St. Louis Newbie

[Alexandria]

Hi,
I'm Alex,

I'm 17, and as new as they come to fencing.
I'm starting a fencing class on tuesday through my college. The instructor is Bella Valter, I think the name is. I have no idea what I'm getting into, honesetly. I needed a PE credit. I'm a martial arts addict. I saw fencing 1. It only seemed logical, even if fencing doesnt quite fit my personal definiton of a martial art. Still, sword fight!

I was kind of wondering what I was getting myself into. Will I need to buy a bunch of things? Will I be forced to use my right hand? I'm naturally left handed, but have gotten pretty ambidextrious through my kenpo training.

In my martial art you have to train to a certain level, which takes 3-6 months, before you can 'fight'. But fencing doesn't seem like something you can practice without an opponent. How soon will we be fighting (or whatever the term is)? Any general information would be greatly appreciated.

Alex

[Morion]

If you buy all your own equipment the initial cost can be a bit high. However a class should provide you with gear to start. Left handed gear is available and left handed fencers give many of us righties fits! Welcome to the sport, I hope you enjoy it!

[Larrison]

You know, we ought to put this in a FAQ or something..

What you're going to need to get started with a fencing class as a newbie

-- Check with the class and see what, if any, equipment they will providing. Some classes provide nothing, others have "loaner" equipment for pretty much everything you need in a beginners glass.

-- Even if they provide fencing specific equipment, you're going to need a good pair of athletic shoes, sweat pants, and a t-shirt to wear while going through the class. Tennis- or court-type shoes are the best, but cross trainers or running shoes will work, within reason. Some places don't allow fencing in shorts (you can get scrapes from a mis-aimed blade), so sweat pants are recommended. Loose athletic pants (such as martial arts pants) will work too. And the t-shirt for general comfort, both inside or out of a fencing jack.

-- Depending upon the club, you may need to buy a basic starter set of fencing specific equipment; protective jacket, fencing glove, mask, and "dry" (non electric) practice weapon (usually a foil). Cost for these varies depending upon quality (the highest level competitive equipment version can be quite expensive), but a good starter set should run $175 or slightly under. These are usually available with a recommended level of quality from a recommended vendor through the club -- although you can mail order these from a number of places around the company. Most folks do not recommending buying stuff from the local "knife shop" which happens to have a couple of foils or masks hanging on the back wall -- and while a couple of these places might know what they are selling you, most offer purely decorative stuff which may be dangerous to use. This stuff is safety equipment, so you want to get it from a reputable source. If you're left handed, make sure you note that, since the weapon, jacket and glove are different between right and left handed.

Even if the club provides basic loaner equipment and you like the sport, a lot of folks get their own equipment after a few months. That way they don't have to wonder when was the last time the protective jacket they are wearing was washed, make sure their mask fits well every time, and now have enough equipment to practice at home, if they want. You'll get a lot of discussion about what's the best manufacturer or equipment and what level of quality/ expensive you want to spend. I will note that of anything, the mask is the most safety critical so a good examination of the quality of the maks would be useful, and that good quality equipment can last you for years without replacement.

-- If you want to go into competition, you will have to upgrade your equipment to electrical equipment, used for scoring touches. For foil, this will require getting 2 electric weapons (primary and spare), 2 body cords (to run the connection from the weapon to the scoring system), fencing pants ("knickers"), an underarm protector, and an electricly-conducting lame to designate the target area. Saber and Epee have slightly different requirements, but 90%+ of people start learning on the foil, so I'm listing the requirements for that. Cost for the upgrade to electrical equipment for foil should be less than $350, if you've got reasonably good dry fencing equipment (more if you got higher quality equipment of course), not including a membership in the US Fencing Association, which is required for USFA tournaments ($50/ year) and any tournament fee ($10-75).

Editorial comment: Try the sport for a while, before you go crazy buying equipment. Then you'll know better what specific types of things you'll like better, so you'll be able to spend your money more wisely. Similarly, most folks buy a reasonable starter set if they need it, and then upgrade it later when they know better what best suits them, instead of splurging on that expen$ive international-competition level set of stuff, when they later find they really like something else better.

[chiz]

How old is your coach? If he is a really old guy, he was my coach’s mentor. He, Bella, is very good, a great coach, hard to understand but good. Flow with fencing, it is not like the eastern martial arts. Footwork is extremely important. Blade work is too but learn the footwork first, that is something you can practice on your own.

Chiz