The Art and Science of Fencing by Nick Evangelista

Center stage, nine pairs of fencers in helmets with fine mesh masks and long-sleeved white jackets frantically advanced and retreated on brown plastic runners. To my left a fit fellow with fast feet skipped rope with a vengeance. To my right a woman with tattooed biceps and green tights lunged at a headless dummy, her blade bending like a fishing rod weighted with a big catch. I entered a brightly lighted converted loft reverberating with the metallic clang of clashing blades. Growing up, I spent countless hours watching Zorro skewer various villains on television, and a few more hours bludgeoning my younger brother with a plastic sword.Īs I nervously dressed in the locker room before my first fencing class, I stood before a photo of Liam Neeson as a Jedi knight dueling Darth Maul in ''Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.'' Lacing my running shoes, I hoped the Force would be with me. During the month I attended Metropolis Fencing in Manhattan, almost everyone I asked mentioned a film, from ''Rob Roy'' to ''Star Wars,'' as the reason they tried fencing. With no real tradition of dueling in the United States, Americans had only Hollywood to demonstrate the thrill of swordplay. Fencing became known as a noble art and was studied in academies by men of breeding. In the 18th century, the foil was invented, a blunt-tipped, flexible version of the small sword that could be used in training. Swordplay became faster and more intricate. The sword slimmed down to a rapier and continued to get smaller and lighter. Before then, armor-clad knights fought with cumbersome broad swords - think ''Braveheart'' rather than ''The Three Musketeers'' - that the longbow and gun made obsolete.

Though swords have been around for thousands of years, the nimble weapons we see in Errol Flynn swashbucklers did not enter the fray until the 1500's.

(Though it was a Frenchman, Moliere, who summed up the essence of the duel: ''The entire secret of arms consists of only two things: to give, and not to receive.'')Ĭompetitive fencing, the lightning-quick Olympic sport, is a direct descendant of the duel. That averages out to 222 a year, and the Hungarians and Italians were surely as passionate. From 1600 to 1780, 40,000 Frenchmen died in duels. Take your typical Big Apple fender bender, transpose it to Paris in, say, 1720, and odds are that swords and seconds would be summoned.

The Art and Science of Fencing by Nick Evangelista