everyWEDNESDAY
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan September 21. 1977
The action is fast and the foils whistle during a bout between Brian Hess, Atchison sophomore and Mark Wickersham, Lawrence graduate student.
because the ND Fencing Club rarely has tournaments, they regularly meet two hours, three times a week for practice. Coach Mary Elliot practices accuracy as she lunges toward golf ball strung from the ceiling.
Winning a bout can be enjoyable as Rick Hoefer, Prairie Village junior discovers.
Story by Keoin Kious Photos by J. D. Sharkey
The clash of sabres and the flash of lights on the electronic scoreboard symbolized the mating of an old sport with modern technology.
The room in the basement of Robinson Gymnasium where the University of Kansas fencing team works was divided unequally by a five-foot wide rubber mat stretching from wall to wall.
that succeeding it will
"Ready, fence," the referee said
"Ready, tense," the receive said.
Two fencing team members were doing their best to touch each other with the tips of their foils, the sword-like weapons they were welding.
like weapons they were used. The fencers and their weapons were wired into the electric scoreboard, and a colored light was illuminated when a fence made a proper strike or touch.
A touch is scored against a fencer when he is touched by his opponent's weapon tip. The first fencer with five touches scored against him loses the match.
touches scored against his team. Mary Elliott, fencing team coach, said that the sport was an intellectual challenge but that it also required practice.
"All good fencers take lessons all their lives," she said. "It's an infinite game. The psychology of it is fascinating. It's sort of like chess."
taschatting. It is best to teach John Knox, Prairie Village senior and president of the team, said the skill exhibited by the team was not quickly learned.
"It's one of the more skilled sports," Knox said. "In fencing, you can't run right out and do it."
Knox said it took about a year to learn the basics and be able to apply them on a competitive level.
Reasons for being on the team varied as much as the amount of experience.
Competitive experience for the team includes average years to learn, years and ranges from years to less than one year, he.
Kevin Sechler, Kansas City, Kan., junior, said he joined the team three years ago because at that time KU "did not have a good judo club."
Kirk Hastings, Neodesha freshman, said that he started coming to the workouts three weeks ago and that he thought it was "a blast." He said he had seen the team's success and he had read about what competitive fencing was like.
"I knew it wasn't going to be like Robin Hood," he said.
Knox said, "I'll think fencing isn't fun at first. It's fun after you don't have to think about the rudiments."
One of the rudiments is learning to see through the coarse wire-mesh mask well enough to strike accurate images.
As practice in gaining point control—accuracy with
the foil—the fencers lunge with weapons at a swinging golf ball suspended on a string, often hitting the target dead center.
The weapons are called the epee, sabre and the foil.
The weapons are called the epe, sabre and the foil. The foil is the most flexible of the weapons. It is about three feet long and bends easily on contact with an opponent. The target area is the torso.
The sabre is slightly stiffer than the foil and is known as the "crowd pleaser" because it produces more lively matches than the foil.
"Sometimes with a sabre you even get sparks," Elliot said.
The target area for the sabre is from the grin up. The opee is the stiffest of the three weapons used and the headband is used to keep it in place.
"This one tries to be more like genuine dueling," Elliot said.
Knox said the team never had any serious injuries. "We all get a little bruised in peea and sabre competition," he said.
Fencing differs from real dueling because the weapons are blunted and the fencers must wear protective equipment.
Besides the wire mask, a fencer wears a padded
jacket, a glove on the weapon hand, and another pad under the jacket to protect the rib cage.
In addition to the above equipment, a fencer also wears an outer metallic jacket when he is using the electronic scoring equipment.
electronic scoring equipment.
If the vest is touched with the foil, an electrical circuit is completed and is indicated on the scoreboard as a proper touch. A hit outside the vest illuminates a white light on the scoreboard and is scored as an improper hit.
proper hit.
Usually, the electronic scoring equipment is used only during competition, but on this day it is being tested in preparation for an upcoming meet.
Knox said that all the team's equipment was expensive and that the advantage of fencing at KU was that the team provided all the equipment free of charge except the practice foil, which costs about $15.
He said that not only were team members provided free use of the equipment but that any KU student could attend the practice sessions and maintain, regardless, whether they were taking a fencing course.
"If they showed up, I'd just start teaching them," Knox said.
Two hours of straight practice usually leaves fencers like Kirk Hastings, Neodesha freshman, exhausted.
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