Physics of Fencing :: sport physics fencing sword fighting

Before I begin my discussion about how physics effects fencing and how fencers utilise physics for more effective fencing, I go away briefly discuss the origins of the sport of fencing. The first two fencing manuals were created and published in 1471and 1474. These emerged from an attempt at developing a system to teach tribe how to weild a light sword more effectively inbattle and duels in Frankfurt, Germany. Over the years, two distinct styles emerge. They were French and Italian. The french style relied mostly on outline while Itialian used mostly physical strenght(Roswell).The first foils emerged during the seventeenth century for a more effective way of teaching students the art of dueling. In the eighteenth century, the rules were created for fencing as a sport. It is from these rules that todays rules for fencing were created(Roswell)In fencing there are three types of weapons that are taught. They are the epee, foil, and sabre. For the sake of this paper, the weapon b eing demonstrate is foil and the style is modern Italian.So without further ado.... Let us begin our discussion of physics with basic moves, and then move on to more advanced moves in fencing.Basic FencingTo begin with, we will discuss the effects of sobriety on the body in the regular or on garde stance., and what sop ups are used during the thrust and the lunge.On GardeLook at a picture of what a fencer looks like in the on garde position. As you can see, the larger arrow shows the pull of gravity. The smaller arrows show where gravity is pulling the limbs. Red being for the legs and yellow for the arms. LungeNext, we will discuss the lunge. to a lower place you will see two more images. First it is from the thrust position. Then the next image shows the lunge position. The lunge picture shows the forward momentum in the blue arrow. As in the previous pictures, the same colors are used for the same gravity applications, but the major difference is the effects of gravity on the legs. In this position, the effects of gravity are more severe because the legs are again further from the center mass of the body and therefore, more of the force of gravity is pushing down on the legs. So that will conclude the discussion of basic stances and physics of them. Next, we will discuss the more advanced moves and how fencers use physics to their advantage with them.