~JcZw

Okay. Since I got nothing to rave about, except that 05S15 is a really really really totally chao super unimaginably fun class to be in, I shall talk about my JC cca, fencing.

Fencing, or, in the layman's term, sword-fighting, is the sport in which two competitors dressed in protective suits, and/or scoring jackets and try to hit each other with swords, to put it crudely. Basically, there are three types of weapons: FOIL, SABRE and EPEE.

The foil is my favourite weapon, target area being the torso and the back only. Fencers wear an electronic scoring jacket made of silver wires over their suits to record hits.
Foil is the most elegant of the three weapons, and blade movements are small and finely executed with the action of wrist and fingers. More spectacular are the flick hits which can be executed with the foil's flexible blade, such that the blade whips past the opponents guard and hits before a parry can be used. Generally regarded as the most graceful weapon.

Sabre is unique in the sense that it can be used as both a thrusting and cutting weapon. Instead of an electric switch, the whole blade is a conductor. Target area is the upper body, including the head. Sabrists have to wear a scoring jacket as well as a steel mask to record hits. Sabre bouts are fast, furious, and don't last for more than 10 sec usually. The most aggressive of the three weapons, sabre is also quite spectacular to watch.

Epee. The last, heaviest weapon. Used by Victoria Junior College's fencing team, the epee is based on the old dueling sword, and thus the whole body is the target. The weapon is wired such that a hit would pulse electricity back down the blade to score the hit, rather than passing into an opponent's scoring jacket. As such, epee fencers only require one layer of clothing (the protective jacket). Epee is the most inelegant of the three weapons, and control is not as fine because a hit anywhere on the body with the point of the blade would be a hit. Epeeists are probably the most accurate, trained to hit exposed arms, legs or even fingers.

If you compared the three weapons to racquet sports, foil would be badminton, sabre would be tennis, and epee.... well... i dunno... squash? haha.... yeah. I would still prefer the light elegant foil to the epee which I might use in the near future, but I don't mind learning new stuff I guess. The only thing else that I could hope for was that fencing was more competitive n more established. Well... if I took a sport like hockey I definitely would not be able to guarantee that I can go back to St. John anyway.

I hope fencing becomes more widely known to more JCs, more people... It is a sport worth learning alright... although the price puts many people off, the equipment is quite worth it as it can be used for the rest of your life. Just consider that you would like to take fencing long term before you do anything

Yeah, well, enough for one post... I bet this is boring enough to many people anyway... Join fencing! Its fun!