Fencing or HEMA?

**Dak** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 10:15pm

A friend of mine and myself have currently been looking at starting up fencing classes. We like the idea of swordplay, but after the obligatory Bullshido search I find that the idea of fencing being actually translated to swordplay is somewhat ambiguous.

So here's my question I have fencing available and I have HEMA available. is Fencing applicable to real swordplay and if so should I pick it over a HEMA club?

here is my local HEMA club
http://www.meetup.com/IdahoSentinels/

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 10:30pm

I'd take the fencing personally. I've watched a good friend of mine in his fencing class a few times and he gets his ass kicked by the workout of it, plus it looks to me like fencers are MASTERS of distance, timing, and finding openings. I think he said his teacher was some ex Olympic fencing competitor or something, I'll have to find out who it was. But one thing is for sure, those guys play FAST.

**Dak** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 10:35pm

thank you for the quick response.

I just concerned about the martial aspect of fencing. is it even martial anymore? or is it the cardio kickboxing that tae kwon do now is?

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 10:59pm

You've been here long enough to know that the sport vs. street argument doesn't hold water. Fencing is the sweet science of sword fighting as far as I'm concerned.

And as far as the martial aspect goes, we've pretty much evolved past the use of swords. But if the apocalypse comes and you want to fight feral ghouls with your melee weapon skills, fencing is probably the way to go. Its a very calculating sport, and teaches you how to take advantage of distance in multiple ranges.

By the way, I'm not a regular fencer. All I've got is about 6 hours worth of fencing behind my belt that was taught to me by a good friend of mine, mostly for fun, but I know enough about it to know that it beats down most other crap on a regular basis.

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 11:07pm

Between
YouTube - HEMA/WMA Axel&Robert edited (Band of Horses "Our Swords")
and
YouTube - Super Foil Fencing!!
I'd say its pretty clear cut which is your better bet.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 11:24pm

I know other will disagree but if you want a more realistic "martial" fencing do Epee

Yes at high levels people try and do stupid point scoring **** like hitting the bottom of your shoe but the whole body is a target and the epee is less bendy than the foil and leaves nice little bruises.

Foils are fer chicks!!!!

**Dak** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 11:25pm

very informative thank you. Obviously i never expect to be in a str33t bout with swords, but doing something that has martial credibility just holds me longer. I will wait for more responses, but at the moment I seem to be leaning toward fencing.

**IMightBeWrong** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 11:30pm

I actually wanted to start fencing for a while myself. I really enjoy watching the classes, but they're just too far down into phoenix for my taste. Good luck if you start, you'll probably have a blast.

**Goju - Joe** · Posted On: 8/29/2009 11:34pm

Epee for the win

YouTube - Men's Epee FINAL TEAM Hungary vs ITALY Montreal GP 2008

**Tyrsmann** · Posted On: 8/30/2009 1:01am

Originally Posted by zaohu

Between
YouTube - HEMA/WMA Axel&Robert edited (Band of Horses "Our Swords")
and
YouTube - Super Foil Fencing!!
I'd say its pretty clear cut which is your better bet.

The top clip is actually pretty good interms of freeplay. I don't know much about sport fencing but the bottom clip looks like they were holding pistol grips. If we're talking actual swordsmanship I would think HEMA would be a better choice of the two. But if one wants sport fencing with a martial element I would think the best choice is Classical Fencing. One of the problems I've heard with alot of modern sport fencing is that they do things that would've been unadvisable with the actual weapons the foil. epee, and saber were meant to simulate.

But ultimately it depends on what the OP wants.