Sentiment Five: Bell Guard or Shell Guard?

French Foil

Most foils are outfitted with a small circular hand guard, commonly called the bell guard. That's what I was taught it was called, and the explanation for that nomenclature was this; when struck, it rings like a bell. Makes sense, right? But on further examination, it is quite clear that modern coaches are mistaken in their term for that round metal thing that protects your hand. Let's take a short look at the historical development of foil guards to have a better understanding.

19th century Italian and French foils

Believe it or not, cultural differences effected the development of the foil hilt. In Italy, the

rapier of the 17th century simply became lighter, while still maintaining its crossbar and rings.

As such, the Italian dueling sword and its practice versions, the heavier class smarra and lighter bouting fioretto were very similar to their sharp counterpart, with only the blades as a difference.

19th century Italian foil. Note the crossbar and rings.

In France, the earlier rapier developed into the light L'Epee D'Court or court sword (known in England as a walking sword). The crossbar and rings of the rapier were diminished and eventually gave way the the modern French grip. As such, the lightness of the French fleuret meant a smaller guard could be used, similar to those on the court sword, a figure-eight design. This was called the "lunette" guard in France, meaning eyeglasses.

19th century French foils. Note the decoration on the guards.

For both the Italian and French foils, despite the differences, the term used for the guard was coquille in French and coccia in Italian, both meaning "shell". The shallow concave shape of the guard, whether figure-8 or round safely protected the hand, guarding against possible wounds.

Beautiful foils were produced, with elaborated hilts and decorative pommels, especially by Solingen in Germany. Later, by the mid-20th century, decoration gave way to practicality, the round shell guard replacing the figure-8 guard on French grips, and with the addition of the electrical foil and the pistol grip in the 1950's, the shell guard became the accepted style worldwide. Too bad, because, the old foils from the 1800's were sure pretty.

Anyway, back to the subject of the guard. Fencing terminology, especially in the United States, is hopelessly muddled, the proverbial melting pot. My best guess, judging from French and Italian definitions, is that the foil guard should be properly called shell guard, due to its shape rather than any sound it may produce. If anything should ring, it should be the blades...

Good Fencing!

Sentiment Four: The Epee

The epee is the dueling sword of fencing. The object of epee is fencing is to touch your opponent anywhere on their body, head to toe, and score with a thrust. The simplicity of the game makes epee the most popular form of modern fencing, though don't let the mere simplicity of its objective fool you. The offensive aspect of epee means that though you can hit your opponent anywhere, they can also do the same.

Keeping that in mind, epee becomes a game of careful strategy, of alertness, being able to suddenly strike to any part of the target. Parries are kept simple, and more often than not you counter attack instead. A favored type is the time thrust, combining a parry and riposte in one fluid movement. One must take particular care to protect the sword arm, as it is closest to the opponent and thus more likely to be hit. However, if you are not careful, a sudden lunge to the face or body can also occur. Also, one may occasionally expect the other fencer to attack the sword foot, in which case the rassemblement or high stop thrust to the arm is used. Epee is fenced both traditionally and electrically, with some differences in how they are played.

Traditional epee is fought to one touch, and because of the pressure on both fencers is close to replicating an actual duel. Up until the advent of electrical epee in the 1930's, epees were fitted with point d'arret, a tiny three-pronged coronet which was threaded on to the epee point. These would snag on the target to show that the touch was delivered, as epee does not require that the touch is a visual bend, but merely the point arresting on the body. The early electrical epee points had a barrel and a spring-loaded tip which still had a point d'arret. Later, epee tips evolved into the flat French and German types. The governing body for the traditional epee game is the American Fencing League.

Left to Right: French grip, Pistol grip

Electrical epee, governed by the FIE, is fought to five touches and despite post-modern trends in epee fencing, such as the incessant bouncing one sees anywhere epee is fenced, traditional and electrical epee are fairly similar. The scoring box and number of touches in a bout are the essential differences. The stiffness of the epee blade and the simplicity of the game has not dramatically effected the changes from traditional to electrical epee, unlike foil and sabre. The epee, in either form, has a triangular shaped blade which narrows to a point, either a rubber blunt (standard) or a spring-loaded barrel point (electrical). Additionally, the epee has a large circular bell guard, which protects the hand, and either a French, Italian, or Pistol grip.

