Equipments of Fencing

A fencer requires a jacket, a mask, a glove, trousers or knickers, white stockings, flat-soled shoes, and a weapon with which to bout.

Foils, épées, and sabres have blunted tips. At foil, hits must be made with the point of the weapon and are valid only when they land on the prescribed target area (the trunk of the body). At épée, hits are made with the point and, as the rules are based on the conditions of a duel, are valid wherever they arrive on the body of an opponent. Hits by the sabre are made with the point, with the cutting edge, or with the upper third (the area nearest the point of the sword) of the back edge, on the opponent’s body from the waist up.

The piste, or fencing mat, made of linoleum, cork, rubber, or composition, is a strip at least 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) wide and 14 metres (46 feet) long, with an extension, or runback, of 1.5 metres at either end. The piste has a centre line, on-guard lines, warning lines, and rear limit lines. A match starts with the fencers in the on-guard position so far apart as to require a lunge to reach the opposing fencer.