Fencing shoes or not?

[Caithdein]

Ok I have seen loads of posts asking if such and such fencing shoes are worth buying or another type worth buying. I have looked to see if any posts answer the question im about to ask so i apologise if its been asked before and i missed it.

but anyway the question.

is it worth buying fencing shoes of any sort or will trainers suffice?

I dont do competitions so it would just be recreational fencing - however i twisted my ankle doing a bad lunge last week and can partly blame it on the trainers i was wearing.

now im going to buy some new footwear for fencing and was just going to get a slightly better pair of trainers but was just wondering whether it would be worth investing in a pair of fencing shoes instead of the trainers.

thanks in advance for any help

[achilleus]

If you you are not going to buy fencing shoes, it's important that you actually look for shoes that are appropiate for fencing. Most crosstrainers and running shoes aren't. Court shoes are. Tennis, volleyball, squash, racquetball, and badminton shoes work quite well.

All the racquet sports involve lunging of some sort and so the shoes are made for this activity, including toe drag protection and rounded heels. The tennis shoes are meant for outdoor play, and are usually heavier and more durable than the indoor footwear.

Really, only you can answer whether you think fencing shoes are worth it. I don't think they are comfortable, and recently the fencing magazine printed a study saying how bad for your feet fencing shoes were

. For me, the shoes don't fit well, don't provide support, don't provide cushioning, and aren't very durable. And it's difficult to execute actions correctly when your feet and joints are hurting from crappy shoes.

Others seem to have no problem with them. Some think that you NEED fencing shoes to perform actions correctly. And some have actually told me that people who don't wear fencing shoes look stupid (only to realize after the fact that I was wearing some nikes).

But the proof is in the results.

Numerous top fencers don't wear fencing shoes. Especially epee fencers, and lately with a proliferation of companies, many of the top fencers are wearing shoes other than adidas.

So try 'em on, and see what you think.

[Prometheus]

One of the dangers of manny more common athletic shoes is that they have soles that are built up with cushioning material. This results in the sole of your foot being a bit off the ground. This is not a problem while running foward and is less of an issue with your front foot (athough I have experienced sepparation of the sole form the sneaker fairly commonly). However, since the back foot is perpendicular to the direction of movement, the raised sole tends to be raised off the ground with a pronounced edge. If the edge catches this can cause foot injury, and can cause parts of the shoe that are not engineered to wear well to fall apart. It also makes rolling the back foot (which is a reality) more difficult. Fencing shoes solve this by being low to the ground. The asymetrics go a step further to provide foot speific padding and resilliant areas. This is why most people who do not use fencing shoes, use indoor court shoes and indoor soccer shoes. While it may not be necessiary to buy "fencing" shoes, I would strongly recomend buying a shoe that is low to the ground, preferbally with lateral stability and will be used only for fencing.

[veeco]

[quote]Originally posted by achilleus:
<strong>
Numerous top fencers don't wear fencing shoes. Especially epee fencers, and lately with a proliferation of companies, many of the top fencers are wearing shoes other than adidas.

So try 'em on, and see what you think.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'd have to disagree with that statement. Most of top fencers do wear fencing shoes nowadays. I've seen very few fencers in the top international competitions wear anything other than fencing shoes.

[achilleus]

[quote]Originally posted by veeco:
<strong>
I'd have to disagree with that statement. Most of top fencers do wear fencing shoes nowadays. I've seen very few fencers in the top international competitions wear anything other than fencing shoes.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Really? Most of the French male epee fencers wear tennis shoes. In fact the 2000 Olympic team all wore tennis shoes.

Vanky (SUI) wears tennis shoes. Same with Ralf Bissdorf (GER). The Cuban epee fencers were court shoes, as do most of the South Americans. Oh, and the Korean epee fencers wear volleyball shoes. Last time I saw Ivan Kovacs, he was wearing court shoes. Same with Cristoph (AUT).
Even Hansen (USA) doesn't wear 'em.


The Italian men's epee fencers all wear Viktoria fencing shoes (a couple wear Diadora), as does Golubitsky. The Italian women all avoid the asymmetrical adidas, with a couple wearing court shoes (Bianchedi).

Also, a lot of the countries that provide funding and equipment for the top fencers provide fencing shoes. The fencers really couldn't care less what they are using, they just use the free shoes provided. At least that's the attitude I noticed in Germany.

I just checked the FIE points list for men's epee. Out of the top 10 fencers, only 3 wear fencing shoes. And of those 3, only 1 wears adidas fencing shoes.

Anyway, Veeco, you are mistaken on this one.

[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: achilleus ]</p>

[Boo Boo]

I have worn fencing shoes for quite a few years now and couldn't go back to trainners. Fencing shoes allow me to feel the ground more. Their disadvantages are that they can be expensive, I wear through them quite quickly (9 to 12 months, but then I fence a lot) and they aren't very shock absorbant (because the soles are quite thin). I recommend getting a sorbathene (sp?) insole to help with shock absorbtion: they are thin, but very absorbant and good at preventing impact injuries (or in my case, helping a badly bruised front heal to recover).

Just over a year ago I had a really horrible ankle injury: it didn't break, but it took about 6 months to recover (the first four of which were pretty painful to fence on). The first thing my husband did was buy me a pair of fencing boots (until then I had been using fencing shoes). The boots allowed me to start gentle training (only lessons at first) again very quickly. Pretty soon I returned to competition. My injury was pretty uncomfortable (okay maybe I shouldn't have started training again so soon, but I am an addict 8-)), but I didn't injure it further. I haven't seriously sprained either of my ankles since (just a couple of twinges). So I am definitely a boots fan :-)

So if your ankle injury is a serious consideration (or you generally have weak ankles), you may want to consider fencing BOOTS (or "hi" shoes) as well as fencing shoes.

