Jeff's Fencing -- Nov 4, 2004

I put these here mostly for my grandmother -- who wants photos of me doing this sort of silliness -- and for my nephew Will, who doesn't yet know everything that Uncle Jeff does for fun... but he's learning.

A couple of quick notes on the pictures:

• Many thanks to Tom & Karen Conroy for taking them. If they hadn't, I'd have no documentation on this at all.
• Click on the image to see a larger version, with comments about what I think was going on.
• Some of the images are a bit blurry. That's because it's rude to take flash photos while people are fencing. It's a bit distracting. Tom & Karen did the right thing.
• Where needed, I have cropped the original (full size) images to get rid of distracting information. For that reason, some of these are not any particular standard size.
• Unless I have messed up, the pictures during the actual bouts are in time order, so the first one happened before the next, and so on. Not that anyone but me really cares, I know...

Below the pictures I've written a bit about fencing terms and competitions. It's only for the curious, though. I won't be offended if you skip it.

2nd DE against Jere Bothelio
Testing weapons before the bout	Facing off	I advance
We both close, I get the touch
3rd DE against Mark Wheeler
In the bout	We're moving, at least	Facing off
Mark attacks, I parry and retreat	Between touches	I won???
4rd DE (the final!) against Phil Gerring
Phil lunges, I parry	Phil advances	In the bout
I lunge, Phil retreats	In the bout	I lunge, Phil stop thrusts
Phil hits my foot	I lunge, Phil parries	Phil attacks my foot again
Starting the 2nd period	I threaten his arm	My only good point. My light!
Probably no touch -- but ugly!
The Medal Ceremony
Receiving 2nd Place Medal	Medal Winners
Afterwards
Just after the final bout	Celebrating

Fencing Information

• foil - The classic fencing weapon, originally intended as a training weapon for duelists. It's a very light weapon, and very quick. Points (touches) are scored only with the tip (it is a lunging weapon, not a cutting weapon) and only when the tip lands on the torso of your opponent. There are also right-of-way rules that govern who can attack and who must defend. In a nutshell, if you start an attack you get right-of-way. Your opponent must defend himself against your attack before he can attack you. Alternately, he might evade your attack (so you miss entirely) or he might "stop thrust" which is essentially a counter attack. If his stop thrust hits far enough before you do, he gets the point, not you. It's all very complicated, and I find that the directing never quite matches my understanding of the rules, though recent rules changes may have helped that somewhat.
• epee - This is the closest thing to a real dueling sword in my mind. The blade is heavier and a bit less flexible than a foil, and the bell guard is larger, to protect the fingers a bit more. It is also a lunging weapon, so points are only scored with the tip. In Epee, though, the whole body is valid target, from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot. (In practice, if you turn your back on your opponent -- thus exposing the back of your head -- you'll get penalized. That's a safety thing.) There are no right of way rules in epee. The first person to get the touch gets the point. If both weapons hit within 1/25th of a second (I think), both fencers get a point. Epee bouts tend to be longer and a bit more carefully fought, since anything is target you don't open up even your arm without a plan. (Well, you shouldn't anyway.)
• sabre - A cutting and lunging weapon, saber is the most violent of fencing weapons in my opinion. It's also the one most likely to cause tendonitis in my right arm, so I don't use it. In sabre, the body from the waist up is valid target, including arms and head. You can score with the tip, the front edge of the blade, or the top third of the back edge of the blade. In practice, sabre bouts look to be an exercise in cuts and parries. Sabre fencers are the least civilized of fencers, and they have calluses on the knuckles of their off hand from dragging them on the ground; a glove protects the weapon hand, of course. (That will get me into trouble!)

Pools are generally groups of 6-8 fencers. All the fencers entering a competition are placed in one pool or another (there are complex rules governing how pools are laid out). Within your pool you fence everyone to 5 points. Pool bouts last 3 minutes. If someone has not won 5 touches within 3 minutes, the bout ends so long as someone is ahead. If the score is tied, though, then what happens depends on the weapon. In epee, a random scheme is used to assign "priority" to one of the fencers, and the bout continues for one more minute or until someone scores. If no one scores, then the fencer with priority wins.

When the pool has finished all of its bouts, the scores are tallied up. The various indicators are things like bouts won, bouts lost, touches scored, and touches received. All of the various pool results are combined in the end, and a single elimination ladder is created. The ladder is constructed so that the #1 and #2 pool winners are most likely to meet in the final -- assuming nothing changes. If there were 32 fencers, then #1 would fence #32 in their first direct elimination bout. #2 would fence #31, and so on. There are preprinted forms to handle all of the complexity of laying out the ladder once the pool results are sorted out.

Direct elimination bouts (DEs) are different from pool bouts. A direct elimination bout is longer, but how much longer depends on how old you are. For people under 40, or those of us over 40 but fencing in the "open" category, DEs are 3 periods of 3 minutes each, and the winner has to get 15 points. Veterans (those over 40, at least in the US) fence 2 periods of 3 minutes to 10 points. The extra time and higher scores allow you to learn more about your opponent and change your game to respond to his or her actions.

Those 3 minutes of a fencing period are the longest 3 minutes of your life.

