Overview
Fencing develops the reflexes of a boxer, the legs of a high-jumper, and the concentration of a tournament chess player — agility, strength, speed and cunning, all at once. Because the action happens so quickly, it's often called the fastest martial sport. It's also, simply, a lot of fun.
The modern sport has three events — foil, épée and sabre — each with its own history, target area and rules. Foil and sabre began as training weapons; épée descends directly from the duelling sword. In all three, the goal is the same: hit your opponent on valid target without being hit yourself.
Attack & defence
A bout's actions fall into a handful of basic categories. Whoever launches an offensive action first is the attacker. A block that stops an attack is a parry; the return strike that follows is a riposte. A fencer who attacks into an opponent who's already attacking has made a counterattack.
Fencers develop distinct styles — some prefer to initiate, others prefer to wait and react. The best fencers learn to bait their opponents into predictable responses, then exploit them.
As in boxing, a lot of fencing comes down to managing distance: staying far enough away to avoid being hit, while staying close enough to hit when the opponent is least ready to defend. Much of the footwork on the strip exists purely to set up the right distance and timing for the final action. A typical sequence might be a feint — a fake attack toward one part of the target — that draws a parry, which the attacker then deceives to hit elsewhere.
Bouts & competitions
Competitions start with pool play: fencers are split into groups of six or seven, and everyone in a pool fences everyone else. Each individual match is a bout, which begins with the referee's call — "En garde. Prêt? Allez!" ("On guard. Ready? Go!"). A pool bout runs to five minutes of actual fencing time, or until someone scores five touches.
Based on pool results, roughly the top 80% of fencers advance to a direct-elimination bracket, seeded by their pool performance — similar to a tennis draw. Elimination bouts are longer, since losing means you're out: three three-minute periods, or first to 15 touches.
The strip
Bouts are fenced on the strip (or piste) — a regulation 14 metre lane, about 1.5–2 metres wide. The strip is electrically grounded, so a weapon hitting the floor doesn't register a touch.
Each end has a warning area. Step off the end of the strip with both feet and your opponent is awarded a point automatically — even without a hit, going off the end is treated like going over a cliff. Step off either side with both feet and your opponent simply gains a metre of ground.
Watching a bout
Your first friend as a spectator is the scoring lights. Touches in all three weapons are registered by an electric scoring system: a coloured light shows a valid hit, and (in foil) a white light shows an off-target hit. The referee halts the action whenever a light comes on, rules on what happened, awards a touch if appropriate, and resets the fencers to the centre of the strip.
It helps to follow one fencer at a time rather than trying to track both — you'll start to pick up on their individual strategy. And don't be shy about asking questions; fencing crowds are friendly, and someone nearby will usually be glad to explain what just happened. Come with an open mind, watch closely, and the score, the actions and the tactics will all start to click.
Safety
Fencing has one of the best safety records of any sport, thanks largely to its equipment standards. Masks must meet international strength requirements for the wire mesh protecting the head, and modern uniforms use materials drawn from ballistic protective gear — Kevlar and ballistic nylon.
Foil Weapon 01 / Target — torso
The foil is the modern descendant of the court sword: a flexible, roughly one-yard rectangular blade weighing just over a pound. Touches register only with the spring-loaded tip, and only on the torso.
The valid target area is covered by a metallic vest called a lamé. When the opponent's tip lands on it, the tip depresses and completes a circuit, triggering a coloured light. A hit outside the lamé shows a white light and doesn't score. If both fencers land coloured-light hits at once, the referee awards the point based on right of way — the attacker holds it until the defender blocks the attack with a parry, at which point the defender gains right of way through their riposte.
Épée Weapon 02 / Target — full body
The épée (pronounced ep-pay) is the direct descendant of the duelling sword: a stiff, triangular blade about a yard long, with a large guard protecting the hand. It weighs a little more than the foil. Points are scored only with the spring-loaded tip, but the entire body — toes to the top of the head — is valid target.
Touches register electrically when the tip depresses and completes a circuit, lighting up a coloured light for whoever landed first. If both fencers hit within 1/25th of a second of each other, both score a point — there's no right-of-way rule in épée.
Sabre Weapon 03 / Target — waist up
The sabre takes after the slashing cavalry sword: a triangular blade about a yard long, with a guard that wraps over the back of the hand. It's slightly lighter than the foil. Touches score with both cuts and the tip of the blade, and must land from the bend of the hips up — just as they would on a cavalry soldier mounted on horseback.
The valid target — jacket and mask — is covered in conductive metallic lamé, with the mask itself wired into the same circuit. Any light means the referee halts the bout and rules on the touch. Because cutting actions are faster than thrusting ones, sabre bouts tend to look quicker and busier than foil or épée. Watch one fencer for stop hits — counterattacking cuts thrown to beat the attacker to the target.