And This Is A Bit All Over The Place - Tumblr Posts

Psst.. Sorry to bother you, but I saw your tags on that one queer culture post from awhile ago, and like I'm currently trying to learn about/am researching fencing!! I haven't been able to find much sadly, and I know like nothing about sabre, so I was wondering if you'd be fine with telling me about what it's like?? This has low-key become really interesting to me lately, and I'd love to hear stories from an actual fencer if your fine w/ that!! /gen /pos

ABSOLUTELY!!!! I could talk about fencing for HOURS!!! Not sure exactly what info you’re looking for but Im so glad you’re interested!

I’ve been fencing for about 3 years and have been fencing competitively for about 2 years. I started after my dad told me to pick a sport and I said either horseback riding, archery, or sword fighting, so he found a fencing club near us. This is just my opinions and experiences.

Ok so first things first: 3 types of fencing

1. Épée (which I began with, learning the sport, the simplest)

2. Foil (which I know barely anything about tbh)

3. Sabre (my pride and joy, my sport, my love, easily the best kind fight me)

Sabre can use both the edge of the blade and the tip (though mostly edge) anywhere from the waist up.

Fencing positions (advances, retreats, lunges, etc.) can feel really weird or awkward at first, but now I will stand almost in engarde position without realizing it.

Fencing is a bit more of an individual sport than most, but it still requires at least two people to work and you don’t want to just keep fencing the same person (I actually have a whole thing about how different benders from A:TLA work with different fencing styles and personalities if you’d like to see that).

Some of my experiences: there’s not too many girls until you get to the upper classes. Fencing is kind of a small world (at least two fencers from my fencing club are at the Olympics this week and our coach casually pulled out a Sabre from the 2016 rio Olympics at one point which was kind of insane). Manners are key. If you do not have proper manners and respect, you will be dismissed. One of the best fencers in my class was kicked out after they used the n-word.

Fencing, for all it’s armor and safety precautions, CAN still be dangerous. They’re still swords. There are accidents. Most of the time this means a bruise or cut, but there was one time when a blade broke mid-lunge as it went under a mask and cut someone’s throat. It was an accident and both the person hurt and the person whose blade broke were a bit traumatized by it. Impressively, the girl who was hurt is starting to fence again.

I’ve found that whenever I’m feeling really bad depression-wise, fencing can pull me out of it.

For me, fencing is about perseverance and dedication. It’s hard, but fun, and I have improved so much over the years. I love it.