Fencing Equipment: Foil

Fencing Equipment: Foil is the first book designed to teach you what fencing equipment is needed for foil fencing, what to look for when you buy it, and who sells it. It is a comprehensive look at all the equipment a foil fencer needs to compete, at 150 pages in length, and has over 20 black and white photographs to illustrate aspects of the different pieces of fencing gear. Knowing what to look for will save you time and money when you shop.

The modern sport of fencing is, like all martial arts, wonderful exercise and mental training for people of all ages. It requires good physical conditioning, quick reflexes and the ability to adapt one’s tactics to both your opponent and the director. It also requires a considerable amount of fencing equipment. Buying this equipment can be somewhat confusing because it basically looks all the same. Why does one foil cost , complete, while you can also spend over 0 for just a single blade? The different levels of quality of the equipment for fencing are not obvious. This book helps you know what to look for to fit your fencing needs.

Fencing Equipment: Foil is a comprehensive look at the following pieces of sport fencing gear: foils, electrical jackets (lames), fencing masks, foil body cords, fencing jackets, chest protectors, breast protectors, underarm protectors (plastrons), knickers (fencing pants), fencing gloves, fencing shoes, fencing socks, banjo-style or guitar-style fencing bags, rolling fencing bags, fencing test weights, fencing test boxes, screwdrivers, tip tape, hex wrenches and drivers, quick-drying glue and buzzer boxes for fencing without reels and a full scoring box.

Fencing Equipment: Foil is NOT designed to help you fix broken equipment or to become an armorer. It IS designed to help you understand what you need to buy, give tips and advice on what to look for when selecting your foil fencing equipment, and list where you can purchase the fencing gear.

All recommendations in this book are based on personal experience and interviews with fencers from the elite who represent the USA across the globe, to people who haven’t yet earned a rating. I’ve talked with manufacturers of equipment and retailers. And the opinions of armorers, those folks who fix the equipment that fencers break, are included as well.

With this book, you’ll see the range of prices (current as of July 2011) for the same thing, and the variety of quality that you can purchase for foil blades, fencing masks, electrical foil jackets, gloves, knickers, jackets, fencing shoes, fencing socks and more. You’ll even find out what you need to buy in your local hardware store instead of paying extra from a fencing retailer.

What you gain in knowledge and shopping savvy can easily pay for the low cost of this book. Plus, by buying this book you are support the Fencing Institute of Texas, a nonprofit 3-weapon school of fencing. A portion of the net proceeds is donated to this premier fencing institute in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

If you fence epee, you may want to purchase Fencing Equipment: Epee.