The historical development of the epee will be discussed later, but it is sufficient to say that the modern epee--French for "sword"--develop straight from the late 19th-early 20th century dueling sword. In fact, the essential difference between a standard epee and a dueling epee is the lack of a needle-sharp point. Quickly becoming popular as a sporting weapon in its own right, the development of epee fencing introduced a number of modern fencing's techniques, including the fleche (Fr. "arrow", pro. "flesh", NOT, "flesh-ay"), and posting, or taking advantage of the French grip's reach by holding it by the pommel. Famous epee fencers include:

Aurelio Greco, Lucien Gaudin, Christain D'Oriola, Eduardo Mangiarotti, Sandor Erdos, Yves Dreyfus, just to name a few. More on the history of epee fencing to come.

Good Fencing!

Sentiment Three: The Sabre

The Foil is the teaching sword of fencing.

The Epee is the dueling sword of fencing.

The Sabre is...something different.

There is no doubt that the sabre is the most flamboyant of all three weapons, the most ''like a real'' sword. It is the weapon of choice for such famous swashbucklers as Zorro and Rudolf Rassendyll. The sabre originates with the heavier cavalry sabre, and eventually evolved into the modern gaming weapon. Lightweight, with a curved knuckle guard to protect the hand, the modern sabre can be used either to cut with the entire front edge, the back third of the blade, or for a thrust. For sabre, the target area is limited to the entire body above the hips: head, arms, and torso. This choice of target is fairly recent considering the sabre's long and bloody history.

Original and Descendant

Deriving from the Polish word "szabla", which means to cut, the sabre

has its origins on the steppes of Central Asia. A light scimitar, the szabla is a curved sword meant to be used in lethal arcs from horseback. The curvature of the blade as well as the grip enables the cavalry man to literally slice through his opponent with relative ease. With the dynamic changes in warfare throughout the 16th century, the discarding of heavy body armor in Europe led to a search for the ideal cavalry weapon. The sabre fit the bill, and an entire new system of swordplay was developed for it.

From Szabla to Sabre

As the world rolled into the 19th century, the sabre became the symbol of the military. Even in modern times does the sabre hold high rank as the dress sword of choice for both the United States Marines and the Royal Guard in the UK. The sabre is an officer's weapon. Throughout the 1800's the sabre was still used, though with less and less frequency. Methods for its use were based on powerful circular cuts, though nowhere did the sabre hold more prowess than in the 1860's Milan, where Maestro Giuseppe Radaelli developed a novel system for the use of the dueling sabre--sciabola di terrano--a slimmer version of its military cousin. Radaelli's method based the use of the sabre on molinello, circular cuts executed from the elbow, with "sufficient enough strength to remove the opponent from combat".

Luigi Barbasetti, Mollinelo to the head

Pretty straightforward. At around this time, the accepted target according to

most dueling aficionados was the body above the hips, any cut or thrust delivered below that akin to "hitting below the belt" in boxing. The front thigh was considered target however, until at least the 1920's. By the 1950's, the accepted target was anywhere above the hip line. So it most likely thanks to Italian dueling snobs that we have modern sabre target. Some people believe that the tradition came from cavalrymen not wanting to hurt the other man's horse, which is of course not practical in a battle.

Gyorgy Piller, 1926 Olympics

Later former students of Radaelli took his system to other parts of Europe, notably Luigi Barbasetti in Austria and Italo Santelli in Hungary. Santelli, together with the Hungarian master Laszlo Borsodi, furthered Radaelli's work, adapting the Italian sabre system to the sporting sabre, and evolving it to suit the progressively light weapon. Santelli and Borsodi's Hungarian system of sabre relied on the use of the fingers, using tight, simplified parries and lightning fast stop cuts. The Hungarian system quickly showed its dominance throughout the 20th century. And no one demonstrated the system better than Santelli and Borsodi's prototype fencer, Gyorgy Jekelfalussy-Piller.

Piller took the sabre world by storm. From 1930-33 he took gold at the International Fencing Championships, and in 1956 coached the Hungarian sabre team at the Melbourne Olympics. Due to Hungary being brutally overrun by the Soviet Union, Piller and the entire team defected to the United States, where he took on the title of Fencing Master at UC Berkeley. Some of his students included Daniel Magay, John McDougal, and Charles Selberg. I was taught sabre by Michael Heggen, who in turn was taught sabre by Maestri Jim Ciaramitaro and Charles Selberg, so in effect the tradition of Gyorgy Piller still continues today. Modern sabre fencing has changed, becoming a game of lightning fast attacks, parry-ripostes, and the stop-cut. It is very fast, very exciting, and a constant thrill.

Good Fencing!

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!

