Fencing Practice and Techniques - Protocol and Rules

Protocol and Rules

The referee stands at the side of the piste. The fencers walk on piste fully dressed, aside from the mask. If necessary, they plug their body wires into the spools connected to the electronic scoring apparatus and test their weapons against each other, to make sure everything is functioning. They then retreat to their en-garde lines.

Prior to starting a bout, the fencers must salute each other. Refusal to do so can result in a fencer's suspension or disqualification. Both fencers must salute each other and the referee. They may choose to salute the audience. In non-electric events the four judges should also be saluted. There are many variations of the salute, including some fairly theatrical ones, but the common theme is that the fencer stands upright, mask off, facing whomever he/she is saluting and raises his/her sword to a vertical position with the guard either at or just below face level, and then lowers it again. Various apocryphal stories about the origin of the salute circulate, like gladiators saluting each other in the arena, crusaders pointing their sword heavenward in pre-battle prayer, duellists showing each other that their swords are the same length, etc. The most likely source of the modern fencing salute is the "Present arms" command from military drill, which originated in the 16th century.

After the salutes are completed, the referee will call "En-garde!" The fencers put on their masks and adopt the fencing stance with the front foot behind the en-garde line and, in foil, with the blade in the sixte line. They are now in the on-guard (en-garde) position. The referee then calls "Ready?" In some countries, the fencers are required to confirm that they are. Finally the referee will call "Play!" or "Fence!", and the bout will start. Judging is often done in French, in which case the referee will say "En garde. Prêt. Allez". (In some circles, beginning the bout with the order "fence" is deemed incorrect but in others the use of "play" is discouraged due to the phonetic similarity with the French "prêt". The use of "fence" is contrary to the rules in certain countries.)

This is the start of a phrase i.e. an any unbroken chain of recognisable offensive and defensive actions, such as lunging or parrying performed by the two fencers. The phrase ends, when a referee has reason to stop the bout, such as corps a corps, a hit (on or off-target), or a penalty, or when both fencers return to passivity. To interrupt the bout the referee calls "Halt!" (if judging in French, the term is the same), a bout may be interrupted for several reasons: a touch has been made, the rules have been breached, the situation is unsafe, or the action has become so disorganized that the referee can no longer follow it. Once the bout is stopped, the referee will, if necessary, explain his/her reasons for stopping it, analyse what has just happened and award points or give out penalties.

If a point has been awarded, then the competitors return to their en-garde lines; if not, they remain approximately where they were when the bout was interrupted. The referee will then restart the bout as before. If the fencers were within lunging distance when the bout was interrupted and they are not required to return to their en-garde lines, the referee will ask both fencers to give sufficient ground to ensure a fair start. A common way of establishing the correct distance is to ask both fencers to straighten their arms and to step back to the point where their blades no longer overlap in the referee's view. If a fencer needs to stop the bout to adjust his/her mask or tie his/her shoe, or something else requires the referee's attention, he/she may do so by tapping their back foot and/or waving their back hand and the referee will generally call a halt. Tapping the front foot is called an appel and is actually a tactical move, intended to distract the opposing fencer; thus, the referee may ignore a front-foot tap.

This procedure is repeated until either one of the fencers has reached the required number of points (generally, 1, 5, or 15, depending on the format of the bout) or until the time allowed for the bout runs out.

Fencing bouts are timed: the clock is started every time the referee calls "Fence" and stopped every time he/she calls "Halt!". The bout must stop after three minutes of fencing (or 8 touches in saber). In 15 point bouts, a 1-minute break occurs in between the three-minute intervals. If 9 minutes of fencing time elapse in a 15 touch bout, or 3 in a 5 touch bout, the bout is over and the current scores are taken as final. If the score is tied when time runs out then the director determines priority randomly. After priority is determined the fencers bout for one minute. If a point is scored, then that fencer wins, however if no points are scored then the fencer with priority wins. Note that this concept of priority is not the same as the priority used in foil and sabre to determine right-of-way.