Chris Banyas
Life Editor
Looking for a way to get in shape that also provides you with a path to personal excellence and refinement which could one day save your life?
Admittedly, the saving your life part might only occur should find yourself in a Bond-esque situation, at the bottom of a pit, thrown a sword by a villain who just revealed his entire plot to you because you couldn’t possibly know how to use that sword.
Or could you?
The ISU Fencing Club can provide all of this and more, should you be willing to, in the words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, “buy the ticket, take the ride.”
“In fencing you learn a respect for yourself and for your opponent and you learn tactics and self-defense skills that you can carry over into your real life,” said Ashelee Rasmussen, club president. “We don’t all carry swords around but you learn to be spatially aware and to understand how people move and how you should react to those types of situations.”
Rasmussen, now a graduate student in the biology department, has been involved with fencing at ISU since 2008 when she took the fencing class offered through the university before helping to reform the club.
“One of the greatest things about it is that it does teach respect and builds character, I feel, in a way that other sports don’t,” said Rasmussen.
Fencing originated hundreds of years ago when the art of sword fighting was turned from a strictly military endeavor into a sport.
Evidence of the military history of fencing can still be seen in the uniforms that fencers wear to compete.
“The mask and jacket and we also wear knickers and socks and a glove on your right hand; that is all protection. It is [made] out of fabric that isn’t easily punctured because most of our events are stabbing,” said Rasmussen. “You do wear mostly white and that kind of originates back to when they would have tournaments among soldiers. Before electricity, in order to tell who got the touch they would put ink or charcoal or something like that on the tip of the blade and so then you would be able to see where the touch was made.”
With the modern age and electricity, touches are now detected electronically through a tip placed on the end of the sword. When it is depressed, a signal is sent along a wire to a box which sets off a light.
There are three styles within fencing, each with their own unique weapon and style.
Saber originated from horseback fighting and all of the actions involved are slashing and valid targets that include the entire body above the waist, except for the weapon hand.
Épée and Foil are similar in that they are both based around thrusting weapons, but the Foil is lighter. With Foil, valid targets include the torso, neck and groin, but not the arms or legs.
The Épée is much heavier and no part of the body is off limits in this form.
Fencing consists of two individuals facing each other in a confined strip of space, battling back and forth to score sword hits or touches upon the other.
The old saying, two men enter, one man leaves is in effect within that space.
Turning one’s back to an opponent results in a penalty.
Everyone participating in a fencing tournament is divided up into pools and everyone within each pool will face every other person.
“Those pool bouts are three minutes or five touches, whichever happens first and then once you fence in your pool bouts your results from that, so how many times you won and lost, how many points you scored and how many points were scored against you ranks you,” said Rasmussen. “From there you fence direct elimination bouts and those are three, three-minute periods or fifteen touches.”
There is no limit to the number of touches which can take place in one period at this stage of the competition.
The ISU Fencing club is involved in the United States Fencing Association.
“We fence with people mostly in the Salt Lake area but we have people from Boise that we fence with regularly as well,” said Rasmussen.
According to Rasmussen, the best path into the sport for those interested is to utilize the class taught through the university, but the club welcomes interested parties at their practices which take place every Thursday night from 7 to 9 p.m. in room 237 of Reed Gym.
“This is one of the only sports where women fence pretty much at the same level as men do. In a lot of our sports, professional men are just better than professional women, and I say that as an athletic woman,” said Rasmussen. “In all honesty it’s usually not as equal as it is in fencing. An A-ranked national fencer that’s a female will as many times beat as lose to an A-ranked national fencer that’s a male.”
