{"id":1372,"date":"2016-12-14T10:26:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T15:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2016-12-14T10:26:27","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T15:26:27","slug":"en-garde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=1372","title":{"rendered":"En Garde"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joel Fickel
\n<\/strong>The Talon
\nRochester HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 2, News Writing
\nSports Feature Story<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After a series of stretching and footwork, sophomore Kyla Lucey takes position facing her opponent. She slides on her helmet, grasps her \u00c9p\u00e9e and begins to analyze her rival. Lucey looks for openings and weaknesses to exploit during their match, because she knows that she must stay one step ahead of her opponent mentally to succeed in the competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most difficult part of fencing would have to be the quick thinking required to beat your opponent,\u201d Lucey said. \u201cIf your opponent beats you in thinking then you may have as well lost the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

As opposed to many other sports, fencing relies almost entirely on a mental aspect to out think the opponent, along with the ability for the competitor to be able to stay in the moment. In other words, a fencer must keep up with the match going on in front of them, but also think
\nahead mentally to finish on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe significant difference between fencing and other sports is the ability to think and strategize while strenuously moving,\u201d coach Todd Dressell said. \u201cFencing is often called \u2018Chess at a Sprint.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In fencing, there are three different types of swords, and each type of weapon was made incorporating the ways that sword was used in combat throughout history. With each unique style however, competitions are separate in the way that they are scored and played, as each event correlates to the type of weapon being used.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u00c9p\u00e9e is the dueling weapon of the mid 1600\u2019s; it\u2019s sharp
\nonly at the point and the target is the entire body,\u201d Dressell said. \u201cWhomever hits first wins the point, but if both hit at the same time, both win the point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise to \u00e9p\u00e9e, foil uses the same concept, yet it includes an extra set of rules called \u201cright of way\u201d or ROW. These rules state that you don\u2019t just score by touching the opponent with your sword first, but to score a point you must be on offense as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cFoil is the training weapon for \u00e9p\u00e9e, where you must hit with the point but only on a limited target, which is the chest area,\u201d Dressell said. \u201cHowever, as a training weapon there is a set of rules called ROW, which was developed to teach how to fight with a sword and avoid suicidal mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The additional set of rules used in Foil can make it difficult in some cases, and requires the athletes to stay sharp mentally throughout their contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult because you must make sure that you have right of way because you can hit on target,\u201d freshman Claire Cracium said. \u201cBut if you don\u2019t have right of way and you didn\u2019t think it out right, it won\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third and last type of fencing is the Sabre event. This sword is sharpened at the sides along with the tip, and athletes can use this weapon with a slashing motion instead of just touching their opponent with the tip of their sword.<\/p>\n

“Sabre is the weapon of the military originally done on horseback,\u201d Dressell said. \u201cThe Sabre uses the edge as well as the point, and the target is from the waist up to mirror the target on that of a horseback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing competitions are generally held in tournament settings, where athletes are placed into pools weighted equally that typically consist of five to seven fencers depending on the amount of entries. Then, depending on the fencer\u2019s success in the pool stage, they are seeded into a direct elimination bracket.<\/p>\n

In the pool stage, the bouts, or matches, usually have a three minute time limit for a fencer to reach five touches, or points. In the bracket stage the bouts are typically played in three minute periods with a minute rest between them, and athletes compete to reach fifteen touches.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get placed into a pool and fence the people in your
\npool, and this first round seeds you for a bracket,\u201d Lucey said. \u201cCompetitions go to five points in the pool round, and in the bracket stage you do 15 touch bouts to determine who moves on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing is also very modern in the way that their scoring is conducted. It relies not only on the call from a referee, but also on the technology embedded into the equipment that the competitors wear.<\/p>\n

\u201cFencing is scored electronically by using a scoring machine, reels that spool out a wire attached to the fencers,\u201d Dressell said. \u201cThe fencers use weapons
\nthat are wired and wear garments that cover the target and are electrically conductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing is a sport that is especially unique in its way to include difficult mental and physical attributes that make the sport both exciting to watch and thrilling for the performers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to plan out each attack and carry it out within a matter of seconds,\u201d Lucey said. \u201cIt is a fast-paced, exhilarating sport that requires effort of both mind and body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing sets itself apart from many of the sports that are common today in several ways. With a unique format for competitions, and the significant involvement of both the mind and body during performance, the sport still renders itself as enticing for many athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the one-on-one competition, and I love working with my students and developing their physical and tactical skills,” Dressell said. \u201cI love the fact that everyone can fence and that it usually becomes a lifelong pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joel Fickel The Talon Rochester HS 1st Place Division 2, News Writing Sports Feature Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,67],"tags":[135,21],"class_list":{"0":"post-1372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nw","7":"category-sportsfeaturestory","8":"tag-2015-16","9":"tag-division2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jaimie Bozack","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=7"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-m8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}