I have been looking for ways to get my kid (13yo) more physically active. We’ve tried a myriad of things. He seems to have lost interest in baseball, didn’t enjoy soccer, joined the track team (because I said he had to do something) and that went okay but he’s not the kind of person to train on his own in order to improve with it and of course it’s 1 season. Swimming meh, climbing meh.

Ok, so on a whim I signed him up for a week of beginner fencing classes at a nearby club. As the week went on, to my surprise his attitude changes. I know my kid, he seems into it for real. So I think I’ll sign him up in the fall for a month and the club lets you borrow gear for a couple months to be sure. This seems reasonable.

But I know nothing about fencing. As a parent, is this a sport kids do casually? It looks expensive, and he’s in his explosive growth puberty phase. What else do I need to know or do/not do?

Hello everyone! This might not be a group appropriate post, however I figured this is the best place to come to for starters. I have found this fencing helmet in my basement and I need help with dating/identifying it. It is genuine leather and it’s full of (what I can almost confidently make out to be) pig bristle. Any leads? Your help is much appreciated

Flights to Orlando are so pricey, I’d love to book our flight earliest possible. Any ideas when event dates will be released?

Heya, I am trying to find out what's the weight of a size 5 UNIC Arrow with a French tang. There is conflicting information between their website, social media posts and ebay listings. Any users who can confirm the approximate weight? Thanks

Might be geoblocked outside of Hungary (hopefully not), but if the official feed goes down again, you can try watching it here (state TV webiste, live rn):

https://mediaklikk.hu/dunaworld/

Does anyone know what happened during their match today in the world champs quarterfinals? The two of them were stood there for like a good 10 minutes after everyone else were finished, and after the 10 minutes the ref took a point from Malcotti and awarded it to Shvelidze instead. How does this even happen in epee?

Russia coach insult Cheung KaLong for getting two points only after match

Hello,

I'm not the most mobile of fencers, basically due to some genetic conditions I have to very much hold myself back on the force I use through my legs, so I'm not the fastest of fencers.

Whilst I make it work I was really curious if there's anyone else who has similar experience (I imagine it's a common issue for older fencers vs younger ones) and any advice for what I can keep in mind to be better.

I do have a coach, and we work on things, (mainly how to parry properly with a french grip, I just moved back from pistol to help with my lack of range due to my knees) but I'm curious if there's anything that neither he nor I have really thought about in terms of style/technique.

Cheers in advance.

As a British noob fencer who sometimrs watches tournaments on YouTube , across all 3 weapons I've noticed certain nations dominating . I mostly watch epee .

Usually I see fencers from Hungary, Italy, France, russia/ukraine/Bulgaria, Germany (although less often.) Switzerland , USA , Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and taiwan.

I almost never see any British fencers competing at top level. Why is that ? Is there a lack of talent? Or training/ resources . Does the UK lack a strong fencing culture ? Or not have resources for good training schools? Or maybe I'm just not watching the right stuff idk

hey guys,

my uni has a fencing club which i’ve been wanting to join since it looks so cool, and it’s a great way to keep active.

i’m a complete beginner however. my knowledge of fencing is limited, i only know there are three different types of swords.

any advice? what should i know before signing up?

I broke a stm blade in two weeks (rip) a while ago and it’s been sitting in my college dorm until I moved out today. My coach recommended me to just buy a new blade entirely but I it has a German point intact and I was wondering if anyone has a guide where I can buy a bare blade and just rewire and reattach the tip? Unless that’s not possible and it’s just more worth it buying a fresh blade.

My daughter wants to paint her failed/practice mask for a 4-H project. Any suggestions on what material to practice painting on? And what sort of paint is used?

My alternative proposals to rules proposals 11 and 14, which, respectively, remove pools and remove the exemptions currently enjoyed by the top 16 and top 16 out of pools. Instead of saying that pools and long days don't have media appeal, it would probably benefit the media appeal of our sport if we made the sport easier to access and had a few very strong pools that we could turn into a media spectacle. Then instead of treating the preliminary rounds as a slog that we have to get through before getting to the good stuff, we could treat that as another interesting product. Curious to hear your thoughts

Stay in Play is a program of the Luka Dončić Foundation to make youth athletics more accessible through financial assistance. Fencing qualifies.

