Fencing books

[fred]

Probably a FAQ, but a comment in another thread by Moonitic made me think of it. I've been to every major bookstore in Chicago, and I've never seen a single fencing book for sale.

200 books about eastern martial arts of various kinds, including several on iaido, an esoteric branch of Japanese sword art which focuses on the draw of the katana from the sheath in repulsing (and launching) unannounced surprise attacks on opponents (sporting, eh?). I've found a book on naginatajutsu, combat technique for the medieval Japanese edged 7' polearm called the naginata. On fencing, an Olympic sport, nothing.

I've read a number of fencing texts from the library, of which my favorite is still DeBeaumont's, line drawings and all, but I've seen some on Amazon that looked interesting, namely books by Istvan Lukovich and Maxwell Garret, and I was wondering if anyone has read them and would like to offer opinions or other recommendations.

[latenight]

Istvan Lukovich's modern foil fencing is great. it is wordy and a bit obtuse, but if you stick with it, it is very helpful

[Gav]

I quite like Bob Anderson's book " The Complete Fencer ". It's concise and well written.

Think it's out of print though.

[robbie]

I've found one or two books in the "general sports" section of Barnes & Noble and Borders book stores. Nardi and Evangelista was all they had.

[Arturo]

Dudy Volkmann's Magnum Libre D'escrime is by far the most comprehensive text on the subject. You can order it from Barnes and Noble's website, I think that Amazon.com has it as well. You can order form his club website at www.csranet.com/~rvolk/augustafencers/

[Veteran]

In complete agreement with Arturo. Dr. Rudy Volkman's Magnum Libre D'Escrime is all the text one needs for the first ten years of his or her fencing career. Having read nearly everything printed on the sport of fencing, Dr. Volkman can take you all the way.

[neevel]

I'm in agreement with latenight r.e. Lukovich-- the language is a dense affair to wade through (partly due to the highly technical approach of Lukovich's writing, partly due to translation), but there's a lot of useful stuff in there. I'd particularly recommend his 'Electric Foil Fencing' book-- though it's about 30 years old, it's one of the few books available in English that really gets beyond an introductory level and delves into some of the ins and outs of modern competitive fencing. Among other things, it has a comprehensive review of how and why some things (e.g., stance and footwork) are done differently with electrical fencing than they were done in non-electric competition.

I've only had a chance to glance through Rudy's book, but I liked what I saw.

One diamond in the _VERY, VERY_ rough is Tyshler's Fencing. This is possibly the _worst_ translation job I have every seen-- it looks like they ran the text through an early computer translator program and then shipped it off to the printer without having anyone who knows English proofread it (that, or someone just sat down with a Russian/English dictionary...). If you are able to figure out just what the heck the translated text is trying to say there are some useful nuggets to be gleaned.

One thing to keep in mind is that you're unlikely to find many _truly_ up-to-date books by top coaches because currently active coaches are generally too busy training fencers and traveling with them to tournaments to have time to write books. Thus, fencing books tend to be either "retirement projects" by older coaches, or else written by folks who for various reasons aren't heavily involved in competitive coaching (e.g, Evangelista, Gaugler for ideological reasons).

As for the preponderance of Eastern martial arts & martial sports, having Hollywood spend 30 years filling 13 year-old's minds with thoughts of bullet-dodging ninjas leaping 25 feet down to hard pavement with no injury and indestructible Katanas slicing through machine gun barrels and concrete columns without chipping or bending will do wonders . I figure all we need to do is get people to associate fencing with being an irresistible aphrodisiac to supermodels and we'll be on our way!!.

-Dave Neevel

[fred]

Needless to say, the Imp of the Perverse immediately decided to make a liar out of me, lo and behold, my local Borders actually stocks a few fencing texts. Unfortunately, they are Gaugler, Evangelista, and Maxwell Garret's, which I realized I had read, it's an update to a text from Penn State Press from the 70s. It's not bad, just somewhat basic.

One thing I'd like to see in a book is flick tactics for foil; love it or hate it, it's there (at least until FIE screws with the rules again) and it's in widespread use, and if you compete, you have to deal with it. To my surprise, the update to Garret's book mentions flicking - in epee, in discussing flick hits around the bell as a tactic.

Thanks all for the suggestions, I've seen several positive references to Volkmann's book, I'll have to check it out.

[MikeHarm]

I liked Michael Alaux's modern fencing book, Nick Evanglista's Art And Science Of Fencing book was a fun read (though apparently he's stirred up a lot of controversy and isn't held in such high regard locally at least), but I think the best book I've gotten so far was the Volkmann Big Book Of Fencing book. I had a dummy made according to the plans (with minor tweaking) and it works really well.

Mike

[JWS]

Originally posted by neevel:
I'm in agreement with latenight r.e. Lukovich-- the language is a dense affair to wade through (partly due to the highly technical approach of Lukovich's writing, partly due to translation), but there's a lot of useful stuff in there. I'd particularly recommend his 'Electric Foil Fencing' book-- though it's about 30 years old, it's one of the few books available in English that really gets beyond an introductory level and delves into some of the ins and outs of modern competitive fencing. Among other things, it has a comprehensive review of how and why some things (e.g., stance and footwork) are done differently with electrical fencing than they were done in non-electric competition.

I've only had a chance to glance through Rudy's book, but I liked what I saw.

One diamond in the _VERY, VERY_ rough is Tyshler's Fencing. This is possibly the _worst_ translation job I have every seen-- it looks like they ran the text through an early computer translator program and then shipped it off to the printer without having anyone who knows English proofread it (that, or someone just sat down with a Russian/English dictionary...). If you are able to figure out just what the heck the translated text is trying to say there are some useful nuggets to be gleaned.

One thing to keep in mind is that you're unlikely to find many _truly_ up-to-date books by top coaches because currently active coaches are generally too busy training fencers and traveling with them to tournaments to have time to write books. Thus, fencing books tend to be either "retirement projects" by older coaches, or else written by folks who for various reasons aren't heavily involved in competitive coaching (e.g, Evangelista, Gaugler for ideological reasons).

As for the preponderance of Eastern martial arts & martial sports, having Hollywood spend 30 years filling 13 year-old's minds with thoughts of bullet-dodging ninjas leaping 25 feet down to hard pavement with no injury and indestructible Katanas slicing through machine gun barrels and concrete columns without chipping or bending will do wonders . I figure all we need to do is get people to associate fencing with being an irresistible aphrodisiac to supermodels and we'll be on our way!!.

-Dave Neevel

You mean that fencing is not an irresistible aphrodiciac to supermodels--DAMN!!!


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