newbie

[noodle]

This is my beginner advice. . . Don't worry about winning any bouts. . . yet. Focus on yor form, try to have the best form you can, even if it means losing. Later, those fencers who win lots of bouts early by flailing very fast, will be schooled by your immaculate disengage technique!

just to tag my $0.02 to support this statement:
if you can, try not to make a habit of always doing actions that sacrifice form for function (like on a previous post, the girl thats known as the one who always ducks and wiggles with a counterattack). you'll probably find that doing something unorthodox will score you some points at the beginning, but if you find something to do a lot and it becomes habit, it'll hurt you in the long run. if you intend on going places in the sport, you'll find that good coaches will spend time to untrain those habits in order to retrain the correct things first.

[ArcherUK]

I hope to get as far as I can, this is the first sport that has totally encapsulated me.