how many think Belgian is a great foil grip

[vincikai]

how many think Belgian is a great foil grip, and how many do not?

[Rolls]

I use the belgian grip. It's my favorite. I also just had an epee built with one.

Rolls.

[suregrip]

I used to be a hard core Belgium grip user. I tried the French grip on impulse, and will never go back again.

[oiuyt]

Can't stand it for epee, it's fine for foil but I prefer visconti for both. I tend to use V3 for epee and V2 for foil, the smaller grip just works better for me there. Then again I have at least 1 of my epees currently built with a V2 and might eventually transition all of my weapons in that direction.

-B :)

[blue_falcon]

I have two epees with Belgian grips and one with a Visconti. That being said, I do like the Visconti better -- I find that I can actually get better tip control with the Visconti. Not that the Belgian's bad -- it's great if you're just looking for a power game and you want to do all your movements with your wrist!

But for finesse, I'd say visconti. Well, really, the French for some nice finesse touches. I just can't do them yet!

[CarlKnoch]

I like the belgian early on, but now only like german shorties.

[C.J.]

I started out with Belgium(European vendors call them English), then I switched to Visconti(European vendors call them Belgium), now I am using PBT's modified Belgium.

The trade offs, I feel, are that Belgium gives you more to hold on to; you could flick harder with it; you could recover from a beat(from you or by your opponent) or a sweep parry a lot faster; and a lot of times you could just punch through your opponents parry; but, you lose that fine point control of a Visconti grip which allows you to wield your blade with your finger tips.

With the modification from PBT, I feel Belgium is somewhat better.

[akaiyuki]

Belgian is my favorite grip also. I agree with C.J. on the comment for Belgian grip. It's also a good grip to get if you have a weaker wrist like me. If you hit my blade hard while I'm using a french grip, my blade will fly off, but I can hold on to a Belgian grip much better.
Visconti is also good, I currently own one foil now that one broke, so whenever the one that I own now has a lose tip or is acting strange, I use a school's Visconti. Visconti gives you more to hold on to than a french, but just not as much as a Belgian. And yes, Visconti has awesome point control.

[C.J.]

Actually you need a strong wrist to use Belgium. If you had a weak grip(grip of your hand. that is if you couldn't hold on to your blade very well) Belgium helps a lot. But if you had a weak wrist, Belgium is definitely not the one to use -- it creates terrible stress on your wrist.

[damianip]

Don't like it for foil. I really hate it for epee. I find it hard to get the angulation I prefer.

I like the Zivkovic Z grip for the rare occasion I fence foil. I use the French for epee (although I have used the Russian and the Zivkovic Z for epee).

Paolo

[Rolls]

Funny. I only use the Belgian grip, and I always thought I had weak wrists (maybe I don't). Also, I think I have REAL good point control. Maybe that's why I like the Belgian because I don't need extra help with the point control.

In all honesty, I picked it because of comfort. I used a french grip for about 5 years, and the belgian was the most comfortable pistol grip that I found when I switched. The belgian feels more like a french grip to me than say a German or visconti. The German I feel spreads your hand too wide, and the visconti puts it too far back and is too short.

Rolls.

[esskreemr]

I've always liked the belgian. Russian and American don't feel right. I used to hack saw the Belgian down to a nub but later returned to the full length.

[Musketeer]

Maybe the Belgian comes in larger sizes than I've been able to try, but in all the ones I've used, the "trigger" (I don't know what it's really called.) is always too close to the guard and I can't comfortably fit two gloved fingers into that space. I like the Visconti better because it doesn't have that piece sticking out. The German is OK, too, and the Russian looks like it might be, although I've never tried it. (Our salle doesn't have any Russian-gripped foils as far as I've seen.)

[C.J.]

Originally Posted by esskreemr

I've always liked the belgian. Russian and American don't feel right. I used to hack saw the Belgian down to a nub but later returned to the full length.

What is an American grip? Got pictures?