rules to play fencing

Fencing competitors must wear the necessary proper equipment, including a face mask, a fencing jacket, a pair of fencing pants to protect the legs and a fencing glove that covers the sleeve on the sword arm. Officials will check participants before each bout to make certain the equipment reaches all safety standards. Fencers must also wield approved weapons, whether a foil, saber or epee.

Fencing utilizes a simple scoring system, awarding one point for each time a fencer touches his opponent with his weapon. Depending on the manner of competition, bouts may last five touches with a time limit of three minutes or 15 touches and a time limit of nine minutes, according to the rules of the U.S. Fencing Association.

A fencer must touch his opponent in an approved target zone of the body to register a point, with the target changing depending on the weapon used. In epee fencing, contacting anywhere on the opponents body registers a touch. Sabre fencing limits the target zone to the torso, meaning anywhere above the waist. Foil fencing reduces it even further, restricting the target area to the trunk only and removing the arms and head from consideration.

Fencers compete on a long, narrow strip of material and must remain on the fencing strip at all times. The strip, or piste, must be 46 feet long and measure between 5 and roughly 7 feet wide. The strip contains a center line, two on guard lines roughly 6 feet from the center line and two lines marking the rear limits of the strip roughly 23 feet from the center line.

If a fencer steps beyond the strips legal side boundaries, the official will award 1 meter, or approximately 3 feet, of ground to the opponent on the restart. Stepping beyond the strips rear limit results in an awarded touch to the opponent. Officials may also award touches to the opponent if a fencer attacks with both hands, if a fencer doesnt obey instructions or if a fencer displays poor sportsmanship or overly violent behavior.

A friendly combat between two fencers is called an assault. When the score of such an assault is kept to determine a result it is called a bout.

The aggregate of the bouts fought between the fencers of two different teams is called a match.

A competition is the aggregate of the bouts (individual competitions) or of the matches (team competitions) required to determine the winner of the event.Competitions are distinguished by weapons, the competitor's gender, their age and by the fact that they are for individuals or for teams.

A championship is the name given to a competition held to determine the best fencer or the best team at each weapon for a federation, for a specific region or for the world and for a specific period of time.

Parries are simple, direct, when they are made in the same line as the attack. They are circular (counter parries) when they are made in the opposite line to the attack. The parry gives the right to riposte in foil and sabre the simple riposte may be direct or indirect, but to annul any subsequent action by the attacker, it must be executed immediately, without indecision or delay.