At one time I was interested in fencing. The thought of swordplay, of engaging an opponent with long sharp pointy things appealed to me
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See, as I understand it, Olympic fencing is about honor, and discipline, and giving your opponent a target to hit.
You lost me at that last part. The point is not to get hit. You're not supposed to present yourself like some punching bag; in fact, they spend a lot of time teaching you how to stand so as to present the smallest target possible while still being in a position to strike yourself.
And the one time my coach, who had 11 years of fencing on me, really went after me instead of just pretending to, trust me, there was no quarter there. On either side. It was a little like having a four minute panic attack. :)
the reason I said that was because I've heard it to be a cardable offense when you close off a target or by using your elbow, say, to block an opponent's strike. My own extrapolation of that is this: If a strike is to be blocked at all, it is a proper parry with the forepart of the weapon, and not by dodging to the side / turning differently / with the weapon's bell or grip / with the off hand.
In the martial arts I'm familiar with, you don't give your opponents any targets at all. If an opponent does strike, anything is fair game for parrying or retaliation. Surviving and getting the job done is tantamount to anything else.
Cardable only if you use the non-weapon arm or do some contortion to, say, bring a leg or your head up to cover target. Nothing wrong at all with twitching your upper weapon arm to intercept an inbound foil point! Ditto with dodging to the side (as long as you don't go off the side of the strip) or turning differently or using the bell to block/deflect the hit. In fact, fencers should be taught how to use the latter two as part of their defensive (and sometimes offensive) games. Now I'm turning 'coach mode' off -- no worries, I don't expect you to agree or to change your mind. I just didn't want to let a couple of easily corrected misconceptions stay out there in your mind. :)
But anyway, as you've absorbed, fencing isn't about fighting or survival. It's a game. If you want to keep with the dueling idea (i.e. light weapons like foils), look up the SCA or Ampguard (sp) groups in town. Their 'light fighting' is closer to what you describe wanting to do. Er, never mind, just read the rest of the comments. Good news is if you decide
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actually, part of what always seemed artificial to me was the whole "fighting in the strip" concept. I don't really know the reason for that; it just seems contrived to me. Thinking back to the days of duels and honour and such, I can see it, but ...
Anyway, I'll keep you in mind if I do decide to do this. How much do you want for that groovy owl-face mask? I LOVE that one.
US Fencing's official story is that it replicates 'fighting in castle corridors/hallways'. There are a lot of rolled eyes at that one. It does make it easier on the refs/directors/whatever to see what happens and incidentally makes it harder to hide cheating actions, which is probably a lot closer to the real reason than the 'hallway' story. Imho, natch. *g*
I have to admit that I love that mask, too. Can't sell it though, it's owned by one of my fencers. :) All of those masks were done on commission. Hopefully I'll have a separate series of masks I'll have done just for my own amusement but those will likely be the same mask (an old one of mine) painted over and over.
You lost me at that last part. The point is not to get hit. You're not supposed to present yourself like some punching bag; in fact, they spend a lot of time teaching you how to stand so as to present the smallest target possible while still being in a position to strike yourself.
And the one time my coach, who had 11 years of fencing on me, really went after me instead of just pretending to, trust me, there was no quarter there. On either side. It was a little like having a four minute panic attack. :)
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In the martial arts I'm familiar with, you don't give your opponents any targets at all. If an opponent does strike, anything is fair game for parrying or retaliation. Surviving and getting the job done is tantamount to anything else.
Make more sense now, I hope?
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But anyway, as you've absorbed, fencing isn't about fighting or survival. It's a game. If you want to keep with the dueling idea (i.e. light weapons like foils), look up the SCA or Ampguard (sp) groups in town. Their 'light fighting' is closer to what you describe wanting to do. Er, never mind, just read the rest of the comments. Good news is if you decide ( ... )
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Anyway, I'll keep you in mind if I do decide to do this. How much do you want for that groovy owl-face mask? I LOVE that one.
Reply
I have to admit that I love that mask, too. Can't sell it though, it's owned by one of my fencers. :) All of those masks were done on commission. Hopefully I'll have a separate series of masks I'll have done just for my own amusement but those will likely be the same mask (an old one of mine) painted over and over.
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