Why doesn't the classical staright arm guard work well in modern epee?

[Ken Mondschein]

I rarely fence epee and watch it even less, but : What!?

Basically: People today are trying to score and not trying not to get hit. You dig? (Also, épée used to be for one touch, then three, then five... and today, fifteen...)

Oh, and the OP's original question has already been answered, but to shorten and clarify : Why don't people use a straight arm en garde in competitive epee? Evolution.

Yeah, but that lacks nuance. Many of us want to know HOW the game's changed (I won't say "evolved").

[migopod]

Yeah, but that lacks nuance. Many of us want to know HOW the game's changed (I won't say "evolved").

I'ma nitpick this since I frequently argue with creationists for entertainment value.

Evolved means changed over time, so I think it's fairly apt. Furthermore you could even say that the tactical selection of "modern sport fencing" is even a sort of analogy for natural selection, since modern tactics are suited to the environment of the rules of the current game as it is played. It's a frequent misunderstanding of how evolution works to think that "evolved" == "improved" in some objective sense. It simply means that a given trait as expressed in a population is better suited to the current environment than the trait from which it arose.

[erooMynohtnA]

Obviously it evolved. Epee is clearly not intelligently designed.

[Ken Mondschein]

It's a frequent misunderstanding of how evolution works to think that "evolved" == "improved" in some objective sense. It simply means that a given trait as expressed in a population is better suited to the current environment than the trait from which it arose.

Yes, and it's because of this (erroneous) connotation that I don't like "evolved."

Oh, and that fencing was obviously created as-is by God 6,000 years ago.

[Inquartata]

Which God?

[Nick]

There is not God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet.