Thrusting my long, elegant weapon over and over again: ask me about fencing

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Thrusting my long, elegant weapon over and over again: ask me about fencing

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Just picked fencing back up today. I fenced foil 20 years ago. Took my kids with me (almost 7 and 8) since they have kid classes for foil, and took an adult/teen Epee class myself.

Had a great time. Little bits of muscle memory still there. Not much, but enough that it really felt like coming home.

The club situation is sorta weird here, too. There seem to be three clubs, one for Epee/foil, and two for Sabre. I went with the Epee/foil one since the cost seemed the most reasonable and they had clearly listed and really regular open bouting.

Now just to figure out how to pay for it all. Both kids loved it, so along with me, this is gonna be pricey.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2019 01:38

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:12

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

I'm a little late to injury chat, but wanted to check in with my recent experience. I fenced foil 20 years ago, just started fencing again, but this time I'm going epee. It's a lot of fun, but I've noticed one key difference.

(picture of bruising)

The arm is a target.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2019 05:51

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Crazy Achmed posted:

Yeah, it's a weird one - I've seen video of oldschool sabre when cross steps forward were allowed, and it's freakin' terrifying. Ban forward cross steps and of course somebody invents the flunge, which looks nearly equally terrifying.

Has anyone here seen (or even been in) a match using that rule change proposed last year with allowing sabreurs to finish attacks with a fleche? Makes sense to me theoretically, but I have no idea whether it would work in practise.

Wait, are cross steps not allowed for any weapon? Or just sabre?

# ¿ Jan 12, 2020 21:20

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Cessna posted:

They're only banned in sabre.

Ok, cool. I like to sometimes weird out my opponent with them in epee.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 05:23

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Daaaaaamn. Guess when the foil snaps, it kinda loses its whole purpose as a "foil."

Just making me feel even better about my purchase of groin protection.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2020 08:23

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

DandyLion posted:

They were 350n.

It snapped perpendicular about 3" from the tip (and I suspected thankfully this is what kept the wound minimal rather than a sharp broken edge), and the broken bit was dangling from the wire about halfway down his remaining blade. The tip of the broken blade slid under my skin between the skin and muscle beneath (which was thankfully miraculous given the location and the critical artery so close). I forgot to mention he fleched a nanosecond after I did, so it was our combined forces together that let it punch through my pants. I've got pretty big thighs so the fabric was pretty taught and I suspect if they were a bit baggier the slack may have absorbed the broken edge rather than parted/tore.

Funnily enough I didn't even know it happened. Since we both fleched we ended almost chest to chest, and as I was backing away I kind of stumbled back down to a knee and I thought I was tangled in his cable or something and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't disconnect from him until my coach ran over and stopped me from moving any further. At this point I kind of came to my senses (and recognized the shrieks of some of the spectators were actually at me) and I noticed the blade sticking through my pants and a red blood patch growing around the puncture point on the white fabric. They disconnected my opponents foil from his cable and laid me down on the strip and then cut down my pants from the waist to the puncture (and pulled them the rest of the way down to below my knees). It was a decent sized tournament so there was probably ~500 participants/spectators arrayed in the arena and I was mollified and was begging them to stop and that I was fine (I just wanted to go to the locker room to get it taken care of away from spectators).

It was a semi-final match and I had to withdraw obviously so the whole day was ruined in the most spectacular fashion (especially since I was up in points and likely would have won ). Only a couple stitches though, and the pucker scar is out of sight so in the end I can thankfully laugh about it.

drat.

Also, you legit now have a dueling scar/scar from someone charging at you with a sword.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 18:35

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Crazy Achmed posted:

Shiiit. So 800N breeches are probably going to be my first fencing purchase of the year, then.

What do those run? Like $100-200?

# ¿ Jan 18, 2020 00:36

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Had some fun in practice today. I don't have my own weapons yet, so needed to use the club's, but it was a really busy session and all of the right-handed epees were taken. Ended up needing to use a foil, but it was all dry, so no biggie. Just had a much smaller bell guard. This made my hand a really tempting target. Since my hand was mostly exposed now, I became very aware of exactly where it was, and started deflecting people's attacks with the smaller bell guard.

Until now, the only time I managed that was on accident. It feels super badass to do it on purpose. So satisfying as they clang off.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2020 05:16

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 23:12

HPanda: Sep 5, 2008

Glad I got in one more fencing class last week before everything shut down. The only clubs that might be open now are doing so in defiance of USFA, which means the insurance doesn't cover them.

Not sure how long this will go. Gotta figure out some ways to fence while staying six feet apart. Could bring back modified jousting?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2020 06:26

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