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Electric épée fencing: Diego Confalonieri (left) and Fabian Kauter in the final of the Trophée Monal While the modern sport of fencing has three weapons — foil, épée, and sabre, each a separate event — the épée is the only one in which the entire body is the valid target area (the others are restricted to varying areas above the waist).
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.
The fencing area, 14 metres (46 ft) long and between 1.5 and 2 metres (4.9 and 6.6 ft) wide. Going off the side of the strip with one foot or both halts the fencing action and gets a penalty of the loss of 1 metre (3.3 ft). The last 2 metres (6.6 ft) on each end are hash-marked, to warn a fencer before they back off the end of the strip.
Sabre was the last weapon in fencing to make the transition over to using electrical equipment. This occurred in 1988, 32 years (1956) after the foil and 52 years (1936) after the épée . In 2004, immediately following the Athens Summer Olympics, the timing for recording a touch was shortened from its previous setting, dramatically altering ...
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.
Although the foil as a blunted weapon for sword practice goes back to the 16th century (for example, in Hamlet, Shakespeare writes "let the foils be brought"), [15] the use as a weapon for sport is more recent. The foil was used in France as a training weapon in the middle of the 18th century in order to practice fast and elegant thrust fencing.
A fencing bout takes place on a strip, or piste, which, according to the current FIE regulations, should be between 1.5 and 2 metres (4.9–6.6 ft) wide and 14 metres (46 ft) long. There are two en-garde lines (where the fencers stand at the beginning of the bout) two metres (6.6 ft) either side of the midpoint.
Épée — a heavy thrusting weapon; the valid target area covers the entire body; double touches are allowed. Sabre — a light cutting and thrusting weapon; the valid target area includes almost everything above the waist (excluding the back of the head and the hands); double touches are not allowed.