Fencing- what weapon is the most fun?

[gamblore99]

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It's late and I can't sleep, and this thread got me all worked up about fencing, so here's a tasty link for you all:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...ideo&hl=en

2005 Men's sabre championship. Check out the parry-riposte at 4:30.

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that video was disappointing. I was expecting more swashbuckling. Hopefully at the level that I will be playing there will be some crazy battles with backflips and chandelier swinging.

On another note I have had my first 2 varsity fencing practices with saber. Brief trip report. Not because its that exciting, but because I really don't want to get back to my essay.

Day 1
First 1 1/2 hours spent running around the gym, squatting against the wall, some footowork drills and some other random stuff.

I missed the previous week of practice because I was unaware of it, so was behind the class. The head coach who only fences sabre took me aside to catch me up. He spent about 5 minutes making me regret my choice of sabre. I really don't like the idea of getting slashed with a sabre. A foil wouldn't be so bad, but a sabre looks like it would [censored] hurt. Shortly after my atrocious footwork became apparent so I spent the last hour (2 1/2 hour practice) on footwork. The two main problems were turning my body straight which felt really unnatural and exhausting on my back leg and keeping distance between feet. I really wanted to rest after a half hour, but I am terrified of the coach and didn't want to get on his bad side. He is one of those very serious people who never show any emotion. I feel kinda bad for his kids.

day 2
first 1 1/2 hours the same. Emotionless coach was away, so I got to spend time with the other sabres. Me and the 3 other new sabres learned basic stuff from an experienced teammate including basic cuts and 3 parries. He also fixed my stance which really took a lot of the pain/exhaustion away. I also got lecture about flinching everytime someone struck my face, but It seems impossible not to. I don't expect pain, but its just such a natural reaction.
Teamates were for the most part cool, except this tiny brown kid who got kind of rude and condescending if we had trouble with anything. I wanted to duel him really badly, but he would have killed me, so I held back. 2nd practice way more fun than first. Im still scared of fencing sabre, but I don't wanna go back to foil because I called them all panzies and told them foil isn't really fencing.