How to Score in Foil Fencing

Video Transcript

"Scoring, in a fencing bout, is one point per touch. So for every on target touch that Siri scores against me, she earns one point. Now most bouts go to five points. There are some exceptions, and in advanced rounds you may move to fifteen points, but generally, whether you're working with dry fencing or you're working with electrics, you have five points that are scored either by the fencers themselves, by judges, or by judges with the aid of electrics. Generally, after the first three touches scored by any one fencer, the fencers will switch positions, just like in volleyball, to make sure there's not any advantage to one side or the other, and begin again until all five touches are scored. Another important point to make when it comes to scoring in fencing is that you, if you happen to be fencing in formal bouts, if you're fencing in a class, if you're scoring for yourself, or even if you're scoring without electrics, with judges, fencers are a fairly courteous group. It is customary that you report touches against yourself. So that every time you have a legal hit, you want to report that to the judge, and to your opponent by stopping action, and usually just tapping the part of your body that was hit, and saying, "hit". If it's off target you might make a note of that too, but if you find yourself not mentioning those hits you'll become very unpopular, very quickly. All fencers really do report their hits. Sometimes you won't notice, you're wearing a lot of padding, some, some thrusts are lighter than others, but any time that, that there is doubt you should stop the action and report any blows against your target area. Be a good fencer."