Touché: A wary senior writer says he can conquer fencing's rules

I started writing for the Daily Princetonian Sports section my sophomore year. Having just been thrown off the crew team, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be doing that beat. So when it was time to choose beats, I was left in a bit of a quandary. For those of you who have ever seen me, I'm not what most people would call "athletic," but I was sure I was qualified to cover one of Princeton's successful programs.

After much thought, I realized that based solely upon my previous experience with my green Star Wars light saber, fencing would be my new home. How hard could it possibly be? I had been using my mother's broomstick as a sword for over a decade, and I had seen Pirates of the Caribbean — twice! Yet after a season of covering the Princeton fencing team and eight angry emails from various fencers about my ignorance of the sport, the editors of the 'Prince' have sent me to Jadwin Gymnasium to learn the ins and outs of this ancient game. No longer will my articles contain puns like "fighting chance," "double edged sword" or "foiled."

Women's fencing captain junior Catherine Pack was nice enough to sit down to teach me about the sport and to banish from my mind any hopes of being able to slice giant Z's into things like Zorro can.

For those who hold visions of fencing in a medieval castle, a visit to Jadwin fencing facility would be quite jarring. The top fencing facility in the U.S., Jadwin has 12 fencing strips and the height of technology. The fencers compete on metallic strips.

Not only is fencing the fastest of the Olympic sport, it is also the most technologically advanced. Fencers wear touch-sensitive metallic uniforms and compete while tethered to a series of electrical wires that monitor "touches." When the weapon lands on an opponent, a circuit is competed between the metallic strips, tethers and uniforms and the point is registered on the scoreboard. Equally, their weapons are equipped with electronic tips that records each touch. Prior to the advent of this technology, four judges per bout judged the validity of each touch.

In collegiate completion each bout lasts three minutes and go to five touches for all weapons, but beyond that it might as well be three different sports. The Sabre is descended from the curved cavalry sword and has a guard which completely covers the fencer's hand. Sabre fencers can hit any part of the opponent's body above the waist and primarily score points by making cuts with the blade while the other two weapons only receive credit for touches scored with the tip.

The Epee is descended from the dueling rapier, and is perhaps the most aggressive of the three weapons. Epee fencers only earn points with the tip of the blade, and are allowed to hit any part of the opponent's body. That includes "potentially bad areas" according to one fencer. Epeeists train to hit the opponent's hand, toe or leg — the closest targets. They fight in uniforms of white and use a weapon that contains a sensor in its tip.

Finally, the Foil has a small, round hand-guard and a blade that is rectangular in cross-section. Head coach and 1959 Olympic fencer Michel Sebastiani insists on calling it by its French name, the "fleurette." Foil fencers score touches with the tip of the blade, and can hit anywhere except the arms, hands, legs and head.

Catherine Pack, who has been fencing since she was nine, noted that she loved the aggression and intellectualism of fencing but she also was willing to indulge this writer when asked if she could defeat a pirate — even one as vicious as Captain Hook.

"I hope so," a confident Pack said, while laughing off my serious question.

The confident Tigers, fresh off their Cornell win, take on Penn today at 7:30 pm and they said I could come.