The Press in Foil Fencing

Series Summary

Fencing is the art of swordsmanship. It has developed into a competitive sport, being one of four sports featured at each of the modern Olympic Games. Protective fencing gear consists of masks, gloves, breeches and plastron. Typically made of tough cotton, nylon, and Kevlar, the full-body padding is very protective and cannot easily be punctured. Sabre fencing uses right-of-way like foil fencing, but points can be scored with the edge of the blade. This follows from the original design of sabres as edged swords, whereas the rapiers which led to foil fencing were usually pointed, thrusting blades.

In this free video series, expert fencer Amy Boyle shows you strategies and attacks for foil fencing. Amy teaches how to keep up and run a smart offense to score in foil fencing, and this series has it all. You will learn the fleche, press, and other maneuvers. Amy also shows you how to play tactically, how to use retreats to score, gaining on the lunge, and the check step. You learn how timing is a matter of distance and steps. You will be a better fencer in no time!

Video Transcript

"As we talk about moves in foil, I want to add the press, which is a very simple move, but you can add strategy to the press and have it actually become one step in a dance of many complex moves. So let's, let's start with the simple press. The press is just what it sounds like, it's me applying pressure to my opponent's blade, just pressing her blade out of the way. Now, if she does, if she in response to that pressure, she pushes back, what I want to do is disengage, and come around to the open line. In this case I would thrust to her four. Now, most likely my opponent's going to catch on to that very quickly. If she's been fencing for a little while she's going to anticipate exactly that sort of response to a press, so she might instead give me a little bit of pressure, and then immediately parry four. In that case I might feint a disengage. So if she parries four, I feint to disengage, come back to the now open line, and thrust to six. So, in fencing you often have, in Foil Fencing, many levels of deception. That's just the very first level, but you could see how you could pile on a lot of different feints and intentions in order to create a complicated dance of action. So let's show how that works, with a partner, in action."