As somesone posted earlier, you should definitely try before you buy. Both will feel strange to begin with (especially boots - took me a while to sort out my lunge in boots).

As previous posters have mentioned, if you don't go for a fencing shoe/boot, then stick to something thin soled (like a court shoe).

Happy fencing.

Boo

[veeco]

[quote]Originally posted by achilleus:
<strong>


Really? Most of the French male epee fencers wear tennis shoes. In fact the 2000 Olympic team all wore tennis shoes.

[ 04-23-2002: Message edited by: achilleus ]</strong><hr></blockquote>

Uuh? Where did you see this? I've got some recent tapes from 2001 and they all wear fencing shoes. Same goes for the French Men's epee Olympic team.

You're right when you say that Hansen doesn't wear fencing shoes though.

[I see dead people]

not

[achilleus]

[quote]Originally posted by veeco:
<strong>

Uuh? Where did you see this? I've got some recent tapes from 2001 and they all wear fencing shoes. Same goes for the French Men's epee Olympic team.

You're right when you say that Hansen doesn't wear fencing shoes though.</strong><hr></blockquote>


Um, last time I saw Srecki, Obry and Del Homme, they were all wearing Adidas tennis shoes. Although, Srecki is pretty much done, He never wore fencing specific shoes.

And I last saw them in Paris a short while ago...

[longs]

Buy a pair of sneakers/shoes that you are comfortable with and don't cause your feet to hurt like dogs after fencing for 5 hours. In all of the tourney's I've fenced in/watched, almost all (95%) of the fencers wore some type of fencing shoe: Adidas, Starfighter, even Converse (when they made fencing shoes). Go with comfort--who cares what everyone else is wearing.

[achilleus]

The only reason why I mentioned what other people were wearing was to point out that not all the top fencers wear fencing shoes.

It's your body and your feet.

[Sciurus Rex]

[quote]Originally posted by Boo Boo:
<strong> Just over a year ago I had a really horrible ankle injury: it didn't break, but it took about 6 months to recover (the first four of which were pretty painful to fence on). ... </strong><hr></blockquote>

"Horrible injury" ... and yet "pretty painful to fence on" for four months?

And this from a person giving cautionary fitness equipment advice.

Oy.

[Boo Boo]

My apologies for not using the correct medical terminology for you Rex (which side of bed did you get out of today?).

By "horrible" I meant that it hurt like hell when I did it, it wasn't just a "sprained" ankle and didn't mend in the normal few days/week that many ankle injuries mend in.

By "pretty painful" I mean that it gradually got less painful (being reduced to a dull ache after a few months).

Yes I did start training very soon after I did it: I had an A-grade and a number of other national competitions to train for and fence in. The boots helped me to do that. So I was suggesting that Caithdein might like to consider them.

The post which I wrote was personal opinion and I am not an MD (and, indeed, I did not claim that I was). I thought everyone was entitled to air their opinion on this board? Maybe next time I will just PM the person asking the question.

Boo
(who never makes any snide comments regarding some of the rather dubious things she reads occasionally on other posts...)

[Masterfulks]

[quote]Originally posted by Sciurus Rex:
<strong>

"Horrible injury" ... and yet "pretty painful to fence on" for four months?

And this from a person giving cautionary fitness equipment advice.

Oy.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Aren't you just the nicest person. Is your real name Dick or do people just call you that?

[Sciurus Rex]

Snide comments? "Dick?" (shrug) Whatever. My ego isn't hurt so badly that I won't be able to limp around on it for a few weeks.

I was merely commenting (in my own lovable way) that it seems pretty darn silly to keep pushing an injured body for months even though the pain is clearly telling you to STOP and heal. I don't remember too many of my coaches or physicians ever suggesting it's a good thing to do.

As you more recently asked, "I thought everyone was entitled to air their opinion on this board?"

Please forgive me for bringing your comments more attention than you'd like. I'll try to remain silent and let other impressionable young minds here pick out what they will.

[D'Artagnan1673]

All of us know that when we are hurt, we should stop all unneccesary physical activity to allow our bodies to heal, but it isn't that easy. Most of us love fencing to the point that it is our lives. Its hard to let even a bad injury keep us off the strip. When I hurt my back in March, I had a very hard time not fencing. I even fenced a couple of days and hurt badly for days afterwards.

[jspierre]

I could be wrong, but I believe that the two top guys in ME US NCAA's this eyar don't wear fencing shoes.

[D'Artagnan1673]

<img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" />

I know why few of the top fencers use fencing shoes. Its because fencing shoes are geared for fencing footwork and none of the top fencers do fencing footwork!!!!

<img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" />

[achilleus]

[quote]Originally posted by D'Artagnan1673:
<strong> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" />

I know why few of the top fencers use fencing shoes. Its because fencing shoes are geared for fencing footwork and none of the top fencers do fencing footwork!!!!

<img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> <img src="graemlins/jester.gif" border="0" alt="[Jester]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

Very true. Fencing shoes are very comfortable for standing in an on guard while not moving. Unfortunately modern fencing requires you to move.

[edew]

[quote]Originally posted by jspierre:
<strong>I could be wrong, but I believe that the two top guys in ME US NCAA's this eyar don't wear fencing shoes.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I know that Soren Thompson doesn't (or at least didn't, when I saw him fencing many years ago) wear fencing shoes. He wore racquetball shoes.