• Français : Piste d'escrime:
  • C ligne centrale
  • G ligne de mise en garde
  • D zone des deux mètres
  • R zone de recul (sortie de piste)
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  The piste is 14 metres long and 1.5-20 metres wide.
• Fencers begin a bout behind the "en garde" line (2m from centre), and return to the en garde line after a valid hit is scored.
• If a fencer moves behind the "end" line with both feet, a point is given to the opponent.
• If a fencer moves past the "side" line with one foot, the referee stops the bout and starts fencers in the middle of the piste.
• If the fencer moves past side line with both feet, the referee stops the bout and moves the out of bounds fencer back one metre.

Hi Loyalist Fencing Club athletes!  These are the parts of the foil that we need to remember for the yellow armband:

Remember,
Foible: the weaker, more flexible part of the blade

Forte: strong part of the blade used for defending

The pommel acts as a counter-balance for the weapon.

The ready position in fencing is the “en garde” position.  We have been focusing on:

• your leading foot is the same as your weapon arm, pointed towards opponent
• your feet are shoulder width apart
• your knees are flexed,
• and your weapon arm is bent at the elbow, and your weapon pointed towards your opponent

We advance to close distance on our opponent to score a hit, or retreat to defend against an attack.  We have been concentrating on:

• moving our front foot first to advance and our rear foot first to retreat
• keeping our knees flexed when moving so we don’t bounce up and down
• and moving both feet the same distance to stay balanced

To close distance quickly on our opponents when they are more than a step away from us we learned how to lunge.  When doing a proper lunge we remember to:

• extend our weapon arm forward first
• our leading leg kicks quickly forward and our knee finishes above our ankle
• our rear foot remains on the and the rear leg extends fully
• keep our body upright
• extend our read arm backwards

and to recover back en garde our:

• lead foot pushes backwards
• and our rear leg and arm bends to pull us back

It is important to show respect for your opponent and the sport of fencing by saluting prior to a match. To salute you face your opponent while holding your mask under your non-sword arm, put your heels together, point the tip to the floor, raise your guard to your chin, and bring your tip back down to the floor.

At the end of a bout we recognize the effort of our opponent by shaking hands using our non-sword hand.

A referee will give commands to fencers in french or english.  A referee will begin a fencing bout by asking fencers to go “On your guard.” or “En garde.“.  The referee will then ask the fencers “Are you ready?” or “Êtes-vous prêts?” and if you are ready to go you will respond “Yes!” or “Oui!“.  The referee will ask you to “Fence.” or tell you to “Aller.” and if the referee sees a touch or needs to stop the bout the will say “Halt!” or “Halte!”

The parry is used to deflect the attacker’s blade from the defender’s target and take “right of way” to score a hit.  The offensive action that follows a successful parry is called a “riposte“.

In week 3, we practiced 2 lateral (side to side) parries.  The parry quarte protects against attacks to the high outside line, and the parry sixte defends against attacks to the high inside line.

As your attacker’s point passes your guard, make brief contact with the attacker’s foible with the forte of your blade, moving your arm and blade at the same time.  It is important to keep the point of your weapon pointed at your opponent during your parry, so that your riposte can follow immediately.

When visualizing a parry, we thought about a car windshield wiper moving from side to side.  We practiced clapping our hands in front of our bodies, but only moving our weapon hand.  This action is very similar to the parry quarte.

The space in front of each fencer is traditionally divided into four sections or “lines” (4, 6, 7, 8):

• The high line sections are above the guard (quarte – 4 & sixte – 6)
• Low line sections are below the guard (septime – 7 & octave 8)
• Inside line sections are on the chest side of the blade (4 & – 7)
• Outside line sections are on the back side of the blade (6 & 8)