Growing up, I wasn’t exactly the most coordinated person you would have ever met (okay, closer to the truth would be to say I could find a way to bruise myself in a room made of Nerf), so I never really excelled at many sports. I wanted to (oh how I wanted to) though. But what was girl to do who had no hand-eye coordination, was petrified of physical contact with other players, and found it awkward enough trying to coordinate her own body, never mind her body decked out in cumbersome sports equipment? I’ll tell you what – join the team that required the least amount of coordination yet still qualified as a sport. I ran track!

Through the years, running has always been my go-to exercise, but I’ve found that, now that I’m getting older, my body is less forgiving of the kind of joint punishment that running can inflict when you do it on a regular basis and that it just isn’t as fun when you’re off on your own and not part of a team. So, over the past few years, I started incorporating some yoga into my fitness repertoire. But, as much as I love the flexibility, tone, and zen calm I gain from that, I found it just wasn’t really getting my heart rate up for long enough or helping melt away those extra pounds.

When I moved a couple of years ago, I ended up befriending the coach of a fencing team. I saw him and his wife fence and became friendly with many of their fencing friends. God, it looked like so much fun! And they all kept encouraging me to give it a try. I kept thinking about it, . . . but the gangly dork inside of me kept reminding me that I’d probably just impale myself. Thankfully, with age has come less fear and I finally told my gangly inner dork to stuff it and I let my friend give me a few lessons. That was three years ago and I’ve been fencing and loving it ever since!

Fencing is just a really satisfying sport. It provides what I love about running (the aerobic workout) and what I love about yoga (tone and flexibility training) in one sport. There’s a lot of lunging, extended reaching, and quick footwork and reactions involved; you do it all while holding your arm up for long periods; and the entire time you’re doing this, you’re dressed from head to toe in fencing equipment that doubles as your own personal sauna! And fencing is a great sport for all ages. (I see kids as young as 12 and adults as old as in their 60s doing it.) Not to mention, it’s just damned gratifying to poke someone with a sword . . . er, I mean, land a touch.

Fencing is also a great challenge for the mind. Some have even referred to it as “physical chess” because you are often trying to figure out your opponents’ strategy and revising your own to expose and take advantage of their weaknesses. I also often compare it to poker because, sometimes, if you fence with certain opponents long enough, you can figure out their “tells” (e.g., when they are going to try a certain move), so it’s also kind of like an experiment in psychology!

In fencing, there are three different weapons – foil, sabre, and epee – and the weapon you use dictates what is considered target area on your opponent (see above). You’ll notice that the bell that covers the hand is bigger on an epee than it is on a foil. That is because the arm is part of the target area when you fence epee and you need more protection from attacks on that arm. Similarly, the bell on a sabre extends around the hand because the hand is actually considered a valid target when you fence sabre. . . . The goofy get-up is the same regardless of what weapon you fence though – a mask, a glove, a jacket, a plastron, knickers (yes, knickers), and a plastic breast plate (for women). If you want to fence in official tournaments, you’ll need a metallic lame, special electrical cords, and an “electrified” weapon because points are monitored electronically.

Don’t worry, “electrified” doesn’t mean that shocking each other becomes part of the goal! Touches on the lame and the point of the weapon are just communicated via a very low electrical current that travels through the cords I mentioned to a scoring machine. And the point of the weapon is not sharp either. The point is blunt and covered with a rubber tip.

As is the case with most sports, you can get extremely nice equipment for a pretty penny (including fencing-specific sneakers, socks, and special grips for your weapon), but you can also get a basic “dry” (non-electric) set-up for under $150. And there are more places that offer fencing than you may think. To find places to fence near you, check out the directory of clubs and facilities at the United States Fencing Association’s website.

– article by Cheri, who can be found at Parlancer and The Brain Blog

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Exercise Articles, Moves, Busted. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.