Most Painful Consequence of Economic Recession: A Discussion on Unemployment

Categories: Economic Recession Fencing Sports

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There are three different forms of fencing. They all share a common goal, hit the other person without getting hit, but the rules and weapons vary between the three. Saber is the most flamboyant of the three and probably (unfortunately) what most people think of when they think of fencing. Epee is the simplest to understand, the most complex to compete in, and the most boring to watch. Foil is simultaneously the beginner's weapon and the hardest to learn. The three coexist as cousins: similar in principles and basic rulings while differing in execution and technique.

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To me, Saber is a ridiculous weapon. It requires none of the point control of its two counterparts, as scores are made with a cut rather than a hit with the point, and minimalizes the harsh and confusing right-of-way rules of foil to a speed contest. Fencers who start fencing Saber generally (there are exceptions) have terrible technique, as they were trained from the start to fence with a style that can only be described as run at the person, take a swing for the head, and hope the referee thinks your hit to the head started a fraction of a second earlier than your opponent's.

Foil was the first weapon I learned, and I still fence the occasional foil tournament to this day. Foil shares the right-of-way rules of saber, but unlike saber it requires careful point control to score touches. Where saber touches can be scored by even so much as brushing your blade anywhere above your opponent's waist, foil fencers must hit with the tip of their weapon onto the chest, abdomen, or neck of their opponent.

For many, foil is the starting point of their fencing career. While by combining right-of-way with a small target area it is the most difficult weapon to be successful in, it provides a beginning fencer with all the skills necessary to move on to either of the other two weapons.

Epee is the best of the three weapons (saber and foil fencers just don't know it yet), and my preferred weapon these days. If you turned on the TV during the Summer Olympics and tried to watch some, though, I wouldn't be able to blame you for turning it off. To a spectator, epee is far more boring than the saber fencers on the next strip over repeatedly running at each other. To the fencers involved however, it is anything but. In epee, there are no right-of-way rules, there are very few rules at all. It's quite simple to grasp at a basic level. If you hit your opponent, anywhere on their body (I've scored a few toe touches before), you get a point. If you get hit, your opponent gets a point. If you hit each other at the same time, which in epee terms means within the same 1/32 of a second, you both get a point. Yet this simplicity in rules leads to a much more complicated execution. Without the insurance of right-of-way, it is far riskier to commit to an attack, and so there are less attacks. Instead of the running down the strip you see in saber, entire exchanges are made within seconds by slight movements of the wrist just outside of striking distance. Everything is minute, slight, until a final burst of speed and commitment leads to one fencer scoring a touch.

Fencing is an incredibly complex sport grown around a single concept: stab the person standing in front of you before they can stab you. The three forms each have their unique qualities and benefits, and each have people who will explain why I'm wrong and their weapon is superior. To me, however, they can never be equals. Foil will always hold a special place in my heart, but once I fell for epee there was no going back. The careful balance, uncertainty, the concentration. It is an experience like no other, and one I'll hopefully be able to continue to enjoy for years to come.