fencing multiple weapons

[Captain Hook]

Hi everyone,

I spend most of my time fencing/training with the epee at my local club. However, I'm also interested in learning a bit of foil.

I would like to improve my general parry speed and bladework

would learning both disciplines have a negative effect on my fencing? or do they have areas where they compliment each other?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[VELISARIOS]

My opinion is that you must focus in epee.

[Nusy]

Epée can destroy foil, that's sure, though, foil footwork and blade control can help in epée. For footwork, I think saber would be the best - my foil footwork improved a lot since I do also saber

[DHCJr]

You might ask Michael Marx and Peter Westbrook that question. Michael has been an Olympian in both Epee and Foil. At an Olympic Festival, Peter was asked to substitute when there was an injury on the Foil team. He won every bout in Foil.

I think both would disagree with the advise given so far.

[Morion]

The only problem I have noticed is that if I fence foil after I've been fencing Epee for a while is that I tend to get a lot of off target hits. It depends on how quick your mind can adapt to the rules differences.

[mrbiggs]

Originally Posted by Captain Hook

Hi everyone,

I spend most of my time fencing/training with the epee at my local club. However, I'm also interested in learning a bit of foil.

I would like to improve my general parry speed and bladework

would learning both disciplines have a negative effect on my fencing? or do they have areas where they compliment each other?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

It's very much like speaking two languages. Some people can do it, some can't.

Personally, I fence epee and foil, and each gives the other bad habits. But they also have benefits. I have very good parries in epee, for example, because of my foil, and my foil distance has improved drastically since I started epee.

For some, though, they are completely seperate--one does not affect the other.

[Purple Fencer]

The most difficult thing I found was mentally switching gears between weapons...I was never good enough for the footwork differances to make a differance in my fencing.

'Course, sometimes this ends up comedically. Last year I was vendoring at a tourney and one particular fencer had just won the sabre gold...and was also fencing epee that day.

Wins sabre....immediately starts switching over...doffs sabre lame, switched body cords, runs over to the epee strip, hooks up, does the checks, (by this time maybe 2 minutes has gone by since she finished the sabre),and comes on guard -- with her epee -- in a perfect SABRE blade position.

No one says a thing...command to fence...she comes forward and lands the sweetest head cut you'll ever see in epee...opponent simply sticks his epee out. Touch left.

When the sabeur realized what happened she laughed...and went on to win the bout properly!

We still laugh about it!

[Elemental]

I train foil but fence both foil and epee. There are things from both weapons that you can apply to the other one but not to any extreme degree. If you are looking for a major benifit I would suggest some sabre training for the emphasis on footwork.

Purple Fencer was right about changing mental gears. It can kill ya.

[Alain]

Elemental's right on, I'd say. I've always been told that an excellent fencer should be good in all 3 weapons. For me, I find the swtich between épée/foil/sabre to be quite easy, but having said that at a local level a lot of people can be beaten simply on grounds of general technique and experience.

As an épéeist, I'd would venture to say that foil will benefit your bladework - taking the blade, preparations, and parrying - and sabre would benefit your footwork.

Then again, I'd also say that your coach (and you) should aleady be working on these

[Inquartata]

We live in an age of specialization. Some people do multiple weapons for fun and do well enough, but few of us are Marx or Westbrook. I'd say that for the most part no man can serve two masters... though epee is more of a dozing absent foreman than a master...but I digress...

[carlos]

I do not serve my epee master; my epee serves me!

[Captain Hook]

Thanks for your replies

I was in an epee bout with a guy who fences sabre a lot (so much I had to remind him to wear a different mask)

He was definately fencing sabre for the first half of the match it took him a while to activate "epee mode"

I'm not having as many lessons with my coach at the moment as we have a large number of new juniors that he needs to attend to. It's a bit of a pain because I'm still relatively new to the sport.

I'd like to fence more than once a week, the next closest club ( an hours journey away) is exclusively foil. I'll give it a crack some time and see if I suffer from any adverse reactions before commiting myself.