Sentiment Two: The Foil

The foil is the teaching sword of fencing. Not a "real sword" in its own right, the foil is "best thought as a tool for facilitating offense and defense" as Maestro Selberg puts it.A light thrusting weapon, the foil is five hundred grams in weight, with a flexible steel blade and about thirty-six inches long. There are three types of foils being used, the chief difference being in the handles. There are the traditional French and Italian handles, as well as themodern ''Pistol'' or Orthopedic handle. The French is straight, with a slight curve to fit into the palm, and is the

most popular beginning foil. The Italian is fairly rare nowadays, not being that practical for electrical fencing, but in classical foil tournaments there are devotees of the Italian. It has a short handle with a crossbar and rings for a sort of early pistol grip. The orthopedic or pistol grip comes in many variations, which are usually made out of aluminum with prongs to grive a stronger grip. The pistol grip is used most commonly in electrical foil.

Left To right: Italian foil, Court Sword and French Foil

Pistol Grip

Traditionally, the foil is what every beginning fencer starts out with. It teaches all the

rudiments of fencing, including timing, distance, balance, and form. There is a system of priority in foil fencing called "right-of-way", and the whole idea with the foil is to capture the right-of-way. Right-of-way works as follows: hit without being hit. Not just to hit first, but to "escape unscathed" from the fight. Originally the modern foil was developed in the late 17th century, as a training tool for the duel. Right-of-way reflects an ideal way to approach combat. How does it work? The priority is given to whoever establishes a continuous threat first within a moment of fencing time. Here's a few scenarios:

A) Fencer Primus attacks, maintaining a continuous threat. Fencer Secundus ignores the attack and also establishes a counterattack of his own. Both hit. Fencer Primus has the right-of-way because Fencer Secundus has enough time to defend.

Here's what should have happened:

A. B) Fencer Primus attacks, maintaining a continuous threat. Fencer Secundus, endowed with a God-given ability to preserve his life, parries--deflects--Primus' attack and immediately ripostes (attack after his parry). Primus is hit, and Secundus has captured the right-of-way.

A. C) If Primus remises--immediately renews his attack--but Secundus parries the original threat and ripostes, with both fencers hitting, Secundus still has right of way. Primus, by remising, shows that he had enough time to defend against the riposte.

What should have happened is as follows:

Primus attacks, Secundus parries and ripostes. Primus, also having a God-given ability to preserve his life, counterparries and counterripostes.

And so on. This exchange of blades, as it is called (attack> parry-riposte> counter-parry riposte> counter-counter-parry-riposte) can go on either until one fencer hits or the phrase is broken by one fencer retreating out of distance.

However, if one fencer attacks and the other parries then does nothing or delays his riposte, the attacking fencer has priority to renew his attack or remise.

Finally, we have the concept of point-in-line, which is a defensive threat made by fully extending the sword arm in a threat to the other fencer's target. The other fencer must deal with the point-in-line before attack, by removing it with a sharp beat-attack or binding it out of the way. If one fencer establishes point-in-line and the other fencer attack onto it without removing the threat, and both hit, the fencer who has point-in-line has the right-of-way. However, if the fencer who has established point-in-line reacts with a counter attack, and both hit, the fencer who establishes the attack is given right-of-way.

Those are the essentials of the rules of engagement at foil. One important note is that the touch, a visible bend made with a thrusting action only, has to arrive on the proper target.

In foil, target is limited to the torso, front and back. The origin of the target, as explained to me, was that with a dueling sword one would want to thrust to the vital organs. Makes sense to me, though my gut instinct in researching it is that before the development of the fencing mask, touches were made by elegantly elevating the arm and lowering the point of one's foil to avoid hitting the other fencer in the face. Because of that fact, my guess is that the large and obvious target of the torso was safest to hit to, and that has lasted until now. Though foil target has been the subject of debate. As late as the 1930's, the foil target ended at the hip line for men, and for women until the 1960's. The groin target was added later. Indeed, the famous Italian champion Aldo Nadi in his world-famous prizefight against French rival Lucien Gaudin complained he lost because the French were still calling the upper arm as valid target. And this was in the 1930's. Pedantry has always been the bane of fencing.

So that's the foil in a nutshell. It is a wonderful weapon, and as Nadi described it "the most classic of all three". There is such room for creativity when one starts to begin understanding tempo and right-of-way that it is little wonder the foil has been used for five hundred years.

Good Fencing!