Foil Fencing Rules of the Piste

Video Transcript

"The fencer's stomping ground, the place where your bouts will occur in competition, is called the strip, or the piste. So here on the ground we have the boundaries of a piste marked out. Regulations require the piste to be one point five to two meters in width, and fourteen meters in length. So, if you see, this takes us to the middle, where I would face off an opponent at the beginning of a bout. So as the bout continues, we would be moving along the strip. Important thing to remember is if one fencer were to give a lot of ground, were to retreat often as they were being advanced upon by an opponent, as my opponent's approaching, I'm parrying, she's advancing, she's possibly making lots of fast advances, but for whatever reason, I'm losing ground here, I'm unable to move forward. That's fine up until a point, because when I get to the edge of the strip, if I back off of the edge I have a touch scored against me. So I need to keep my feet on the piste, which means I need to, at some point, find a way to advance again or acknowledge the fact that I gave too much ground, I've lost my place on the strip, and we have to begin again in the middle."