How to Use a Foil in Fencing

Series Summary

Fencing, or the art of armed combat involving strikes such as cutting and stabbing, is known as the art of swordsmanship. It has developed into a competitive sport and is an official Olympic sport. Protective fencing gear consists of masks, gloves, breeches and plastron. Typically made of tough cotton and nylon and Kevlar, the full-body padding is very protective and cannot usually be punctured. This form of competitive swordsmanship has been in practice for centuries. Today, thanks to modern technology, the fencers wear electronic wires for scoring hits or strikes.

There are different types of swords used in fencing including and Epee, a Foil, and a Saber. In this series of video clips, you’ll learn more about these different weapons. An important component of fencing is the footwork and balance. Get informative tips on the choreography of a sword fight from our expert. Learn more about the modern scoring apparatus and other fencing equipment. If you are a novice fencer, you can get more advanced tips and ideas for fencing foil techniques and vaulting and linear footwork.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is Tim Weske on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip, I'm going to show you about the foil. There is 3 weapons that we use for fencing. In competion olympic fencing it's called. Foil, sabre and epee. In this particular one, we're going to talk about foil. A foil weapon is a thrusty weapon. That means that you're pushing the weapon's point into the target area of your opponent. The target area for the foil is basically my chest, stomach, groin area, around my sides and my back. My arms and head are not included, so what I have to do with this weapon is push through somebody's defense. When they have their in front, I have to come in and try and touch the body, very difficult to do. In this sequence with this particular weapon, there's a rule that's called right of way, which I'll get into in another clip. All the weapons have different types of target areas. What we do is we move or thrust or fool or fake. The movement with the foils point is extremely small in that if I'm going to fool somebody, I would make a thrust to come at them and do what's called a disengage to move to the other side of the blade. I'll try to show here with the camera. I come in strait, I make a thrust telling my opponent that I'm going to hit him in the chest causing him to move or parry, which I'll show later, and then moving to the opposite side of his blade. "