Fencing?

[ghosttraingray]

Hi all,

Does anyone here have experience in sport fencing? Is it fun/an alright workout? Turns out theres a couple clubs in my city and it's always seemed like a fun sport.

Thanks.

[PointyShinyBurn]

It's certainly good exercise and I found it a lot of fun, though that's no guarantee you will. Just try a class and you if you like it.

[realjanuary]

I did foil and a little sabre in college. I thought it was buckets of fun and a good work out, but that depends on how you play it. It is in many ways the anti-judo, expensive and not widely available, which is one reason why I stopped.

It is competitive, stylised tag-with-sticks for adults. I mean that in the best possible way.

(Sports kartate / olympic taekwondo often looks to me like fencing with fists and feet. Fencing is to sword fighting as sports karate is to kickboxing.)

[PointyShinyBurn]

Playing 'tag' with swords represents the reality that getting stabbed in the chest tends to be fight ending in a way that getting punched there may well not be.

[judoka_uk]

I've done a bit of fencing.

Its fun, but as a form of exercise I wouldn't put it on anywhere near the level of a Muay Thai or Judo session.

If you're looking to lose weight and get in shape this is probably not the thing for you. If you want to hit people with swords, then it is.

[Ignorami]

I too have done some fencing.

It's fun, and tiring. Most (if any) weight loss will come from getting fucking hot and sweaty in the gear.

I would also suggest that there is likely to be A LOT more standing around time than in Judo etc. Kitting up takes time. If your on electrics, that takes time. Some time will always be spent standing judging others matches etc.

I enjoyed it though.

[PointyShinyBurn]

I've done a bit of fencing.

Its fun, but as a form of exercise I wouldn't put it on anywhere near the level of a Muay Thai or Judo session.

If you're looking to lose weight and get in shape this is probably not the thing for you. If you want to hit people with swords, then it is.

Fencing at a competitive level is pretty beast on the cardio and leg muscles. Your local beginners' class may or may not represent this well.

[realjanuary]

Playing 'tag' with swords represents the reality that getting stabbed in the chest tends to be fight ending in a way that getting punched there may well not be.

That's certainly the logic for some of the training, but most people do olympic fencing with out much concern for martial application.
There are some aberations in olympic fencing which make it "tag." Briefly:
"the map is not the landscape," as fencers we aim for the uniform/lamee instead of the man inside it, evident in flick hits
no weighting of different target areas, especially relevent in epee where a toe hit in response to a solid face thrust are equal, even if the toe hit comes after the face hit (but still inside the lockout time)
no value put on cutting mechanics, see the false edge hits in sabre

[PointyShinyBurn]

Modern fencing isn't, nor does it aim to be, a simulation of a genuine sword fight. But if, for some reason, genuine sword fights were what you were interested in it's better training than 90% of LARPing WMA stuff I've seen.

[realjanuary]

I'll stand by my origional statement so, it's a game of tag. I played it, thought it was loads of fun, a good workout and it helped build some attributes. The fact it's a game isn't why I stopped playing. The attributes like co-ordination, speed and timing are grown so well because of the progressive resistance / "aliveness" in the training. You don't get that in a lot of WMA groups.
It's a great sport that I would recommend if cost, availability and the asymmetric development of the body were not an issure. For me these things were an issue, and other hobbies trumped it.