Olympic Fencing - Fancy Footwork

Fencing is as much about footwork as how one handles the sword. Fluid motion, sudden changes in direction and rapid acceleration are integral.

The sport also requires mental toughness.It is start, stop, start, stop. You have three three-minute rounds and maybe four or five matches in a single day. You're fencing for less than an hour but there is all this time in between, and in a crucial match at the end of the day, you have to deliver. So it requires a lot of toughness.

Like so many other combat sports, fencing calls on tremendous agility, reflexes, tactical smarts, speed, discipline and hand-eye coordination. Elite fencers must determine the precise moment to exploit an opponent's vulnerability. The slightest hesitation leads to disaster.

The fencer wears specialized protective clothing, from head to toe. It's usually made of Kevlar, the same material used for bullet-proof vests. He also wears a steel mesh mask with ballistic padding, protective socks, shoes, and a leather glove for the sword arm only.

A foil is a light thrusting weapon, while the epee is a heavy thrusting weapon and the sabre is a cutting weapon.

At the outset of a bout, the referee stands at the side of the piste and the fencers retreat to their on-guard lines. The fencers salute each other and the referee, then the bout begins.

In a bout, the fencers try to score points by hitting hit their opponent's target area while using various offensive and defensive moves and techniques, including:

Lunge: The attacker quickly thrusts the weapon at the opponent, pushing off from the back leg

Fleche: The attacker drives toward the opponent with a running motion and the weapon extended toward the opponent.

Parry: The defender wards off the opponent's weapon with his or her own weapon.

Riposte: A counterattack after a successful parry.

Following a heated argument at the 1924 Paris Games, an Italian fencer and a Hungarian judge agreed to a duel. They slashed away at each other for an hour before spectators intervened. Onlookers were horrified but not surprised. Fencing elicits great passion in certain circles - and has for centuries.

Evidence indicates competitors practiced an early version of it as far back as 1190 BC. In Egypt, scientists have unearthed images of fencers wearing face protection and earflaps. The images show umpires keeping score.

Centuries later, the sport began to flourish in Europe, primarily France, Italy and Spain, and the romantic epics of novelists like Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers) only deepened the lore of fencing.

The sword was the main weapon in armed combat before gunpowder was introduced to European warfare in the 15th century. The sword eventually diminished in battle, but European men continued to use it to settle disputes. But they didn't fight to the death. The victor was the first to draw blood.

By the 16th Century, France had established the Academy of Masters at Arms. Fencing was a full-fledged sport by the mid-19th century when aristocrats studied it at school.

Their instructors competed in the first modern Olympics in 1896. They squared off in a special foil event for masters. Men's individual foil and sabre events were also on the program that year.

The Olympic program has expanded to include 10 events, each featuring one of three weapons: foil, epee or sabre.

The duelling scenes with Darth Vader in the movie "Star Wars" and the fencing scenes from "Mask of Zorro" were choreographed and performed by Bob Anderson, a fencing master and former technical director of the Canadian Fencing Federation.

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