The Weapons of Modern Fencing: P1 - The Epée

Introduction

Dear Readers, this is my first blog post on this website! After seeing a lack of representation of my one true passion (the sport of modern fencing), I figured to take matters into my own hand. I will use this account to introduce you to the world of this amazing sport and teach you about the different weapons and specialities of this sport. I hope that through these blogs, that anyone who’s interested can learn something, as so can I through researching more and learning more! So here goes:

The Epée

The Epée is one of the three weapons in Modern Fencing. It is also the weapon used in the Modern Pentathlon, however that type of fencing will be the topic of another day.

Epée Fencing is more often than not described as the „slowest“ weapon out of the bunch. That is certainly true, but that doesn’t mean that Epée Fencers are slow! The reasoning for it being the slowest are following things:

- The valid target area is the whole body, therefore you need to act a lot more cautiously.

- The right of way rule doesn’t exist. What ROW is, isn’t important at the moment, but to summarize it’s non-existence in Epée Fencing is basically you and your opponent being able to make a simultaneous touch, resulting in a point for both fencers. Which again asks for more caution.

The Epée is additionally the heaviest weapon. Having a bigger bell guard than the other two weapons and then again you don’t need a lighter weapon. However it always comes down to preference. There are different weights and blades that vary in stiffness, grips that also vary in how they sit in your hand and depending on who you ask, the hand padding also has to be a certain kind. 

(Picture for reference:)

Here you see an ordinary Epée with a Pistol Grip, specifically a Visconti Grip. The Pistol Grip is the most used grip in Epée, they vary in shapes and sizes and I will definitely go more indepth in another blog post about Fencing Grips. The second type of grip that is used in Epée are French Grips.

(Picture for reference:)

This is again an ordinary Epée with an ordinary French Grip. Now these don’t vary in length, but they still vary in shapes and curvature. You see this grip is rather straight with only slight curvature. Then there are grips that have way more curvature. This in the end again comes down to a fencers personal preference. The difference/advantages between the two are pretty much:

-Pistol Grip: Another name for the pistol grip is the anatomical grip. The reasoning behind that is, that the grooves and the general shape resembling a pistol fits much better into ones hand, without having to break in your wrist like with the french grip, while still having a lot of grip on the weapon/more strength at your disposal. 

-French Grip: The advantage of the French Grip is the possibility of being able to „pommel“, which means positioning your hand farther back on the grip, rather than the front. This does give you more reach, but a lot less leverage/strength. Sometimes with Pommelers, their weapon even falls out of their hand after a certain action!

Fin.

This has been a short summary of just the weapon! I will be doing these for the other two weapons and them I’ll be moving on the other parts of the sport like bouting (Fights to 5 points), tournaments and other rulings and parts of the sport, wether it’s something rule-related or equipment-related.

Anyways, thank you very much for reading if you’ve made it this far! I hope I’ve managed to awaken some sort of interest in the sport of fencing and see you next time hopefully!

Au Revoir

Mango