Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Fencing practice and techniques of modern competitive fencing are governed by the International Fencing Federation (FIE), though they developed from conventions developed in 18th- and 19th-century Europe to govern fencing as a martial art and a gentlemanly pursuit. The modern weapons for sport fencing are the foil, épée, and sabre. [1] [2]
Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. [1] The three disciplines of modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also saber); each discipline uses a different kind of blade, which shares the same name, and employs its own rules. Most competitive fencers specialise in one discipline.
The sabre (US English: saber, both pronounced / ˈ s eɪ b ər /) is one of the three disciplines of modern fencing. [1] The sabre weapon is for thrusting and cutting with both the cutting edge and the back of the blade [2] (unlike the other modern fencing weapons, the épée and foil, where a touch is scored only using the point of the blade). [2]
Fencers tend to stand somewhat side-on to the principal direction of movement (the fencing line), leading with the weapon side (right for a right-hander, left for a left-hander). In this fencing stance the feet are a shoulder-width or more apart with the leading foot forward and the trailing foot at right angles to it. Finally, the knees are ...
Sabre – A fencing weapon with a flat blade and knuckle guard, used with cutting or thrusting actions; a military sword popular in the 18th to 20th centuries; any cutting sword used by cavalry. The modern fencing sabre is descended from the dueling sabre of Italy and Germany, which was straight and thin with sharp edges, but had a blunt end.
According to the FIE rules, an attack is defined as "the initial offensive action made by extending the arm and continuously threatening the opponent's target...". This is explained in the USFA Fencing Officials Commission FAQ: Initial refers to which fencer starts the action before their opponent does. Offensive indicates moving towards the ...
The target area for modern foil is said to come from a time when fencing was practiced with limited safety equipment. Another factor in the target area is that foil rules are derived from a period when dueling to the death was the norm. Hence, the favored target area is the torso, where the vital organs are. [18]
In modern fencing, the piste or strip is the playing area. Regulations require the piste to be 14 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. [1] [2] The last two metres on each end are hash-marked to warn a fencer before they back off the end of the strip, after which is a 1.5 to 2 metre runoff.