Foil

Page content: Weapon : Target area : Rules

Weapon

The foil has a small, saucer-shaped guard, to protect the fencer's fingers from injury. The 90cm long blade has a rectangular cross section, and is relatively flexible.

Hits may only be scored with the point of the weapon. When using electrical scoring apparatus, the foil has a plunger tip (which depresses when the fencer hits something) connected to a wire which runs down a groove in the blade to a socket behind the guard. A second (well insulated) wire is worn under the fencer's jacket: one end plugs into the weapon, and the other into the scoring apparatus.

Target area

When fencing foil, hits may only be scored to the torso. Hits to other parts of the body are considered "off target".

When fencing with electrical scoring apparatus, each fencer wears a sleeveless metallic jacket on top of their fencing jacket. A clip on the fencer's bodywire attaches to this jacket, which enables the electrical apparatus to distinguish between on- and off-target hits.

Although a fencer cannot score with an off-target hit, it is possible for an off-target hit to annul a valid hit scored by the opponent.

Rules

Foil is known as a "conventional" weapon, meaning that there are conventions surrounding the validity of a hit. The gist of these rules are that a fencer who launches an attack has "priority". The fencer who is attacked must take over the priority by performing a defensive action, such as deflecting the opponent's blade with their own. If the fencer who is attacked fails to take over the priority, and both fencers hit, then the point will be awarded to the attacking fencer.