What is fencing? |
What is fencing? You may think of Zorro or the Three Musketeers. People hanging from chandeliers and duels to the death. It is true that modern fencing has its origins in similar situations, the actual atmosphere was probably closer to the showdowns in old westerns than to the glorified heroes such as Zorro. Fencing is a sport, a martial art, a career and for some, and a philosophy. Fencing is the modern sport translation of swordfighting (most directly of dueling) through the ages. The first evidence of fencing was found to be from ancient egypt. For thousands of years armies have used swords in battle and people have used them to settle arguments. As early as the 15th century dueling to the death was a popular, if unhealthy pastime. At one point, more Noblemen were being killed in duels than in war. Duels to the death thankfully became unfashionable when an increasingly powerful legal system could send the winner to jail or to execution for killing his opponent. So in the 18th and 19th centuries, duel became more a contest than a fight, ending in a crippling blow to the arms or legs instead of in death. Fencing evolved more and more away from it's violent roots until the first Olympic games, where foil and sabre were introduced as pure sports. The last widely publicised duel to settle a grudge occured in 1959 and ended in a scratch to the arm.Modern sport fencing is known as Olympic fencing and is regulated by the FIE (Federation Internationale d'Escrime). There are three FIE regulation weapons. The Foil is a light point weapon (also called a thrusting weapon) which has a small target area and a set of regulatory rules called "right-of-way". The Sabre also makes use of right-of-way, but it is a cutting weapon rather than a point weapon. The third weapon, the Épeé, is the heaviest, has no right-of-way rules, and uses a full-body target area. These weapons are fenced on a narrow strip in matches called "bouts". An expert official acts as director, the referee for fencing who directs the action and judges which fencer gets the touch (the point). Fencing is not a dangerous sport when done with the proper saftey equipment, and can be both very athletic and very fun.
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