Date: 10th February 2014
Location: Colchester and District Fencing Club, Gilberd School, Colchester
Cost: £25 for one month membership
Rules: The bout lasts for three periods of three minutes each, or until one fencer has scored 15 hits against their opponent. In the event of a tie, athletes fence for a further minute, with one of the athletes randomly assigned 'priority'. The first to score a hit is the winner, but if no hits are made during the minute then the 'priority' athlete wins. Hits are recorded electronically, and are scored by hitting the opponent with the tip of the weapon. Epee is the heaviest weapon and allows both fencers to score at the same time, and the whole body is a target.
The Event:
Comments:
Sarah: Before our match we'd had a few lessons covering the basics of beginners fencing; focusing on footwork, lunges, parry and riposte and had put the moves into practice in measured bouts against different opponents. The match was much quicker than our practice fights, and hugely enjoyable. I found myself focusing on Ellie rather than the tip of her epee sword, and definitely lost track of her point a few times just before it jabbed me in the leg. As the whole body is the target in Epee, there is a lot of defend and I found myself getting a bit too focused on attacking rather than defence. We have four other fencing events to go, I'm really looking forward to getting back on the piste and trying to focus more on tactics.
Ellie: Did you know that Fencing is one of only four sports that has appeared in every modern Olympic Games? Well, it is and I'm full of fencing-based facts like that! Did you know that the thicker part of the blade near the grip is called the forte and that's where we get the word from? Anyway, to the game...after a start that saw both of us 'break' our weapons we were off. About half way through I remembered to bend my legs which made a lot of difference to the way I moved and sort of relaxed me. It was a much faster pace than I was expecting which is interesting as Epee is considered the slower of the three swords. Fencing is a sport that combines fast feet, attention and tactics so it's wonderful to have got to grips with the basics and been able to apply them in this match.
Score:
Ellie: 15
Sarah: 13
London 2012 Winner: Yana Shemyakina, Ukraine.
Ellie: 15
Sarah: 13
London 2012 Winner: Yana Shemyakina, Ukraine.
Comments:
Sarah: Before our match we'd had a few lessons covering the basics of beginners fencing; focusing on footwork, lunges, parry and riposte and had put the moves into practice in measured bouts against different opponents. The match was much quicker than our practice fights, and hugely enjoyable. I found myself focusing on Ellie rather than the tip of her epee sword, and definitely lost track of her point a few times just before it jabbed me in the leg. As the whole body is the target in Epee, there is a lot of defend and I found myself getting a bit too focused on attacking rather than defence. We have four other fencing events to go, I'm really looking forward to getting back on the piste and trying to focus more on tactics.
Ellie: Did you know that Fencing is one of only four sports that has appeared in every modern Olympic Games? Well, it is and I'm full of fencing-based facts like that! Did you know that the thicker part of the blade near the grip is called the forte and that's where we get the word from? Anyway, to the game...after a start that saw both of us 'break' our weapons we were off. About half way through I remembered to bend my legs which made a lot of difference to the way I moved and sort of relaxed me. It was a much faster pace than I was expecting which is interesting as Epee is considered the slower of the three swords. Fencing is a sport that combines fast feet, attention and tactics so it's wonderful to have got to grips with the basics and been able to apply them in this match.
No comments:
Post a Comment