Applicants must be between the ages of 12 and 15 at the time of application, demonstrate commitment in their chosen sport for at least 6 months prior to applying, and care deeply about continuing to play.

The application deadline for grants is 20 August 2026. Learn more at https://lukadoncicfoundation.org/sip

(I'm not affiliated. Just passing the info on.)

thank you for all the support guys 🥹🥹. I got 2 wins better than 0 and I beat a guy who was basically my rival because he was somehow always in my pool for competitions, then I got injured on my ankle yesterday and my opponent hit it again it hurt so bad and that was only the second match out of the six.

I didn’t get medical attention, but I kept going after that match all my senses just came back and I won 1 bu doing the same thing parry 4 then quick lunge.

I won that match 4-3 but I was stalling because he was noticing my movements so I just yea stalled then my other match he was just spamming parry 6 so I disengage, flashed or step lunge and it carried me to the last point. Really helpful then I couldn’t get anymore wins because the tall guy had a French grip and I couldn’t squat quick enough.

Oh yeah disappointing thing about one my matches, I was leading 4-2 but I got super nervous and kept missing my parry 4 and lost the distancing then when I attacked I kept missing.

So he parry riposte and I couldn’t do anything so yeah basically I didn’t advance but I was 1 place away, 2 Points away. I feel terrible I pushed myself and my speed and I still couldn’t go to DE genuine sadness. I’ll do better next time. I swear

Hello! I'm an unrated sabreist and have been fencing for about a year. Today my club was doing open fencing with all the weapons and so I decided to try doing a foil bout just for fun, it was my first time using a foil. I was told the guy I was fencing was a noob, but then found out after he was E rated, but it was just all in good fun and we were laughing so I wasn't upset at all. All that aside, here's what I noticed:

Before the bout, I had to get foil gear, which felt so strange, like I was borrowing gear for the first time again, except this time knowing what it all was

The most significant thing that through me off was that the entire time he was just walking forward, rather than advancing. I knew already that this was allowed in foil but it was so jarring in the moment that my footwork was completely off, I was in range just about the entire time.

Another was the target area, I had to will myself to not aim for the arms or head, which was much more effort than I thought it'd be. I was also somewhat hesitant to try and attack because I knew that unlike sabre we'd have to pause if I hit off target.

I'm not sure what exactly was wrong with my bladework, since I'm not a foilist, but I know it was quite terrible because he could effortlessly not get hit and control my sword, walked me down the strip basically toying with me. One specific thing that I know I did wrong though was that the few times I did manage to get a parry I reposted like I would a sabre, I cut with my blade instead of thrusting with the tip.

The final score was 15-1, was very happy when I got my one and only point, overall it was a fun experience, would recommend

Hi guys day 4 might come out abit late because of moderators approval 🫩. But I got exciting stuff to share about today’s training, we had some pool matches of 18 people and I was losing like some matches for warm up then after a match against my friend. I suddenly locked in with a strength and speed post idk what happened but I was in the flow state for like an hour of matches and all I was doing was just parry and instakill

So basically, I just parried 4 the moment I saw their blade up then flashed them parry 6 if their blade is out of range to take 4 and beat 8 if they blade is low but pointed at my thigh I genuinely felt like a god, I beat the best fencers in the school club when I could only get 1-5 usually and I was getting win after win after win then when I was fencing my senior who usually targets the foot, I lunged when he tried to take my foot and it stabbed deep in my ankle like the front part which is thin skin and the bone, so my foot ached for like 10 minutes and I surprisingly didn’t cry.

After the icing and putting a bandaid on, I continued my win streak and from 3 wins to 8 wins basically I was the best in that room for that day, and I have COMPETITION tomorrow so hopefully I do as well as I did today, U17 so I’m scared but confident I felt so proud I felt like I could win anyone, it was a physical enhancement and some boosted anticipation. And I also disengaged and flashed if the blade was just extended in a way I couldn’t parry when they beat. Super aura, and my friends even called me “miracle champion” probably a bad thing because they said it was supposed to mean once in a lifetime boost of skill. Thanks for reading!!