The tournament these pictures come from was a veteran's event (40+) and had 23 fencers entered in it, I believe. In my case, I did well in my pool, winning 4 of 5 bouts. That was good enough to let me finish something like 6th or 8th in the pool rankings. Since there were 23 fencers, the top 9 got a buy -- that is, we didn't have to fence a DE bout to get into the round of 16.

My first DE (to move me into the round of 8) was against the winner of the DE between Tom Conroy (one of the the photographers) and Suzanne Bloomer. Suzanne won, so I fenced her. As it turns out, I worked with Suzanne at the time, so I know her pretty well. We had a mostly nice bout that I won. The "mostly" part comes from the fact that I went for her toe once, just as she advanced towards me. She moved her foot forward and my blade hit her in the shin pretty hard, causing her to bleed a bit. She has never let me forget it either. I get teased about how I abused her quite regularly. (For those wondering, we're currently running mixed events for veterans. If we had enough women fencers over 40, they'd have their own events and wouldn't have to face brutish males like me on the strip.)

My next DE was against Jere Bothelio. I've known -- and fenced with -- Jere for years. He almost always beats me, and is definitely a better fencer than I am. But this time I won 10/9 after coming from behind. I was stunned, but that win put me into the round of 4. That is, after winning this I had to finish at least tied for 3rd place (we don't fence off for 3rd and 4th place in our tournaments). This also earned me a B rating.

Next I faced Mark Wheeler. I've known Mark a while too. We had a good bout and once again I came from behind to win 10/9. There was one of those odd time dilation things in this fight. We'd come together and both our blades where high, but I had time to note that his thigh was open and that my blade was (for once) on the proper side of his. I brought it down and got the touch, but the whole thing felt like it was in slow motion -- an amazing and strange experience. Beating Mark put me into the final, which I really and truly did not expect to do at all.

The final was against Phil Gerring. By this time, I was exhausted, full of adrenaline, and unable to think at all. Phil is a masterful fencer and he took me apart, winning 10-3. I was so astounded to be where I was that I couldn't have cared less at the time. The next time I fence Phil, though, I need to be a lot more careful, and a lot more controlled. He was taking notes on me in his little book after the bout, so he will remember what I did wrong here. I need to have a whole different game to beat him.

Some fencing terms, loosely defined. If there are others in here that I missed or should define, please email me and let me know about it.

• Coupe -- an attack in which the attacker causes the blade to bend and stick to an opponent. An extreme case has the blade land on the opponent's side, behind their elbow.
• DE -- abbreviation for Direct Elimination; a bout designed to eliminate a fencer from a competition.
• Director -- the referee of a fencing bout.
• Epee -- a fencing weapon, heavier than the foil. Scores only with the tip, when you hit anywhere on the body.
• Feint -- a fake attack, used to cause a fencer to move, and possibly open up some other part of their body to attack
• Fleche -- a running attack at your opponent.
• Flick -- like a coupe, but the blade doesn't stick to the opponent. There is a lot of disagreement about these attacks. Those who can do them love them. Those who can't -- or who think they aren't "real" attacks -- hate them. I fall into the latter category.
• Foil -- a light, thin bladed fencing weapon. Scores only with the tip when you hit your opponent's torso. Right-of-way rules require defense before attack in most cases. The classic training weapon.
• Lunge -- an attack in which the back leg drives the body forward and the arm extends, ideally hitting your opponent with the tip of your blade.
• Parry -- the act of deflecting your opponent's blade so it doesn't hit you.
• Point -- awarded for hitting your opponent with your weapon legally. Pool bouts are to 5 points; DE bouts are 10 or 15 points, depending on whether or not it is a veterans tournament, or not.
• Pool -- a group of fencers at a competition. Each fencer bouts with every other fencer in the pool. The collected results from all the pools are used to seed the direct elimination (DE) ladder.
• Rating -- fencers get ratings depending on how well they finish in tournaments. The ratings run as follows, from worst to best: unrated, E, D, C, B, A. When I entered the tournament, I had an E rating in epee. I left with a B. Ratings also expire after time. I think you have 3 or 4 years to renew a rating before it drops by one level, and so on.
• Remise -- assume you attack, and are parried away by your opponent. A remise is the act of immediately pushing the point back at your opponent without retreating or coming out of your original attack. Also called a replacement.
• Right-of-way -- a set of rules governing actions with foil and saber. Basically they require that you defend yourself if you are attacked, before you may attack in return.
• Sabre -- a fencing weapon. Scores on both the tip and with a cut when you hit above the waist. Right-of-way rules control actions.
• Senior -- in US fencing rules, anyone 18 - 39 years old (I think -- it might be 16).
• Stop Thrust -- attacking your opponent while they are attacking you. If you get there first (at least in epee) you get the point.
• Toe Touch -- an attack to an opponent's foot. Only valid in epee fencing.
• Touch -- another word for "point" (as in something you score). You get a touch by attacking your opponent, obviously.
• Veteran -- in US fencing rules, anyone 40 years old or over.

That's all I'll put in here for now. Thanks very much for reading this far. Email me any questions you may have via my contact page.

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