Foil (fencing)

thumb|[[Arianna Errigo (L) competes against Carolin Golubytskyi (R) in the final of the women's foil event, 2013 World Fencing Championships]]

A foil is one of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. It is a flexible weapon of total length or under, rectangular in cross section, weighing under , with a blunt tip. As with the épée, points are only scored by making contact with the tip. The foil is the most commonly used weapon in fencing.

Non-electric and electric foils

right|300px|thumb| [[Italo Santelli (left) and Jean-Baptiste Mimiague exhibiting techniques of foil fencing at the 1900 Olympics]]

Background

There are two types of foil used in modern fencing. Both types are made with the same basic parts: the pommel, grip, guard, and blade. The difference between them is one is electric, and the other is known as "steam" or "dry". The blades of both varieties are capped with a plastic or rubber piece, with a button at the tip in electric blades, that provides information when the blade tip touches the opponent.) Lacking the button and associated electrical mechanism, a judge is required to determine the scoring and the victor in a tournament with non-electric foils.

Non-electric ones are primarily used for practice. The Fédération Internationale d'Escrime and most national organizations require electric scoring apparatus since the 1956 Olympics, although some organizations still fence competitively with non-electric swords.

Blade

Foils have standardized, tapered, rectangular blades in length and cross-section that are made of tempered and annealed low-carbon steel—or maraging steel as required for international competitions. To prevent the blade from breaking or causing harm to an opponent, the blade is made to bend upon impact with its target. The length of the assembled weapon at maximum is , and the maximum weight must be less than ; The French grip is easier to learn, but the pistol grip gives a wider range of handling. As of March 2019, the Italian grip remains legal for use in modern competition.]]

The guard is fastened to the blade, plug, and grip. Then the pommel, a type of fastener, is attached to the grip and holds the rest together. The type of pommel used depends on the type of grip.

Cord

The cord of any type of electric fencing weapon goes through the fencing gear, coming out behind the fencer. The cord of a foil has one end connecting to the back of the fencing strip, and the other end attaches to the foil. The two ends are not interchangeable with one another.

Socket

The electric foil contains a socket underneath the guard that connects to the scoring apparatus via the body cord and a wire that runs down a channel cut into the top of the blade. Electric foil sockets are fixed so that the body cord plugs into the weapon at the fencer's wrist. The circuit is a "normally closed" one, meaning that at rest there is always a complete power circuit; depressing the tip breaks this circuit, and the scoring apparatus illuminates an appropriate light. Color-coding is used: white or yellow indicates hits not on the valid target area, and either red or green indicate hits on the valid target area (red for one fencer, green for the other). When fencing, the FIA (international fencing federation) states that the tip requires a minimum of 500 grams to complete the circuit.

History

thumb|"Pariser" small sword, from which the French foil was derived

The modern foil is the training weapon for the small-sword, the common sidearm of 18th century gentleman.

Rapier and even longsword foils are also known to have been used, but their weight and use were very different.

Although the foil as a blunted weapon for sword practice goes back to the 16th century (for example, in Hamlet, Shakespeare writes "let

the foils be brought"), the use as a weapon for sport is more recent. The foil was used in France as a training weapon in the middle of the 18th century in order to practice fast and elegant thrust fencing. Fencers blunted the point by wrapping a foil around the blade or fastening a knob on the point ("blossom", French fleuret). In addition to practicing, some fencers took away the protection and used the sharp foil for duels. German students took up that practice in academic fencing and developed the Pariser ("Parisian") thrusting small sword for the Stoßmensur ("thrusting mensur").

Women's foil

Women's foil was first competed at the Olympics in 1924 in Paris,

In 1940 the Amateur Fencers League of America issued a new rule book stating that women were allowed to compete in foil (in bouts to four points or eight minutes), but touches below the waist (delineated by a dark-colored sash) were off-target. In 1957 they issued a new rule book including alternate rules for 8-point bouts (women's foil) and 10-point bouts (men at all weapons), with a requirement of a two-point advantage (15-minute time limit). In 1965 they issued a new rule book in which the target area for women's foil was made the same as that for men's foil.

Ratings

Ratings/Rankings are generally run by national fencing federations and use varying scales based on that particular federations system. These ratings are used as the basis for initial seeding into the pool rounds of tournaments and vary country to country.

Groups

Age groups are necessary to separate skill and body maturity levels in order to create a level playing field. The current age groups for foil (and also épée and sabre) are Y10 (age 10 and under), Y12 (age 12 and under), Y14 (age 14 and under), cadet (age 16 and under), junior (age 19 and under), and senior (ages over 19). While an older competitor cannot compete in a younger category, the contrary is allowed and encouraged, in order to expedite learning.

The veteran age group consists of 40 and over, 60 and over, and 70 and over sub-groups.

Rules

The rules for the sport of fencing are regulated by national sporting associations—in the United States, the United States Fencing Association (USFA) and internationally by the International Fencing Federation (FIE).

The detailed rules for foil are listed in the USFA Rulebook.

Rules for the sport of fencing date back to the 19th century. The current international rules for foil were adopted by the FIE Committee for Foil on 12 June 1914. They are based on previous sets of rules adopted by national associations. The rules governing the use of electrical judging apparatus were adopted in 1957 and have been amended several times.

Scoring

The foil is used as a thrusting (or point) weapon only. Contact with the side of the blade (a slap or slash) does not result in a score. The tip of the foil must be depressed for at least 15 (± .5) milliseconds while in contact with the opponent's lamé (wire-mesh jacket which covers valid target area) to score a touch. The foil lamé only covers the torso while in sabre it covers the whole upper body. The tip must be able to support a minimum force of 4.90 newtons (500 grams-force) without the circuit breaking. This is tested with a 500g (± 3g) weight. Touches to the guard are the only touches that do not stop play. The target area has been changed multiple times, with the latest change consisting of adding the bottom half of the bib to the target zone.

thumb|right|Target area for foil

Priority (right of way)

Foil competition and scoring is governed by the rules of priority, also known as right of way.

References

External links

– International Fencing Federation
Components of a Foil
U.S. Fencing organization home page
Fédération Internationale d'Escrime organisation home page&