Target Area 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 teaches you the rules of foil fencing, including how to score, legal touches, and appropriate target area. You will learn how to use the piste, the long strip or mat that fencers use as a playing field, and the rules for sidelines, fouls, and penalties. Amy covers the "right of way" rules that give foil fencing its particular flavor, and she even includes common scenarios and demonstrations to make right of way clear. These videos have what it takes for you to start foil fencing!

Video Transcript

"The first very important distinction for Foil Fencing is the target area, because it is different than any other style of fencing. For foil, your target area is the smallest. It is only the torso and the back. That means the arms do not count, the head, the mask does not count, and the legs do not count. So for a score, for a hit to be legal, it must land here, or in the event of a Flick or a Fleche, it might actually land on your opponent's back, to score. And that's very important because in electric, when a judge is judging, in dry fencing, when you're using a foil like this and not an electric, the judge is going to watch where those points land, and if a point lands off target, here, on the arm, it won't count. But in electrics it's even more specific because you are hooked up to an electric system that will register a touch here with a colored light, but it will register a touch here with a white light, which is off target. It's also important to remember that the target area is divided into four quadrants, and we call these quadrants lines, so that if I'm on line four, if her opponent is on line for four, if she's going to parry four, then her opponent is going for this quadrant here. So when we talk about parries and when we talk about attacks we're talking about these sections of, of the torso, which are four, six, seven, and eight. So my attacks to her four is going to correspond to this part of her body, and her parry to four is going to correspond to the same part of her body. And Siri will demonstrate an En Garde. You can see how her target area for both six and eight are closer, and easier in some ways to reach, whereas four and seven are a little farther back. Now if Siri were to take the position that a lot of fencers take, which is an En Garde where her torso's facing forward, it opens up a lot of that target area for, for the opposing fencer. It's a lot easier for me to reach four and seven, which just a moment ago, sorry Siri, were several inches further back. So, if the fencer keeps this shoulder back as far as possible so that they're actually fighting completely to the side with their body, you can minimize target area and make it much harder to score that hit on Foil Fencing target area."