Fencing Club
Ian Beard
Issue date: 5/4/01 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
Right foot forward, left hand raised behind your head, you face your opponent, giving him as little of you to hit as possible. In your right hand, an instrument of long and slender steel is poised to deflect your opponent's attacks, and to drive home a fatal blow. He advances, you parry, and lunge. Your sword impacts his body at his left breast.
A scene out of the Princess Bride? The Three Musketeers? Maybe Shakespeare? Try the Hendrix Fencing Club. This new organization on campus provides all the adreneline and skill of the artful combat that characterized conflict for centuries. But who knows how to fence anymore, especially at Hendrix.
An event at the Olympics, fencing enjoys a healthy amount of popularity worldwide. Clubs can be found around the nation, and around Arkansas (including Fayetteville, Russelville, and Little Rock). The University of Arkansas has a competitive team, the "razorblades." And Sean Michael Argo, alumnist Thomas Miez, and 7 other regular members (3 girls, 4 guys) have the equipment and know how for any Hendrix student willing to put a little effort in.
A typical weekly meeting of the Hendrix Fencing Club is "a little like a Catholic mass," according to Argo, with a regimented course. Everyone starts with 5-10 lunges with their weapon of choice. This is followed by footwork drills where the instructor (Miez) shouts movement orders which are quickly enacted by the participants. Then, the groups focuses on an attack move, a parry (defense) move, and an advanced technique such as combonation moves. The new moves are then practiced by members on each other.
With the warm up and learning segments finished, the club moves into free fencing. Two members face each other on a 16 ft. long strip. The narrowness of the strip allows for only forward and backward movements. For protection, a durable jacket is worn over the upper body and arms and a mask of a strong screen (invision window screens for a prison). Rules vary between the three weapon groups: foil, epee, and sabre. Foil is the most common and smallest of the weapons. A hit is succesful when it falls between the neckline and beltline (excluding the arms) on the front or back of a person. Epee, a larger weapon resembaling the historic rapier, allows hits over the entire body (Argo told an anecdote of a professional fencer who's signiture move is faking a thrust for the body and instead goes for her opponent's toes). The sabre, equivalant to the cavlry sabre, has a target area of the upper torso and head. A sabre is the only weapon that can slash, with epee and foil limited to hits produced by the tip of the weapon.
After free (or sport)fencing, the schedule is repeated with historical fencing. While free fencing confines movement, historic fencing allows a more open area of operations, with opponents circling each other. Compared with the sporty style of free fencing, historical fencing resembles more of a brawl, according to Argo.
The Fencing club is open to everyone and is coed (they even have a set of breast protectors), and enough equipment is available to allow anyone to fight with their choice of weapon. The club meets at 2pm every Saturday at the Mabee Center (usually on raquetball court 3 or 4). Those who attend will not only be given fencing lessons and the chance to let of some aggression, but will also hear a good deal of fencing history and anecdotes, and be given quite a show.
A scene out of the Princess Bride? The Three Musketeers? Maybe Shakespeare? Try the Hendrix Fencing Club. This new organization on campus provides all the adreneline and skill of the artful combat that characterized conflict for centuries. But who knows how to fence anymore, especially at Hendrix.
An event at the Olympics, fencing enjoys a healthy amount of popularity worldwide. Clubs can be found around the nation, and around Arkansas (including Fayetteville, Russelville, and Little Rock). The University of Arkansas has a competitive team, the "razorblades." And Sean Michael Argo, alumnist Thomas Miez, and 7 other regular members (3 girls, 4 guys) have the equipment and know how for any Hendrix student willing to put a little effort in.
A typical weekly meeting of the Hendrix Fencing Club is "a little like a Catholic mass," according to Argo, with a regimented course. Everyone starts with 5-10 lunges with their weapon of choice. This is followed by footwork drills where the instructor (Miez) shouts movement orders which are quickly enacted by the participants. Then, the groups focuses on an attack move, a parry (defense) move, and an advanced technique such as combonation moves. The new moves are then practiced by members on each other.
With the warm up and learning segments finished, the club moves into free fencing. Two members face each other on a 16 ft. long strip. The narrowness of the strip allows for only forward and backward movements. For protection, a durable jacket is worn over the upper body and arms and a mask of a strong screen (invision window screens for a prison). Rules vary between the three weapon groups: foil, epee, and sabre. Foil is the most common and smallest of the weapons. A hit is succesful when it falls between the neckline and beltline (excluding the arms) on the front or back of a person. Epee, a larger weapon resembaling the historic rapier, allows hits over the entire body (Argo told an anecdote of a professional fencer who's signiture move is faking a thrust for the body and instead goes for her opponent's toes). The sabre, equivalant to the cavlry sabre, has a target area of the upper torso and head. A sabre is the only weapon that can slash, with epee and foil limited to hits produced by the tip of the weapon.
After free (or sport)fencing, the schedule is repeated with historical fencing. While free fencing confines movement, historic fencing allows a more open area of operations, with opponents circling each other. Compared with the sporty style of free fencing, historical fencing resembles more of a brawl, according to Argo.
The Fencing club is open to everyone and is coed (they even have a set of breast protectors), and enough equipment is available to allow anyone to fight with their choice of weapon. The club meets at 2pm every Saturday at the Mabee Center (usually on raquetball court 3 or 4). Those who attend will not only be given fencing lessons and the chance to let of some aggression, but will also hear a good deal of fencing history and anecdotes, and be given quite a show.