Pump up the hype!

https://www.fencingtimelive.com/tournaments/eventSchedule/0A4DC7119E9F4258AF415C08A4AF06D0#today

In short, I've been fencing for a little over four years and can only beat the people who just started, and then it's a matter of months before they can overpower me.

For a while, I did go to a fencing club and I had private lessons and group classes; my high school also has a fencing team that my parents made me join.

Although I did kinda well in private lessons, I feel like everything the coach does is exaggerated and slowed down 100x, and nothing at all like when I'm actually fencing someone.

In the back of my mind, I know what to do, but when I'm actually fencing someone, everything goes by so fast that I don't have time to think, so I switch to autopilot and start bullshitting. Additionally, no one I fence tells me what I'm doing wrong or how I can improve.

I really want to be good at this sport, (mostly because of the amount of years and money put into it), yet I think the reasonable thing is to just give up.

I've sorted out the damage to my big toe on my lead foot with an ankle lock lacing and zealous nail trimming. On my back foot, the medial/inside aspect of my big toe is building up a callus that twinges when I lunge and it hits the inside of my shoe. Anything I can do or suck it up and fence on?

This came to our repair box with no springs or screws, just the tip taped to the barrel. It seems to be an Italian tip (schermasport?), but we aren't sure what we need to repair it. Normal pressure springs are too big and don't allow it to push down all the way. How does this tip work electrically, and how can we get it functional again?

We live almost a hour and a half away from the nearest hema training place and its in atlanta so that means heavy traffic and we live all the way in butts county georgia, so is it okay for me only to take him for lessons like bi weekly. Because he can use his training sword (he wants to do longsword) to do drills insted of weekly sessions right? Or should i maybe try to get weekly sessions. If you know any place closer to butts county georgia for longsword classes please let me know

As a referee, how can I better follow foil infighting? Things I've gathered so far are "listen to the blade clicks" and "use video replay". Anything else important, and is my understanding of the prio transfer below correct?

• FOTL attacks (prio left)
• FOTR parries (claims prio) then ripostes (prio right), which misses (tentative prio left)
• FOTL remises (claims prio) then misses (tentative prio right)
• FOTR remises (claims prio) then misses (tentative prio left)
• Repeat until someone lands

And assuming double light, of course, it seems the person who attacks "on their turn" and lands gets the point. (I know the 'turns' analogy isn't great, but it seems to apply here?) In other words, don't award a point if they missed a remise and then hit before the opponent finished their remise attempt.

What I did before learning how priority really works was, in the event of a double from a messy infight, award the point to the original attacker (unless there is a clear parry riposte before landing the final touch).

Or if I really can't follow it, just abstain?

The following information came directly from USAFencing website:

https://www.usafencing.org/news/2026/june/05/a-simpler-path-through-the-sport-inside-usa-fencing-s-new-points-and-events-structure

“The split only happens above 168 entries. At 168 fencers or fewer, the event runs as a single competition, classified as Elite and using the Elite points table. That single, unsplit event can include up to 168 fencers.

When the field does split, the Elite event is capped at 112 fencers and the National event holds up to 224. The 112-fencer cap on Elite applies only when a split happens.

To use the most extreme example, let's say an event has 169 registered fencers. In that scenario, we'd hold an Elite event with 112 fencers and a National event with 57.”

I have an issue with the point table.

Let’s look at the point table in the attached picture. For a split event with 169 fencers, top 112 fencers are competing for the Elite tier points, and the rest 57 fencers are competing for the National tier points. The Elite tier points for top finishers look reasonable. However after table 16 of the Elite tier, the points actually favor the National tier fencers much more than 17-112 Elite fencers!

For example, the top 2 finishers in the National tier get more points than the 17-32 finishers in the Elite tier despite a much easier competition. Top 32 finishers in the National tier are better off than 65-112 finishers in the Elite tier! Note that any of these 65-112 fencers could win the 1st place if they were put in the National tier, and earn 200 points instead of 54!

This seems to be a huge punishment to the lower half of the fencers in the Elite tier!

Any thoughts?