Member-only story
Sword fighting
Fencing
“If you master the principles of sword-fencing when you freely beat one man, you beat any man in the world. The spirit of defeating a man is the same as for ten million men.” — Musashi Miyamoto
I was talking with a friend of mine about men's swimming trunks. I said seldom do mine fit, and I sure as h*** will not try a speedo. Further, I explained wearing a Speedo would make me feel silly. I would kind of feel like a ballet dancer, and that’s not a good feeling for me.
I then realized I was on the college fencing team for a brief stint. To me, the fencing stance was kind of like a ballet stance. I was a champion wrestler during high school. And found it hard to adapt my wrestling stance into a ballet-like fencing stance. I ended up quitting after a couple of weeks, but not before I learned a lot about the obscure sport of fencing.
In fencing, you start with the foil. Then you graduated to the épée or saber. Épée and foil are point weapons -that means you are stabbing your opponent, and you have to poke them with the pointy end (that’s called a tip). Saber (or Sabre) is a slashing weapon, so your goal is to make a touch with any part of the blade, not just the tip.
Fencing is one of five sports that have been permanent fixtures at the Olympic Games since the first modern Games were held in 1896.
