Mask SAFETY Warning

[D'Artagnan1673]

"She", actually--the Churchill avatar is just for inspiration. (And, incidentally, I'm 50 years old. It's just that you never want your mother to hear this kind of stuff . . .

how funny. I was sure that by the name, tone of writing, and avatar that this was a teenage kid!

[Tireur]

Me neither, but I like having the strap. A limited number of trials does not ensure that the outcome will always be what you want it to be...

MR

That's true, but most people I see using the strap have it outside the tongue.

Not really sure if that adds any safety.

[sabregrrl]

I fenced someone in a tournament whose mask came off. She had lunged and missed and as I was going for my riposte, she recovered from the lunge and lost her mask in the process... I still hit the mask and got the touch. But it was scary in that I saw it happening but was already finishing my cut and there wasn't much to do at that point.

[D'Artag-NOT]

Fencing keeps you young at heart! :-)

[deflagratio]

We had an arguement at divisionals this past weekend about that. One of my club's foils didn't have the strap and the club secretary yelled at him. He said that he had used it at nationals and JO's and never had a problem. The refs and armoury never said anything to him. Maybe we should start enforcing this rule. Comeon refs

[sabreur]

That's true, but most people I see using the strap have it outside the tongue.

Not really sure if that adds any safety.

On my Allstar masks, at least the way they fit me, the strap fits well below the tongue, across the bottom bulge of the skull, almost on the nape of the neck...

MR

[pkt]

In all the years I fenced before there was a strap, I never had a mask fall off.

All it takes is for it to fall off once during an action and your day'd be ruined, if not your life.

On my Allstar masks, at least the way they fit me, the strap fits well below the tongue, across the bottom bulge of the skull, almost on the nape of the neck...

MR

Sabreur,
Your strap is too long. It should be sitting on the back of your skull, not "almost on the nape of the neck". So i guess you need to do some sewing...

Sabreur,
pls look at my foto again
http://www.fencing101.com/gallery/di...12147&pos=-270
and see if you can make that adaptation - it's easier if you use the LP X-Change mask. No, i'm not one of the Pauls nor do i own shares in that company. i've seen people wear their ball cap backwards while fencing to provide a hard layer of 'something' against whacks against the neck and back of the head.

i sincerely believe - for a long time, since the 70s when i suffered the first sabre whip-over hit to the back of my head - that the sabre mask, if not all the masks, should have some protection in the back of the head, cf. a hockey goalie's back plate.

with that back plate, i now don't worry about those inadvertent hits to the back of my head.

Put it this way, if you persist in not using a proper, regulation mask, and you get injured, that's your decision.

But think of the person who did inflict the injury on you... he/she might be scarred psychoplogically and as a result quit fencing. cf. Judas vis a vis Jesus.

As i always say, if you have a death wish, by all means go jump in a lake or use similar self-inflicted methods of self-destruction, but don't involve others. It complicates their life in more ways than you'd realise.

As a competitor, i assume one can refuse to fence someone whose equipment does not meet the required regulation. If not, one should register a protest to the ref and the DT and insist that the ref apply the rule as far as safety is concerned. [A sock that does not stay up may be a safety issue if one's fencing epee. It is NOT a safety issue in foil or sabre; it's more a cosmetic issue in these weapons. That said, a rule is a rule. Nothing irks me more as a fotografer to have someone ruin a perfectly good foto with a downed sock. ]

Take care,
PK

[dnichols]

Strap, shmap. While in college, I defeated any possibility of a mask strap helping me through sheer stupidity. I was fencing foil, 4-4, practice bout in the salle with a team mate. We both attack, both seem to hit, both look at the machine - a very bad habit.

However, unlike my opponent, as I turned to look at the machine, I also ripped off my mask, certain I'd hit.

No lights.

I turn back toward my opponent. He has also seen there are no lights, but he's come right back at me with a lunge. His point makes a bee line towards my left eye. I am petrified, standing upright, blade down. His point deflects off the bone below my left eye, deflects up and off the bone above my left eye, then sails past my head as I turn away from the blade.

Shockingly, no harm, no foul. Saved for a different fate, I suppose. We finished the bout, but my opponent was, in my estimation, too freaked out to give it much effort.

I tell this story that others may be less stupid that I once was. Never take off your mask during an action, do NOT look at the machine, and stay away from Illustration majors.

Ok, maybe that last one I learned somewhere else.

[Monkeyboy]

A sock that does not stay up may be a safety issue if one's fencing epee. It is NOT a safety issue in foil or sabre; it's more a cosmetic issue in these weapons. That said, a rule is a rule

If I'm about to fence a tough opponent that has a sock down, I'll always point it out to the ref (for safety concerns of course) and ask that it be pulled up. This just HAS to get my opponent thinking: "Is this guy some leg-shot artist or what?" I'm not, although I will do a toe if it's offered to me. I just like the idea of giving out one more thing to think about. I never thought about the look, but I guess I'm helping there too.

[pkt]

Strap, shmap. While in college, I defeated any possibility of a mask strap helping me through sheer stupidity. I was fencing foil, 4-4, practice bout in the salle with a team mate. We both attack, both seem to hit, both look at the machine - a very bad habit.

However, unlike my opponent, as I turned to look at the machine, I also ripped off my mask, certain I'd hit.

No lights.

I turn back toward my opponent. He has also seen there are no lights, but he's come right back at me with a lunge. His point makes a bee line towards my left eye. I am petrified, standing upright, blade down. His point deflects off the bone below my left eye, deflects up and off the bone above my left eye, then sails past my head as I turn away from the blade.

Shockingly, no harm, no foul. Saved for a different fate, I suppose. We finished the bout, but my opponent was, in my estimation, too freaked out to give it much effort.

I tell this story that others may be less stupid that I once was. Never take off your mask during an action, do NOT look at the machine, and stay away from Illustration majors.

Ok, maybe that last one I learned somewhere else.

I guess someone should repeat this real-life story to all the mask-rippers fabrice Jeannet included though he rips off his masque AFTER he made the hit and doesn't turn to look at the machine...

that said, better be safe than sorry.
Be safe, then you may live to fight another day.

another real life story.

Condition of one's mask's mesh. In the 70s, when the Uhlmann sabre mask had a reinforcing wire in the middle? my club mate's mask was worn on both sides of the wire. Let's call him A.

One time, one of the other guys, lets call him B, made a fleche attack witht he point to the mask. after the hit, he realised that his blade was broken. We couldn't find the broken piece. As he went to get a new sabre, A tried to remove his mask to get a breather. that's when he realised that something stopping him from removing his mask.

Yup, the blade penetrated the mesh of his mask and broke. The point was just under his left eye, below his glasses...

PK

[wpotere]

You guys wear masks?




I have used both and actually prefer the strap for the tighter fit.

[CsmaCD]

...

However, unlike my opponent, as I turned to look at the machine, I also ripped off my mask, certain I'd hit.

I see this quite a bit in higher-level footage, and saw it several times during the Olympic coverage.

I was taught that one needed the Director's permission to remove the mask while on the strip. Is this still the case, or have I just revealed (yet again) that I'm old-school?

I've also seen a lot of fencers throwing masks around, but this practice has always bothered me. It looks like flexing the mesh would weaken it over time. Maybe that's just me...