Fencing, explained

Most sports in the olympics are really pretty easy to watch.

You cross a finish line, hit a target, jump the farthest, score a point.

But fencing is different.

It’s so incredibly fast and precise, that even after watching several matches, for the

average viewer, it’s hard to understand exactly how a point was scored.

This is footage from 3 different bouts at the 2015 world championships.

On the surface, they look pretty similar.

But what you’re looking at is in fact 3 very different events.

There’s the foil, epee, and sabre.

They each have their own weapon and set of rules and their roots can be traced back centuries.

My only cultural reference for fencing comes from the 1998 remake of the Parent Trap, so

I decided to travel 2 blocks from our NYC office to a veritable fencing oasis in the

middle of Time Square, the Manhattan Fencing center.

It’s produced 3 Olympians just this year.

That’s me, struggling.

That’s my very patient coach for the day, Brando Messinese.