What grip and school of thought should I begin with?

[RITFencing]

Dude, my prize RULES.

[Inquartata]

Would that be a prize de fer?

[akaiyuki]

I wondered how a thread in the introduction catergory got so many responses...
And I thought, oh! must be that title... grip and school of thought, wonder what debate is going on in here?

............................

Fencers are funny people

[Guymelef]

Having devoted the past year to finding a good grip I think I can help.

I started in the classical frame of mind, learning to fence with a french grip and making my moves crisp so that the dimmest ref could see them. I learned my footwork and in-fighting from two saberists. One of them was an old timer who rembered what it was like to fleche in saber and taught me how to fleche too.

No matter what you might hear, avoid SCArs. I'm interested in Renaissance swordsmanship too, but the infrastructure is not the same as sport fencing. As far as the equipment is concerned there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Grip-Glove interface is absolutely key to the whole system. You need to first settle on a glove you like. The snuggest fit possible is what you are looking for. You also want a thin pad, to give you more tactile feedback. Having a piano background I found this extremely important.

2. Grip progression. Just as your fencing will evolve (there is no such thing as an intelligently designed fencer) your style will change. Use french grip for the first few years of fencing. I fenced with a french for years before I started getting disarmed too many times. After that you can start to consider orthipedic, also known as pistol.

3. The wide-wide world of pistol grips. There are a bewildering array of pistol grips of various makes, models, and mouldings. You will hear terms like Visconti, Belgian, Schermasport, and Zivkovic. Each one of these has their particular advantage and disadvantage. The most innovative designs are coming out of Zivkovic. Mr. Zivkovic had fenced with a number of grips in his life time and took notes on what he liked and disliked about each one. I like his grips for foil, as they don't have the tail that the Visconti and Belgian grips have. This makes for a easily 'palmed' weapon and fast parry-riposte actions.

Welcome to the sport! I hope this helps you some.

[RITFencing]

One thing... palming a weapon, if I understand what you mean by it, is a bad thing. There thould be a bit of space between your palm and the grip to ensure that it is your fingers that make the motion, not your wrist.

[Warrior Princess]

If I were you, before I'd do anything else, I'd pick a style. In some styles, certain grips can be extreemly hard to use. I fence a mix of Itallian, Russian, and Hungarian, and it's really hard to use a French grip and get the controle that I need for some of the things that I do (i.e. oppositions ect.). I tend towards Belgin or Visconti (I have tryed other ones, and they're just too uncomforitable). Eventually, once you have alot of technicle understanding of fencing, you can modify your grips by grinding off certain parts of the grip (my coach ground off the top protrution on his Visconti), but I wouldn't do that for a while if I were you. As to learning from a book, don't do it. It's hard to find a good one to learn from, and you probably won't end up doing it right. Like kilo said, practice makes PERMENENT; if you practice something wrong, it's going to be extreemly hard to fix it. I've done some teaching, and I've taught some people who tryed to teach themselves from books. Those people take the longest time to get the technicle stuff down as opposed to people that don't learn from books. Good hunting with the club! Don't be afraid to try a few styles before you pick which one you like, but it might be hard to find alot of different styles where you are; I wouldn't know. Good luck!

[JackOfHearts]

As to learning from a book, don't do it. It's hard to find a good one to learn from, and you probably won't end up doing it right. Like kilo said, practice makes PERMENENT; if you practice something wrong, it's going to be extreemly hard to fix it.

*sigh*

Anyways, the best thing at this point is to go out and fence. Find a place, be it sport fencing, or SCA, try whichever you think you would enjoy most, and have it it. If one type doesn't work for you, but you still have the inclination to fence, then move onto the next one. What's most important is the experiance, not neccesarily the style.

[The Chaotic Wind]

Anyways, the best thing at this point is to go out and fence. Find a place, be it sport fencing, or SCA, try whichever you think you would enjoy most, and have it it. If one type doesn't work for you, but you still have the inclination to fence, then move onto the next one. What's most important is the experiance, not neccesarily the style.

And if that doesn;t work for you try going wiht the typial steroetypes.

Saber tends to be more agressive, the right of way is a little pickier (use of priorioties) and the foot work has to be really sneaky. Another steeotype si that sabuerers are shorter than the others
Foil is very tactical but still very agressive, it uses right of way and it's a bit easier to call the right of way than in saber.
Epee is the only one i have yet to fence (i myself ama foil fencer) there is not right of way and nooff target, from what i've seen, the fencers tend to wait until they find an opening to attack, otherwise they leave themselves open for a counter. Epeoist streotype is that they are the tallest of the fencers.

Its like Jack said, jsut try them and see what you like.
fencing has a lot to do with personal perference
P.S I've only been fencing for a year so perhaps someone would be willing to expand on what i've said?

[RITFencing]

We don't really wait for an opening so much as try to cause one... and I think Jack is referring more to sport vs classical vs historic vs all those other distincitons out there that I frankly and too tired and apathetic to keep up with.

[WordRider]

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