How To Fence: The Basics of Fencing, Taught by Olympians

Hi, I'm Rayson Bowden and I'm on the 2012 London Olympic team. This is my teammate and friend, Myles Chanley-Watson. So we're here to show you some fundamentals of fencing. The first fundamental of fencing will be your en garde. When the referee is saying to you, are you ready? You say yes, and you get an en garde that looks similar to this. So notice that Myles' front foot is his right foot. If you're a lefty like me, your front foot's going to be your left foot. So you take your hand and you turn that foot out, and that's going to be your en garde position. See how both his knees are right over his toes? That's a good en garde. It means your knees are bent properly and that he can move really well and really sharply when he's in that position. So that's the first fundamental of fencing. The second would be how to move while you're in that position. In order to go forwards, you're going to lead with your front, your most dominant leg. So I will lead with my front leg and finish with my back leg. That's an advance. So if Myles is going to come at me, I'm going to do a retreat to get out. And you move your back foot first and your front foot second. So it looks like this. That's a retreat. So if you're going to be trying this at home, start with getting en garde, making sure your knees are over your toes. If you're coming forward, you start with your front foot. And notice how his heel touches first. It's not like this. It's his heel first and then his toe. So that's how you move around the strip. The final thing you do, Myles always makes fun of me because he says I have a funny lunge, but that's how you're going to touch somebody. So if you're going to touch somebody, you're going to use a lunge. My lunge, you start with your front foot and you kind of kick it out. You kick forward with your front foot and you push off of your back leg and you touch like that. And that's your lunge. Myles' lunge looks a little different than mine. He goes more forward. So he goes forward and I go up because I like more time in the air. So everybody's is a little different. But those are the three fundamentals. How to get en garde, how to move around, and how to touch somebody. Now you've got to get to a fencing club and try it out so you can be like us one day. That's fencing 101.