Tips on Types of Fencing

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Part of the video series: Fencing & Stage Combat Techniques

Introduction to Stage Fighting

Tips on Stage Fighting Footwork

Tips on Types of Swords

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Summary: Learn tips on types of fencing in this free online video clip on stage fighting and fencing.

Views: 1,510 | Tags: sport, sports, stage, acting, play, fencing, sword, act, swords, fencefree

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About the Expert
Contact: amykboyle.com

Amy Boyle Amy has been a fencer and swordswoman for eleven years. She fenced for the University of Southern California and the University of Northern Colorado and has t... read more

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by turing

amy states that the head is target for ONLY Sabre. "sabre is the only style fencing where the head is a legal target area" this is wrong, head is target in epee. I am sure she just got nervous but for a novice/beginner this can be confusing. I can imagine the kid going to the coach and saying he learned this fact from expert village.

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Video Transcript

Tips on Types of Fencing

Next I want to talk to you about the different types of fencing. If you're in for sport fencing, you're talking about three different types of styles. The first one, and my favorite, is the foil. I have a foil here. They're all about the same size. The foil is a little bit lighter than the epee. A little bit smaller than the saber. But the biggest difference between foil fencing and epee and saber are the target areas. You're only thrusting with the tip. You can only earn points by hitting with the tip of your weapon. There's no cuts in foil. Also your target area is very limited. It's your torso. It's everywhere where I'm covered with my fencing jacket, not my arms. And also my back should someone get through, get past me, and be able to hit a touch on the back. That would be a legal touch as well. Now, epee is styled after a first blood duel, which means that everything is fair game. In an epee, if you hit my middle finger, you score a touch. If you hit my toe, you score a touch. So, everything is a target area, which you can imagine makes for a little bit of a different kind of strategy when you're playing. And saber is styled after cowboy--after horseback duel. So, anything that you would be able--that you could imagine you could hit on a horse--on a person who is riding a horse--would be fair game in a saber duel. So that's torso up and also the head. And saber is the only style of fencing where the head is a legal target area. Also in saber, unlike epee and foil, you don't just use the tip to score a point. I can thrust, I can score a point that way. Saber's also the only style of fencing where it's legal to hit with the side of your blade. It's called a cut. So, in saber as well as epee and foil, I can thrust to hit my opponent, hitting them with the tip of my weapon, but in saber I can also cut, cut down on the head, anywhere on the legal target area, and that's going to be a legal point. Which is interesting. It's actually what makes the saber weapon most like most other fighting that you're going to see in film and TV. Okay, so, now we're going to move into talking about footwork.