Olympic fencing

[pontifex]

I was flipping through channels last night and there was this show about the olympics on.
They went through several different events and focused on like 1 or 2 people who really stood out in each event.

One of the events was women's fencing. chicks with swords! as any real geek, i had to stop and watch. some of them were pretty hot.

anyway, back on topic. maybe i don't really understand fencing or maybe its just olympic fencing, but wtf is the point? everything goes so fast. each "round" was over in like 3 seconds and it was hard to follow. that just seemed really boring to me. wouldn't it be more fun and interesting to have it play out like a sword fight where they would attack and parry and stuff like that?

 

[Amplifier]

be more entertaining in bakinis

 

[xSkyDrAx]

they're so good it's like they're not fighting at all :Q

 

[amish]

Originally posted by: pontifex
wouldn't it be more fun and interesting to have it play out like a sword fight where they would attack and parry and stuff like that?

isn't that what they do now? i don't see them standing there letting the other just whack the bejeezus out of them.

edit: on a side note, i'd like to thank all of you who created crappy posts for me to nef in. without you i couldn't have made it to golden. now it's time for a little vacation after this 2 year ordeal.

 

[LeadMagnet]

fencing is awesome.

 

[ruffilb]

Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
they're so good it's like they're not fighting at all :Q

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: amish

Originally posted by: pontifex
wouldn't it be more fun and interesting to have it play out like a sword fight where they would attack and parry and stuff like that?

isn't that what they do now? i don't see them standing there letting the other just whack the bejeezus out of them.

no, it seems like they just lunge at each other and whoever hits 1st wins. it literally only takes 3 seconds per round.

 

[quikah]

Saber is like that, it is really not very exciting to watch, it is a lot of fun to actually do it though. If you start to understand what is happening you will be able to start seeing that the action is a lot more complex than you think now, there is a lot of swordplay going, but it is extremely fast, so it is hard to see. You should have seen it when they allowed fleche in saber (basically running, now you cannot move you back foot in front of the other). Then it was literally each person just running at each other, really dumb.

Foil is probably a lot easier to follow as there can be a lot more action between touches.

If you are interested in much more strategic swordplay epee can be interesting, but it tends to be very boring at times, as each person just stands there waiting for the other to flinch.

For the record I used to fence saber, but have been slacking off the past year or so.

Generally fencing is not a very spectator friendly sport. The FIE (fencings governing body) has been trying to institute rules to make it more exciting, but they just end up screwing things up. They need to just accept that it is not that interesting to watch.

 

[MoPHo]

yea...they should really just throw them all into an abandoned warehouse with a rapier and no armor. Then they hit the air horn and it's full go.

not only would this be more entertaining, but the victor would really deserve that gold medal.

 

[pontifex]

i would watch that.

 

[lyssword]

haha yeah last olympics I watch fencing, beep start. Boom .0005 seconds later: whooohooo *insert player here* wins. I was like wtf

 

[phisrow]

Fencing doesn't televise well at all. It even takes some experience to watch properly in person. I'll tell you, though, that a lot more goes into it from the fencer's perspective than you would think.

 

[DaShen]

No because that isn't real sword fighting.
Some of my friends took fencing in college. I couldn't because of my knee injury, but he got quite good without a sword as well because his footwork and and hand eye coordination was quite good after that.