Fencing Equipment Necessary for Foil Fencing

Series Summary

Directly related to dueling, fencing is a competition of swordsmanship. The competition is guided by points that the duelers are trying to gain. Each strike, stab, or hit derives a certain amount of points and the dueler with the highest amount of points wins the bout. As with any sport, there are necessary pieces of equipment needed for a successful, safe bout. Foils are the introductory weapon and Epees and Sabres are the more advanced weapons of fencers. There are no shields used by the fencers, so they must protect themselves other ways with masks, protective bibs, plastrons and knickers, as well as shoes and gloves are absolutely essential to the athletes.

In this series of videos, you will be familiarized with the art of swordsmanship. Our fencing expert gives detailed instruction on the basic attack methods of fencing. You’ll find clips on defending yourself and keeping yourself safe as well with videos on clothing. Learn about the importance of footwork in fencing and get more advanced tips on handwork, footwork and attacking maneuvers. Our expert leads you thorough an introduction to the gear and clothing needed for fencing and gives you instruction on keeping score during the bout. You’ll become an expert on fencing after watching this series of instructional videos!

Video Transcript

"My name is Brad Bogus. I am a member of the United States Fencing Association and I am going to guide you through some of the basics and advanced techniques of fencing. Now with fencing there are three different styles as well as three different weapons. There is foil, eppe and saber. What I am going to show you today are the basics and advanced techniques of foil fencing. We are going to start with the basic gear that you need to wear before entering a fencing competition or just fencing. Start with the underwear: any kind of tank top or regular undershirt will do; the lighter the better because this gear can get quite hot. Some guys prefer to wear a cup; I’m not opposed to that as it keeps any type of sword hitting you in parts you don’t want to get hit. However, maneuver ability with a cup can be a little bit uncomfortable. I choose to opt out. First piece will be your knickers, these pants right here. As you can see they kind of look like knicker bockers they end right here at the end near your calve muscles and they come up to about your belly button with suspenders to keep them up. The next piece you are going to put on is called your underarm protector. This is actually what it says it is. It protects the underarm. It is a little bit of extra cloth and little bit of extra padding to prevent any swords from hurting you excessively. This goes underneath your jacket which I will show you here in a minute and usually whenever your fence in an USFA tournament or regulated tournament, they require you to wear underarm protectors where as in about or replay you may not be required to wear one of these. Put this on underneath and under it goes the jacket. The jacket is basically - just as it is, just the jacket. It has sleeves and everything. The only difference is it has a loop right here at the bottom because it needs to cover also parts you don’t want to get with a sword. So step through the loop, arms through the holes and then you just put it on like a real jacket. Depending on whether you are right handed or left handed, the zipper will be oriented as such. So I’m right handed I zip it on the left side. It also latches right here on the neck to help protect your neck from swords. "