Favorite Fencing Yell

I usually only yell when I miss or get stuck exceptionally well. It sounds like something from a B.C. comic strip. Arrrggghh!

[Rick]

I usually yell... "Hey, Kid! Stay out of my weapon bag!" at tournaments. Hey, when you get enough 9 and 10 year olds going through your stuff, you'd yell that, too. No joke guys, the little folks could hurt themselves if they get a hold of my tools, or those foils with nicks on 'em.

[Arturo]

I yell sometimes, it depends on how close the bout is and how nice the touch was. I usualy do the woopa or the eppa. Sometimes when I do something increadibly stupid i'll yell aya****a which is some obsenity in gaelic.

[Bugaboo]

I start each bout with a shout, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" And then I charge at the guy blindly in some sort of modified fleche.

My back-up yell is much simpler: "OUCH!" I've found that it really releases tension and makes me feel better, especially when I allow myself to cry just a little bit.

[sabreur]

Well, I can't believe that no one has mentioned the classic "hey-la!" I yell as I lunge pretty much every time, and it is, as someone above mentioned, much like a shout in other martial arts--I don't think about yelling, I just do it. I also will yell during a lesson, generally when my master works me through a series of long attacks.

If I score a particularly satisfying touch, I will often yell "hey-pa-hey-ho-la" after the touch, often pumping a clenched fist.

Has anyone ever been taught to yell when doing footwork?--"hey-la" provides the right kind of accellerating tempo that is appropriate to an advance-lunge (patinando).

Regards, Mark Ray

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Why sabre? Because you don't take heads with the point.

[epeemancer]

Miyamoto Musashi said "you feint and shout in order to stir the opponent, then lash out after your cry. You also shout after having struck an opponet down, with a cry signaling victory ... You never shout at the same time as you swing your sword. When you shout in the midst of battle, you use the sound to mount a rhythm, crying out in a low pitch" Miyamoto was a Japanise self-trained samuri and probably fought with the katana but i think his words apply very well. (btw, the excert was taken from "The Book of Five Rings" which is about dualing with katanas but lots of the stuff applys very well to fencing.)

[Emfuser]

TIMMY!

MS

[FencingDad]

You probably won't like this, but I think yelling and overtly celebrating every touch scored is an affront to the dignity of the opponent. To me, it's nothing but a childish sign of disrespect and has no place in the sport.

Whenever my kid shares the strip with a "loud mouth" (or someone who has to do a boogaloo every time his light goes on) I say the same thing to him: "Whack that moron until he shuts up."

Humbling one of those egotistical jerks provides some of the sport's sweetest moments.

[Rick]

Yelling is a form of expression on the strip. It's a way to psyche yourself up and gain/retain some momentum (which is very important in those 15-touch bouts).
When I do it (usually only after hard fought touches), I turn my back to my opponent and clench my fist while walking away. It's a way of telling myself 'Good Job, now, keep it going... GO GO GO!' as I prepare to go engarde for the next series.
Just as long as your not pointing the finger at your opponent, calling him/her names, or doing a hot-dog-Deion-Sanders-like dance on the strip, it should be fine.
Now there are those out there that actually taunt, intimidate, and try to get in your head. If you let their yelling get to you, you're playing right in their hands and most likely lose the bout.

[latenight]

I like to showboat. Sometimes I do the "dirty bird" right there on the strip.

[Rick]

Kudos to anyone who can moonwalk on the strip.

[Fleche]

There was a fencer at one of the competitions I went to. She was really good, but whenever she won the point, she would stand there and scream! It was quite funny. My mother nicknamed her 'the Screamer' and cheered the other girl on . .

Also, at this same competition, my fellow fencers and I discovered something quite funny . . Our coach, who is a fairly quiet fencer, was actually a really noisy fencer. From the other side of the hall, we would hear this yell, and we'd look around, and ask 'is that our coach?' eventually we'd stop looking and just say, 'he's won a point' or 'it sounds like he's winning'. The odd thing was, I'd been fencing with him for a year, and I'd never known he was so noisy. There are closet yellers among us

[Shadow Fencer]

There's the practice side of me and the competition side of me. Have not experienced my competition side in over 22 years, but I recall yelling something that sounded like HEY LAHHHHHH on the attack/reposte. As an older and wiser fencer, I can't say what is going to come out of my mouth when I get to my first competition later this month! But on the practice side, especially after some good infighting, I've tended to end up squealing and sharing a good belly laugh with my opponent all in the spirit of fun!