Sentiment One: The Sport

Fencing is a simple game, in a way. The whole object of fencing is to hit without being hit yourself. Now most people aren't too familiar with this most romantic of sports, so let me lay out the basics of it in the viewpoint of a fencer in a bout.

Walking onto a narrow fencing strip, your opponent faces you, similarly clad in white jacket, breeches, and holding a steel mesh mask under his left arm. You stand with your feet at right angles, sword foot forward. Tugging your sword glove higher over your cuff, you grasp your foil, firmly but not tightly, and at the director's command you raise it in a salute, dipping it in a crisp line towards you opponent. The gives the command of "On Guard". You have done hundreds of times before, and do so now. Feet about a shoe-length apart, knees bent so your body weight is equally distributed, sword hand bent slightly with your point at eye level, and back hand raised up behind you for balance. "Fencers ready?" at a nod the director gives the final command, the one you've been waiting for. "Fence!". Alert but sure of yourself, you probe your opponent, testing for reactions, weaknesses. But all is not well. Your opponent almost immediately launches a powerful lunge, beating your sword sharply to the side and bending his flexible blade on your chest. "Halt!" cries the director. The judges across from you have their hands raised, which may mean they saw a touch arrive. In foil, the touch is a thrusting action with the point on the valid target, the torso. Did it arrive? Or was the touch off target or a flat--plaque--touch. That's what the director and judges are deliberating. You rest, knowing that even if your opponent hit, they still need four more touches to win the bout, and have just given you a vital bit of information: they may repeat the same action later in the bout. The director calls his view of the right-of-way: "The Beat-attack from my left?". One judge says "yes", while the other abstains. All four judges have one vote, while the director has one and a half. "I agree, yes" calls the director, and the opponent is awarded a touch. Now the game is on, and you see that your opponent favors the same lateral parry every time you probe. Seizing on this, you feint and deceive his parry, scoring on another part of the target. This time your judges speak up emphatically: "Yes!". The score is now 1-all, and there are still 3 minutes out of the 5 in the bout to go. The fight progresses, your opponent scoring another touch by closing in and in-fighting. Realizing that you need to keep them at a longer distance, you wait until they rush into your lunge distance, and you execute the same feint that won you a touch earlier in the bout. (Five minutes seem like forever when you fence). This time, your opponent manages to parry it and score with a return attack or riposte, and gains another touch. The score is now 2-3 in your opponent's favor. Because it is three touches, you and your opponent change places on the strip, shaking hands briefly and coming on guard. You are secretly thankful, because you know that his judges are slightly sharper when it comes to calling a clean touch. "Fence!". Your opponent comes forward, preparing another beat-attack, and you stick out your blade in line as an invitation. He goes for the bait and you disengage around his beat, arresting him before he can finish the action. Unfortunately, you hit off target in the arm, and the action stops. There are 52 seconds on the clock. You only have a slim possibility of winning this bout, and so your will have to use all of your mental abilities to out-fence your opponent. Both of you are cautious now- the other fencer knows that he could stall for time, but you could also score. 29 seconds. You attempt the feint that you scored on earlier. Knowing that your opponent may attempt to parry it as he did before, you feed him enough blade to let him do so. He ripostes. There is a touch. However, it is not your opponent's. You relied on second intention, knowing he would riposte, and deciding to counter-riposte. The touch is good, and there are 14 seconds left. 3-3, and pressure is on: one of you have to score the next touch. You prepare for an attack, but your opponent beats you to the touch and at 4 seconds left scores by dropping to the low line. The bout is over, and you have lost. It was a good match however, and your opponent simply did not outscore you, but out-fenced you. You grin, albeit ruefully, and take off your mask placing it under your sword arm, shaking ungloved hands with your opponent. The bout is over, but your fighting spirit is not dimmed. Next time....

So that is not always how a bout goes, but that's the general idea. Whether with foil, epee, or sabre, the goal is to not just score five touches before your opponent, but to out-fence, to out- think them. It's a game of chess at 100 mph. Fencing is an ancient sport, with noble traditions of honor and respect for the opponent. It's all about sportsmanship and winning well. "Gracious and dignified in defeat, humble and noble in victory", as the saying goes. There are three weapons in fencing. The foil is a light thrusting sword with small bell guard, the target area being the torso. The epee is slightly heavier, also a thrusting weapon with a larger guard to protect the hand, and the entire body, (head, shoulders, knees, and toes) counts as target. The sabre has a curved knuckle guard, and can be use to either cut or thrust anywhere above the hips. For a 5-second history of fencing: fencing was developed as training for the duel. When the duel died out, the sport of offense and defense with a sword (fencing) was left over. More to come.