The Speed In Fencing

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28257, 20 April 1957, Page 5

The Speed In Fencing

has been written about speed in sport, but little space has been devoted to the sport which provides the fastest movements of them all—fencing. It is well known that in athletics a good sprinter will run at the rate of about one yard in a tenth of a second, but he covers a lot of yards at that average pace. A fencer seldom makes a last movement of more than a yard at a time, but it is a poor fencer who cannot make that movement in a tenth of a second. This movement, known as the lunge, is the main attacking movement in the repertoire of a fencer. It is drilled into him until it becomes automatic and so fast that it can be done, literally, in the blink of an eye. The other foot movements of fencing, those of normal movement around the fighting area, or piste, are much smaller, rather like the extremely fast shuffle of a boxer. It is often impossible for the eye to follow them. As in boxing, the hand moves faster than the foot. The fencer moves slightly faster than the boxer, as he does not have to put any power into the movement, and can concentrate on speed alone. It has proved difficult, in fencing, to decide if a fencer has hit his opponent, and an electrical apparatus has been introduced to help the judging. This apparatus registers whenever a hit is scored. The only awkward situation, when two hits occur about the same time has been covered by a decision of the International Fencing Council. The council has decided that if the hits landed within the time taken for one fencing movement, then a hit is to be awarded against both fencers. The time taken as a standard is one-thirtieth of a second, which is regarded as the

time taken for an average fenc-' ing movement. However, this is by no means the fastest movement in fencing. The fencer uses as a weapon a slender piece of spring steel about a yard long. When he makes an attack he drives his body and sword forward. At the end of the movement, the sword whips near the point. It has been calculated from photographs and other data that the point is moving at 200 miles an hour, and the defending fencer has to allow for that whip in some way.