Fencing FAQ

Issues relevant to fencing and other swordfighting martial arts

This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with answers, compiled for the UseNet newsgroup rec.sport.fencing. It is intended to reduce repetitive discussions on the Net by addressing commonly raised topics. This document is maintained by Morgan Burke (morgan@sitka.triumf.ca). Contributions, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.

Most of the questions and answers pertain to FIE (Olympic) Fencing; Japanese fencing (kendo, kenjustsu, iaido, etc.) is treated in a separate FAQ list ("Japanese Sword Arts") that can occasionally be found in the newsgroups rec.sport.fencing or rec.martial-arts, or on the IAIDO-L mailing list (see section 3.8 for details). The Japanese Sword Arts FAQ is maintained by Neil Gendzwill (gendzwill@SEDSystems.ca).

The Fencing FAQ is presented in three parts:

1. GENERAL: common questions about starting fencing, training, and rules of competition
2. EQUIPMENT: fencing equipment, maintenance, and troubleshooting
3. REFERENCE: organizations, suppliers, reading materials, net resources, glossary, etc.

All parts can be found on the UseNet newsgroups rec.sport.fencing, rec.answers, or news.answers. Otherwise, consult section 3.8 for information on finding archived copies of this document.