Best Beginners Sword

[legolas30]

hey im going to start fencing soon. what do you think is the best sword for beginners?

[CarlKnoch]

Any blade that isn't too stiff and can be re-bent into a foil is good for beginners. Don't waste money on expensive blades, and check the product reviews on this site at http://www.fencing101.com/reviews/ for more info on specifics.

Welcome.

[Inquartata]

A sabre.

[Craig]

Originally posted by Inquartata
A sabre.

Only if evolutionally challenged.

[daeceg]

(*laugh*)
From one relative beginner to another:
Foil is the usual beginner weapon. That's not to say it's any less complicated that saber or epee. In fact, the rules and the limited target area give it a degree of complexity the other sports lack (though make up for in # of bruises and degree of skill in bladework)

One advantage: your club probably starts beginners off in foil.
2nd advantage: tends to be cheaper.
3rd: most of the footwork and bladework skills translate at least somewhat to the other weapons.

Now: were you asking about the blade itself, or the weapon?

As to the type of blades: stiffer ones make parrying/beats easier at first. Lighter blades are easier to handle for long periods, and can usually flick easier...but you'll find it tougher to parry and easier for others to parry you.

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by Craig
Only if evolutionally challenged.

Don't monkey around with me!

[mifencer]

Originally posted by Inquartata
Don't monkey around with me!

moan. I thought the puns were on the other board.


Legolas: the term is weapon. A sword is something you would kill/maim somebody with. A weapon is used as an instrument. Very close in definition, but it hurts my eyes to read 'sword' instead of 'weapon'. I apologize now because I'm opening up a can of worms and changing topic of this thread.

Legolas: the best weapon for beginners is foil.

[Indy4ever]

Originally posted by daeceg


One advantage: your club probably starts beginners off in foil.
2nd advantage: tends to be cheaper.
3rd: most of the footwork and bladework skills translate at least somewhat to the other weapons.

How much cheaper are foils?

oh, and add one more:
4th: foil, to a beginner, looks cool because you see foilists legging it back and forth up the piste waving their hands everywhere. epee tends to be depressingly slow at first. sabre is close, and it is fun to slash, but the whole leg crossing thing puts a few people off (or so the little kids at my school told me). basically, it is the most interesting to start with and keeps you interested long enough to decide whether you really enjoy fencing. if you decide to keep doing it, you can pick a weapon to specialise in. This is how we process the newbies at my school.

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by mifencer
moan. I thought the puns were on the other board.

Like cancers, they do tend to metastasize.

[a517dogg]

Originally posted by Indy4ever
How much cheaper are foils?

oh, and add one more:
4th: foil, to a beginner, looks cool because you see foilists legging it back and forth up the piste waving their hands everywhere. epee tends to be depressingly slow at first. sabre is close, and it is fun to slash, but the whole leg crossing thing puts a few people off (or so the little kids at my school told me). basically, it is the most interesting to start with and keeps you interested long enough to decide whether you really enjoy fencing. if you decide to keep doing it, you can pick a weapon to specialise in. This is how we process the newbies at my school.

Only bad epee or women's epee is depressingly slow to watch.

[daeceg]

But at the beginner level, there *is* a lot of bad epee.

The other question is: is he looking at dry or electric fencing?

Anyway, I've noticed that saber and epee weapons tend to run between $10 and $20 more than a foil, more for electric of course.

Then there's the protective gear and lame factor as well. (though that might make electric epee somewhat cheaper...)

[veeco]

Electric epee would definitely be the cheapest of all. You offset the extra price of the weapon with the price of the lame.

[741]

Originally posted by Indy4ever
sabre is close, and it is fun to slash, but the whole leg crossing thing puts a few people off (or so the little kids at my school told me).

Um, forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what is this leg crossing thing in sabre fencing?

[Talyn]

Go foil ignore the others... GO FOIL

[NJP3]

Originally posted by 741
Um, forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what is this leg crossing thing in sabre fencing?

In saber you cant cross your back foot infront of your front foot and visa-versa, this was mainly done to band the fleche in saber.

but it also means no crossovers.

[Peach]

No vice-versa. You can cross your front foot behind your back foot. I back-pedal all the time. You just can't cross the back foot in front of the front foot.

Unless the referee's attention is elsewhere.

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by Talyn
Go foil ignore the others... GO FOIL

You forgot a word, Talyn: "away". Should read, "Go AWAY, foil"...

[legolas30]

gosh now all you guys have got me confused. most people have said foil. im guessing then that it is the best for beginners?

[Peach]

Honestly, there isn't a Right Weapon for Beginners. It's just that most of the time, as daeceg said, people start with foil. It depends on the coach. Don't worry about it--your coach will tell you what weapon he or she wants you to use to start out with.

[wolvhund]

I coach fencing (even though I consider myself basically a beginner). My first year I started my students with epee, mainly because that is what I like and am most comfortable with and I figured it didn't matter which weapon you started with. I was wrong, it was a mistake. It is much harder to go from either of the advanced weapons to foil than vice versa. I think there are several reasons for this. In instruction foil is the most complete weapon and it is easy to subtract or add to it, even though in competition it is a rather silly useless thing.