Holding a pistol grip (m.4 6a)

[Elsacdone]

m.4 6a "fix one position only for the hand on the grip"

In accordance to epee. This means just hand and not fingers. As long as my thumb falls into t.16 and is in the same plane as the groove of the weapon, I could potentially position my fingers however I liked. Say using the knuckle of my middle finger to support the neck of the grip opposite of the thumb, my pointer finger supporting the side where the grip meets the guard and knuckle pressed against the guard.

This is obviously dangerous for my pointer finger, as a hard shot to the guard could seriously injure it. For some reason I moved my fingers like this bouting my coach and found it very useful. Now I just need to know if it is legal or not. I would think so, since my hand is not changing positions and a ref would never be able to actually see that well inside my guard.

[peet]

Don't worry about it. That rule is just to keep people from showing up with something truly bizarre and using it in a way that's totally against the sense of how a fencing weapon's supposed to work.

Besides, its a rule for manufacturers about the design of the grip, not for you and the way you hold it (hence its presence in the m. section, instead of the t. section).

-p

[mrbiggs]

You can hold it however you want, so long as your thumb is within 2 cm of the blade, in the plane of the blade, and you don't change it.

Incidentally, I've seen fencers use grips as you've described. Usually French, but whatever.