Scoring the Perfect Hit in Foil Fencing

Video Transcript

"O'kay now we are going to take about making the perfect hit. Syria here has been gratious enough to volunteer to throw herself at the sword. Notice she is wearing a mask which you always want to wear a mask when you are doing any kind of work even though this is a demonstration and we are working at very slow speeds and we are working very safely we don't want to take any chances you always want to protect your face. The only time you will see us not wearing a mask is if we are moving very slowly and not making contact with each other as we explain the moves. So in a thrust which is the only kind of hit that is valid you want to make solid contact with your partner. I am using nonelectric foil but if you are using electric foil you want to have a minimum requirement of 500 grams of pressure just to make the hit count with the pressure. That is not a lot of pressure but ideally as you thrust forward you tilt your grip up just a little so that you make what we call a nice C curve. It is easy for a Judge to tell and for yourself and your partner to tell and ideally that is what we are shooting for. So if I make a thrust to her four I'm hitting on her chest and making a C curve with my foil. Now the foil blade is stiff but it is flexible enough that it can always curve that much. You want to keep from making hits that are just glancing or hits that are just coming off to the side and moving around the material. A good hit this is the last kind in the series is solid and makes a curve with your blade."