Your clubs pistes

[LUDICROUS]

Are they tape marks on the floor, or rubber/copper/whatever?

We have 3 metal pistes.

[mrbiggs]

Tape marks, and those are new. Strips? Psha. We don't need any strips...

[Welted 24/7]

We have one rubber strip with these horrible, knee-killing vertical stripes running up and down it. We barely even use the thing anymore, since it's less painful to fence on just the bare tile floor. Our club is hideously outdated anyway, since the budget(we're a school club) never gets used. We've got 5000 dollars a year to use, and in my two years here, we've bought four JL foil masks and a Favero 01 box. Ugh.

[melihop]

at school - practices.. nah.. no strips.. somtimes.. circles and diagnols are more fun.. but genrally we just kinda dedice where the center of the gym is and go from there
for school compitions... TAPE ON THE FLOOR!

at my club.. its.. pretty much the same thing.. just less often in circles...

and at my other club.. when its inside we make up our own.. when we are in the parking lot... than.. its using the parking lot lines as the middle of the strip.. but it kinda goes down hill... sooo.. we end up going totally diaginally down the hill.. which is very funny to watch!

[noodle]

we have 3 or 4 copper pistes. in boxes in storage.
haven't used them or rolled them out in years.
we don't have a permanent or exclusive practice room (damn university club...)

[bwoodward]

Are they tape marks on the floor, or rubber/copper/whatever?

Our practice floor is the best! We fence in a large building that was set up to train gymnasts and cheerleaders. Because they might fall, the floors are firm yet padded. Picture this, from the top down:
- thin carpet (good traction)
- carpet padding
- half inch plywood
- squishy foam blocks that support the plywood
- industrial grade carpet
- cement floor

The entire floor has a little "give" to it. It's perfect for my aching knees. We've gotten used to it, but visiting fencers remind us how great it is because they can't shut up about it. They walk around with goofy smiles on their faces trying to see if they can bounce.

To help the cheerleaders space themselves, the floor is divided into sections with parallel strips of black velcro that sticks to the carpet. These sections just happen to be piste-size. When you want to fence, you and your opponent just head for an empty section of floor.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Strips? We ain't got no strips. We don't need no
strips. I don't have to show you any stinking strips.

[glowstix]

strips?? what the heck are those things??? at my club(s) we use the basketball courts, no tape, or reels for that matter...well, sometimes we get electrics but not all the time.

[Purple Fencer]

At SwordPlay it's rubber mats....legal width, not quite legal length (we hit the walls). On Guard lines have long since work out, but they happen to line up with the ceiling support pillars!

[WhipLash]

maybe i'm considered fortunate then. 3 metallic pistes in my club, all electric scoring.

[LUDICROUS]

What gets me is those big clubs in the USA with NO metal pistes, yet charge huge membership fees - screw that. Don't ***** to me about rent, because I won't buy it . - However, if your club IS in the middle of NY city, I'll accept it.

[Moses]

Five tape strips and one new (1 month or so purchased) metallic piste (aluminum, I think).

-Da Mose

[mackillian]

We have one copper piste and four regulation pistes marked by paint on a wood floor. Those are the strips equipped with electric scoring boxes. We have another new strip for dry practice off in a corner. We're also finished two epee strips downstairs (ceiling isn't high enough for foil and saber).

I didn't realize how lucky my club is with such good facilities!

[MyrddinsPrecint]

there is a room on campus that does have two strips integrated into the floor (the same way basketball lines are on the floor... not exactly painted in a traditional sense....) --- it doubles as the rockclimbing room.

it usually isn't big enough to house all of us, nevermind let everyone who wants to fence room to fence.......

so we usually practice in one of the other gyms. the one we have this semester has basketball lines and either volleyball or badmiton lines as well.... using a combination of these lines, we get a fairly accurate representation of en garde lines and the end of a strip, although we haven't ever actually measured them (i plan on doing that at spring break, because no one ever completely agrees if it's a few inches short or a few inches long....)

[Purple Fencer]

What gets me is those big clubs in the USA with NO metal pistes, yet charge huge membership fees - screw that. Don't ***** to me about rent, because I won't buy it . - However, if your club IS in the middle of NY city, I'll accept it.

L.A. ain't too cheap either...

[telkanuru]

Answer to question

College club is not quite so fancy. Just generalized fencing areas, and never enough room... Such is life.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Answer to question

Nice! *whistle*


My club has 9 pistes, however not metallic ones. We have a wooden floor and lines are painted.

I'll try to attach an old (and very bad) picture I found on my HDD. Anyway, it'll give you an idea of how it looks.

(And you really don't think about the 'pillars' when you're fencing. You get used to them being there very quickly.)

[Katman]

We have six strips ingrained into the wood of an aerobics room at the university's rec center. There's not enough run off in the back to be considered legal, otherwise they're fine. I think that the building designer got somewhat confused about the strips and where they should go; I've found random fencing strips in smaller workout rooms on the upper floors of the rec center.

We only have two scoring boxes though.

[Elemental]

2 slightly raised wooden strips that are about a foot and a half wide. The space between strips is legal width for a piste.

We have limited space so we make due with what we can get.

[Purple Fencer]

Answer to question

College club is not quite so fancy. Just generalized fencing areas, and never enough room... Such is life.

Wow! Nice digs!! I officially hate you now!!