A Brief History and the Three Weapons of Fencing

Unknown Artist

A Little History

The history of fencing is as old as mankind. When a clever opponent blocked the swing of a club, fencing was born. The evolution of fencing from the club to electric foil took many millinium. The most important changes took place at the end of the Renaissance when armor became useless for combat and a new method of battle developed that did not need brute strength, steel shorts or can openers. The legendary rapier was born.
 
The art of rapier dueling was, as are many new things, met with criticism. The English fencing masters of the time were particularly offended. They felt that using the rapier was unmanly and referred to it as "frog-pricking" while mourning the "death of the cut". However results are hard to argue with, and as those proficient in the use of the rapier racked up an impressive number of quite permanent victories, gentlemen flocked to the fencing schools to learn the deadly secrets of the point. The rapier became a beautiful weapon, lovingly handcrafted, sharp of point and comparatively lightweight (only three to five pounds), but the length, normally just a little shorter then the person holding it, made movements slow and clumsy.
 
The great expense of making high quality and frequently quite fancy rapiers led to the next important development in fencing. When a rapier broke the owner had a choice - buy a new and very expensive rapier or have the broken blade repointed. Repointing made the blade shorter, but saved much money. Duelists made an interesting observation; those who used shorter repointed rapiers tended to win. The short weapon was easier to handle, better balanced and allowed strategy to enter the game. With the shorter rapier, called a short sword, it was possible to step past the opponent's far reaching point, so that only ineffective cuts could be delivered. The fencer's shorter blade could then be used to puncture the unfortunate and soon to be deceased opponent. "Long live the thrust."
 
The cutlass or sabre came into its own after it became a competitive weapon for sport. Not until then did the science of fencing develop for the cutting weapon. It is now the fastest and most dramatic of the three swords of modern fencing. Foil and epee fencing also developed as competitive weapons as the theories of teaching, learning and strategy developed. Today, the three swords and rules of fencing have changed greatly from the past. The change was due to fencing being a sport with an emphasis on athletics instead of honor.
 

Modern Fencing

Modern fencing is a direct descendant from the Renaissance and the heyday of dueling. Constant changes and refinements have given the swordsmen of the 1990's a thrilling and highly skilled sport. The area fencers compete on is called a Strip. In dueling the antagonists often circled each other, but attacks and defenses were made to and away from each other so in modern fencing the area of competition is now long and narrow. This space provides the to and away movements of dueling plus some sideways movements when defending. The fencing strip is two meters wide by fourteen meters long (approx. 6.5 ft. by 45 ft.).
 
Two fencers competing against each other are 'bouting'. A bout lasts until one fencer hits (touches) the other five times. In later rounds of a competition the score needed is increased to fifteen touches.
 
Competitions are held for both men and women but often are mixed since women can successfully compete against men in fencing. Competitions are also grouped by weapon, age and skill level. Age grouping is normally broken down into seniors (20 years old and over) and juniors (under  20 years, under  17 years, under 15 years, under 13 years, and under 11 years). Since fencing is primarily a skill sport, older fencers tend to dominate. If a competitive fencer keeps up the appropriate physical training he/she can maintain and even increase his/her level of success until in the forties. Such fencers have been successful on the international and Olympic level and a few have meddled in the Olympics.
 
Fencing is an Olympic Sport and has been in every modern Olympiad since its creation. The sport is governed by the United States Fencing Association, located at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Each area, in our case Minnesota, has its own local federation for organizing competitions and developing the sport in general. Minnesota has the exciting name of "Minnesota Division of the USFA". The officers of the divisions come from members of the various clubs in the area.
 

The Three Weapons of Fencing

The Epée is the direct descendant of the short sword or repointed rapier. It is fenced as if the opponents are actually dueling. Just as in a real duel both fencers can lose, but unlike the fights of history, where double defeat meant double death, modern fencers live to fight another day. Only the point may be used to score in epée and since the entire body is target a large guard is used to protect the hand. The epée is about three feet long and weighs less than one and a half pounds. It was originally the big deadly brother of the training sword called a foil and was used in Western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries for actual duels. The duelist trained with a foil, but fought with the rapier or epée. An epée is a bit heavier than the foil, having a stiffer blade and a larger guard. Unlike foil, the epée can score on any part of the body - head, torso, arms, legs, or feet. It is this form of modern fencing that is most like real dueling. Modern epée electrically scores with a push button on the tip of the blade. (linnk to Wikimedia, epee fencing)
 
The Foil originated as a "foiled" or dulled short sword, hence its name. Foils were used to learn the art of dueling without injuring one's opponent. Even so, dueling practice bouts resulted in many bruises due to the force of the blows and stiffness of the blades. To protect the fencers, lighter blades were developed which were tempered and could bend. Foils was originally used as practice weapons to teach duelists to have light, quick hand movements, but these relatively harmless foils allowed the true beginning of fencing as a sport. While using lightweight foils gentlemen in the "Salle d'Armes" could test their skills against one another in truly friendly bouts; the start of modern fencing. As in epée only the point was used to score, but unlike epée the target was, and still is, restricted to the torso. The guard was made smaller then that of an epee since the hand was not target. The foil weighs only a little more than a pound and most blades are about three feet long. Foils do come in shorter lengths for children. The foil is the traditional teaching weapon for beginning fencing, but many clubs now start fencers with any of the three weapons for basic teaching. There is so much carry over of skills that none of the three weapons has an advantage in developing champion fencers.
 
Today in competition, the foil has a soft spring steel blade and a spring loaded tip. A wire runs down the blade so it may be hooked into a machine which scores hits electrically. Each fencer wears a metallic vests, called lamé, to covers the torso so that an electrical circuit is completed with each point contact. In a real duel you knew you were hit because you were bleeding. Nowadays, you know because you can see a light go on. (link to Wikimedia, foil fencing)
 
The Saber was used primarily by the cavalry since it was quicker to teach to relatively poorly trained troops. It was easier for solgiers to learn to cut and hack then learn the finer controlled movements of the rapier. The longer it took to train a soldier the more it cost, so sabre were therefore the choice of the lords for their armies of peasants. The people making this choice were the rapier carrying nobility. It was not until the twentieth century when Fencing Masters developed the conceptual framework of the sport of modern sabre fencing. Now it is still uses cutting as the primary means of scoring, but actions are fast, mobility important and strategy the master element. Saber hits lightly since the side of the blade score, eventhoug to a spectator it seems like the most fierce of the three weapons. (link to Wikimedia, saber fencing)
 
The target area in sabre includes the entire body above the hips since historically the cavalry valued horses as prizes of war and did not want any injured. Though one thinks of the sabre as having a heavy chopping blade the modern weapon is quite light, weighing about a pound. The guard in sabre is large and surrounds the hand to protect it from cuts. In competitive sabre bouts an electric jacket and mask covers the target to help score correctly landed hits.