and traditions
The confrontation of the French and Italian fencing schools
Starting from the middle of the XVII century, when the French shortened their epee, fencing with stabbing weapons began to progress rapidly in a variety of techniques, dexterity and speed of their application. From that moment, a sharp divergence of the French school (more progressive) and Italian (more conservative) begins. These discrepancies reached their peak by the end of the 19th century.
In France, from the second half of the 18th century, fencing has made rapid significant progress, clearly ahead of Italy. In 1736, the Frenchman Girard introduced the 8th and last defense, almost two centuries later than the 7th. In 1755, in the French Encyclopedia, the article “fencing” first talked about the need to introduce a fencing mask to prevent accidents. But 10 years passed before fencing masks were finally introduced. Continue reading
FENCING DEVELOPMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT PEOPLES
Materials on the history of ancient peoples make it possible to say that the possession of edged weapons occupied an important place in military training and physical education of that time. The sacred books of ancient India mention the extremely basic principles of possession of edged weapons and indicate 32 types of various weapons. The teachers and distributors of fencing were apparently Indian Brahmins (clergy). Many monuments of ancient Egypt depict figures of warriors with sticks. We must think that fencing on sticks was one of the types of military training.
The weapon consisted of a sword with a hilt, which also served to protect the hand from impact. Continue reading
PREPARING PERIOD OF TRAINING IN FENCING
General tasks of the preparatory period: a) development and strengthening of the muscular and skeletal-ligamentous systems; b) improving the activity of internal organs (respiration, blood circulation, excretion and metabolism); c) improving overall coordination and developing speed of reaction; d) general retraction of the body and development of endurance; d) the introduction and development of habits of cultural behavior and discipline.
Special tasks of this period: a) testing and improving the basic skills of fencing equipment (techniques of attack and defense movements and methods of preparing for an attack); b) verification and improvement of the technique of complex fencing techniques; c) the development of a sense of distance, time and a sense of weapons; d) the development of speed, accuracy of movements. Continue reading
