Things to Remember

Clothing

Your mask must be able to pass the punch test, which is performed with a special spring loaded tool. Generally speaking, masks made in the 1980's or earlier will not pass. Masks must have the bib permanently sewn in place (some older masks had snap-out bibs). There can be no holes in the bib and there can be no dents or holes in the mesh. Masks with short foil bibs are not safe for epee, where the bib must at least cover the points of your collarbone.

Your jacket and knickers must not have any holes, and must overlap each other by at least 10cm (4 inches) when you are in the on-guard position. Your glove must overlap the sleeve of your jacket by at least 10cm as well.

Your socks must cover all skin below the knickers and must stay up while you are fencing.

Equipment

The referee will check to make sure your weapon passes, and this includes making sure the barrel is tight (except sabre). If you can turn the barrel with your fingers, you must tighten it with a wrench to make sure it stays tight. For a foil the way to do this is to take off the tape, get the barrel nice and tight with one wrench on the blade and one on the barrel, and then retape it. A loose barrel is rewarded with a yellow card and you will not be allowed to use the weapon in that bout.

You must have a retaining clip to hold the bodycord in the weapon, for foil, epee and sabre.

The bend in the blade: When the blade is rested on a table, the widest space between the table and the blade must be less than 1cm for epee, 2cm for foil and 4cm for sabre. The referee can give you a yellow card for coming on-guard with too much bend in your blade.

A foil lame that fits, when you are in the on-guard position, covers the top prominences of the front of the pelvis and "crosses the head of the humerus", which means it fits the width of your shoulders properly.

The required insulation of the wires inside the bell is plastic "spaghetti" tubing. The fabric or plastic coating that comes on the wire is not enough.

Behavior

Most people behave well. However, one bad apple spoils spoil the whole bushel. Don't be that bad apple.

Before fencing, you must salute your opponent, the referee, and any spectators. You must salute your opponent after fencing and shake their hand. It's a good idea to shake your referee's hand too. If you won and anyone is clapping for you, it's nice to salute the spectators.

It's OK to yell after a touch. It's never OK to yell at someone. Celebrating right in front of your opponent is guaranteed to get you in trouble.

It's OK to question the referee. It's not OK for anyone, fencers or spectators, to make derogatory comments about the referee or a fencer.

Anyone disturbing order will receive a red card the first time, and a black card the second time.

Anyone throwing equipment will immediately receive a black card. This also applies to kicking equipment so it flies any distance and a variety of other angry behaviors.

Last Updated June 16, 2005.