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.

[PokerFink]

This is kind of off topic, but I know nothing about fencing. How often do people get hurt? How bad?

[BCPVP]

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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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It seems that ties are won by the first person to shout at the judge...

[Blarg]

Yours was an awesome post, and I thank you for the effort, though I can't pretend to have understood all of it perfectly. And I haven't the slightest idea of what "going electrical" could possibly mean.

One of the things I like about fencing is that the initial critical hit can be so important in any kind of fight, and it seems that at least some form of that is recognized clearly in at least some forms of fencing.

The martial art I studied furthest was Bruce Lee's transition between classical Wing Chun and his eventual very personal and hard to nail down style of Jeet Kune Do, as put together by James DeMille, one of Lee's first assistant instructors. Experiencing the "forward energy" of the style's sticking hands exercise, which seems to me to have great similarities to tai chi's "growing energy," seems to me to fold well into the idea of the "stop hit," which I understand is a concept in fencing. Lee's brother Robert taught him some fencing and fencing concepts, and they appear to have completely revamped Lee's original wing chun style and added the importance of the lunge and active intention to land the first blow and/or to "stop hit" opponents either when the opportunity presented itself or by drawing.

This has always struck me as the core of reasonable fighting theory and one of the huge insights western fencing has to offer to Asian martial arts. The attack on preparation, the use of drawing, the use of rhythm and partial beats, the stop-hit, the desire to basically always be attacking unless there is a solid reason not to be (yet without in the least pushing an advantage one does not have), strike me as the core of fighting systems most likely to succeed and, simply, make sense. Being a beat ahead is always better than being a beat behind, trampolines and camera tricks notwithstanding.

So when I think of fencing, I think of the lunge, the stop hit, the attempt to steal time from the opponent, the use of rhythm -- even the hypnotic use of same -- and relate that to unarmed fighting, where the first blow may not so clearly decide the battle as a pierced heart or a decapitation, but where the first clean, sly strike -- brazilian jiu-jitsu notwithstanding, and I'm a 3rd degree jiu-jitsu man -- can be as good as the last important strike of the fight.

When I think of fencing, I think of the primacy of the first motion, which I envision as a stab to the heart or a blinding, but also think of the Filipino concept of "defanging the snake," that is, crippling the weapon hand, rendering someone helpless. I am not proud about targets or their beauty. I would just as soon someone bleed to death while I ran and climbed a tree. I feel this is a very practical sort of cowardice. I guess I feel that every target should be valid and nothing need be clean, and that fighting is an extremely dirty, cold-hearted business. I wonder which set of rules would annoy me least and match me best.

[Anacardo]

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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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It seems that ties are won by the first person to shout at the judge...

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There were no ties. Right of way, nigga! The slo-mo illustrates who began their attack first, which is the key to everything.

Man, these guys' guards are wild. I'm a nit about these things, but the hand positions I see in this tape are almost insolent. Guess it's good to have an awesome sense of distance.

[Blarg]

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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.

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If there isn't a significant amount of swinging from tapestries and kissing fair maidens, then laughing heartily and swigging a goblet of wine, it wouldn't be authentic enough for me.

Also, I would enjoy only bathing on Christmas.

[Anacardo]

Blarg,

Based on that, you want epee. Trust me. Aren't you on the slight side anyway? Epee favors the tall, thin and breadstick-shaped.

[Anacardo]

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This is kind of off topic, but I know nothing about fencing. How often do people get hurt? How bad?

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Not often, and pretty bad, sometimes, when it does happen. First of all, it doesn't hurt much to be hit by a sport fencing weapon; they're like big wire hangers, almost. You get bruises and light welts here and there, that's it. The real danger is with a broken blade. Even there, standardized protective gear is very good, and your mask is tested before every competition. The real damage comes when a broken blade goes up a sleeve or under the jacket, or when a blade goes through a crappy, untested mask. The last fatality was in Russia in the eighties, I believe, when a man was run through the eye.

[Blarg]

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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.


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My bad luck is legendary among everyone I know. God hates me. What are the chances of getting slashed, given a number of years or months fencing? If it would happen to anyone, I know it would happen to me three times.


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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.


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Bless you for your honesty. WTF did you forget you were in OOT? Very un-balla.

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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.


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This worries me. When I go to the optometrist, my dry eyes constantly blink, and when people are sticking their fingers in and out of them, trying different lenses and especially blowing puffs of high-velocity air into my eyes to check for glaucoma, I cannot keep my eyelids open. They just close down despite me.

I haven't done that too much during sparring in martial arts, but everyone has a tendency to get tighter and freeze more when truly tested, even world champions with a pretty preposterous level of experience and all the inborn natural toughness in the world. Me, my toughness is learned, that's all. Nothing native about it. My natural state is cookies and milk while reading Dr. Seuss.

So a flinch is always a danger with me. Sometimes not likely at all, but always possible. Even if eyes stay open, a level of freezing or lack of coordination, or simple overlay of hesitation, is always possible. Then again so are bouts of outrageous physical courage; but I know I'm a limited animal subject to every weakness of mortal flesh and probably quite a number peculiar only to my own sorry-arse self.

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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.

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LOL watch out. One of my hugest pleasures in sparring was being the skinny kid everyone sneered at who wound up shocking the sh*t out of them by dumping them on their ass. I still savor the taste to this day, fresh as if it just happened and as if I could still do it instead of just dream it.

[Anacardo]

Getting hit with a saber, which is what he means by 'slashed,' does not hurt. Foil and especially epee hits are far more painful, which is to say, hardly painful at all.