flexibility and coordination, and even mental training benefits.

• Fencing uses many muscle groups: -

  • Quads and calves from constant foot work

  • Core and stomach, developing balance, posture and stability (all vital in fencing)

  • Shoulders necessary for good blade work

  • Lower back again for the balance necessary to successfully perform fencing maneuvers

• While fencing shares many qualities with martial arts, the sport is not about who can hit the hardest or take a punch. Strategy in fencing is more important than strength, it is also one of the safest sports in the world. All equipment is set to strict safety regulations.  (the injury rate is ranked only slightly higher than diving and synchronized swimming.)

• Fencing has been contested at every Summer Olympics since the birth of the modern Olympic movement. Women’s foil debuted at the 1924 Paris Games.

• Fencing began the move from military training to a sport around the 14th century. Both Italy and Germany lay claim to its origins. In the 19th century the French refined the Italian system to the fencing we have today. Though some books suggest that Napoleon made his officers fence in order to keep them fit during campaigns.

• Many suggest that fencing originated in Spain, certainly most of the significant books were written by Spanish fencers.

• Modern competition is in three forms, epee, foil and sabre. These different weapons have differing rules and different target areas.

• The Epee is the modern evolution of a dueling sword. It is a thrust weapon, so points can only be scored with the point of the sword and not the edge. As the epee has dueling origin there are only a few rules and the target is the whole body.

• Foil was developed as a teaching weapon so that fencers could learn the art. Like the epee the foil is a thrust weapon, but it is lighter, with a limited target area (only the torso) and more rules.

• The Sabre is a cutting weapon evolved from the old cavalry swords. Points can be scored with edge and the point. The target area is from the waist up and the rules are similar to foil.

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