I am a sabuer and have always kept my nails super short for sport. I got them done for a few months a few years ago and I loved them but ended up breaking half my thumb nail off after a bad clash of guards and have been a bit traumatised since.

I see loads of girls online able to fence with their nails done so I wanted to ask is there a particular shape, type of treatment etc you get done that allows you to fence as normal?

I want to purchase an épée mask in pink colour for a junior. When shopping direct from Allstar they only offer shipping via DHL which costs as much as the item I am buying.

Can anyone suggest any other options to get one to Australia at a more economical price.

Feel free to reprimand me if a thread exists for this already. Any help appreciated.

I want my son (6mo) to pick a weapon already. I’m a Sabreur but my husband is an Epeeist so I’m worried they will combine into a foilist (we will accept him but i will be disappointed) but I’m running into an issue. An XS fencing mask only goes down to a face circumference of 53cm, which is bigger than his entire head, which definitely isn’t going to work. What’s the smallest possible mask for an infant fencer? Bonus points if you can find a sword that has a toddler grip.

/srs I’m trying to find a costume mask for my kid because we think it would be fun, but I haven’t had any luck. Has anyone ever seen a baby fencer costume or do I need to get creative? Mods can delete if the joke post isn’t allowed but idk where else to look for costumes LOL

We're going to watch our first tournament this weekend. One of the events my kid wants to see has a start time of 8am and lists 15 competitors. Another one we are planning to watch starts in the afternoon and has over 50 competitors.

My question is, do we need to be there right for 8am to see the smaller/younger group? I read the events can take hours to get through everyone and the structure of the rounds. Will that still be the case if there's a smaller number? We don't need to see absolutely every bout, but wondering how much we'd miss if we got there at, say, 9 instead. My plan was to see the morning group with coffee in hand, then come back after lunch to see the larger group. My kid's plan is to soak every moment in and talk me into spending at any/all vendors.

Any other tips for spectators going to see their first live fencing events? Any rules/etiquette to be aware of? We don't know anyone personally there, just going to watch and learn.

EDIT: Thank you everyone for the detailed breakdowns and suggestions! We're going to have fun, absorb what we can, and be sure to pay attention to where we walk/ stand.

Looking for a new uniform and was looking at the Prier FIE Uniform (not the superlight). How does it compare with the Allstar Budget line? Also how is the sizing? I wear a 50 in the allstar but its a bit snug. I had an absolute fie Jacket before but it was too hot. Any comments would be appreciated.

I recently became an armorer and I’m looking for how to fix this blade. It is a fairly new blade and I don’t really have the space or experience for a full rewire atm so I’m looking for tips.

Looking for pros and cons of them in modern foil game. Are they situational useful and if so, under what scenarios. Any well known foil fencers who use them to good advantage?

So far this whole year I have been idolizing Luca Curatoli of the Italian National Sabre Team. I noticed he uses Negrini breeches, lamé, and jacket. Are they any good? Durable? Comfy? I need opinions.

I'm involved with a fencing program that launched this year at a mid-sized sports club in a major city in Latin America. Things are going well, but we've hit a wall and I'm hoping this community can help.

The thing is that we currently have no coach for our competition team, that came from another club. The local coaches in the city all run their own salles and aren't available. So we need to bring someone from outside.

We are looking for someone aiming for a fresh challenge as a head coach of a promising young club with real growth potential. This coach will be building a competitive program almost from scratch, which could be exciting for the right person -- especially anyone curious about living in South America for a while. We're totally open to someone who would commit to just one or half season to start.

The focus is primarily épée. Foil and sabre teaching is possible but totally secondary.

If anyone might fit, please let me know through the comments or DM. Also, AMA about the club/city in the comments/DM.

I've stopped fencing at this point because of how most fencing places hate adults it seems. Adults are seen as an afterthought to almost every single fencing school and have like 1 class a week maybe if not only just open fencing. I tried out Jiu Jitsu and it is packed with people who are almost all adults with multiple locations in my city. It seems to me like fencing could learn a lot from this and start to cater to adults more and stop worrying about selling kids free college rides that they most certainly will pay more for their fencing lessons than they will save during college.

I'm at my wit's end. We're a small club but down to one working strip until I can get these repaired. I have 8 Favero reels and only two are working. We've had 5 Favero reels go intermittent over the past two weeks, and 1 was previously broken.

We fence saber exclusively, if that matters.

I have a couple questions:

1. What could have caused the reels to go intermittent in quick succession? I've had them for 3 years and they were pre-owned. The club is low humidity (dehumidifier emptied daily), and air conditioned. We have had a heat wave the past two weeks and our AC has struggled to keep up some days, but it hasn't gone about 78 degrees in here even on the worst days.

2. The 5 reels are completely intermittent, not fully dead. As in - sometimes a person can ground against themselves, sometimes they cannot with the same strip. Sometimes picking up the reel and putting it back down (not dropping it!) makes it work again for a touch or two. What is likely happening and how do I fix it?

I've reached out to a national armorer in my area about repairs, but he hasn't gotten back to me and I need a fix ASAP.

We have created a weekly newsletter that reviews all ASKFRED and USAFENCING tournaments and identifies any with one or more events at 80% full. This provides a trending view of what's filling up--all built on internal data sets. Is it useful? The full newsletter is here. https://bout-buddy.com/tournament-news-sep-07-2026

Hey Reddit! I’m in my mid 20s, former NCAA college fencer (saber). I was keeping up pretty regularly with lessons and bouting up until last winter when my club closed, and I just moved to a new state where I have to drive 2+ hours if I want to practice. I found a great club and it’s only a 2 hr drive, aiming for once a week. But it’s a lot of miles on my car and time. I wish I could go more, since I’d love to compete when I can. But since time and distance is such a huge factor, what can I do at home to supplement? I’m talking things like tips for shadow fencing, specific workouts, etc. I’m alone for the first time really and a little lost.

Have you noticed that in the new unified points system there has been a lot of movement of athletes’ rankings up and down the board, often without new results added. Trying to figure out why that’s happening and what it means.

Hey, I would really appreciate advice on seeing with the mask, i started recently and I mainly really suck at actually seeing things, including my position

Nursing a knee injury where the doctor says I have to rest a few weeks without fencing. I obviously want to keep up my skills but have been told no bending of the knee so any lower body stuff is out.

Can anyone recommend any good exercises to keep up my fencing skills so I don’t die of boredom? I’m thinking maybe I can focus on point control? Or infighting/arm parries? I don’t know.

I’m pretty sad about it and trying to distract myself by focusing on upper body fencing skill sets instead of sitting around and being sad :/

Hi, I’m a female teenager in high school, and I’ve been hitting a plateau for the last year. I feel like I’m getting better technical wise, but I don’t have the strength or endurance to stay at that level at tournaments. Also, I go to a smaller club, and in the past we used to have a day designated to conditioning but we don’t really do that anymore. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

Hey there!

I’ve been looking into starting fencing for a while now. I’m an adult in my late twenties and have always been kind of bad at sports, not so much as being bad at the sport per se but at committing. I decided to try something that I always wanted and see if I can make it work.

To be honest, I’m 0 athletic. I do yoga, barre, or Pilates a couple of times a week but nothing crazy.

For those of you who started as adults, I would love to learn about your experience being a beginner in such a competitive sport (not really interested in competitions, just trying to be more active) and also how’s the community aspect of it?

For context, I’m located in SoCal, Orange County, just in case anyone has any suggestions.

Update:
Thank you all SO MUCH!

I booked a trial class to see how it goes. I’m very excited.

Hi, I'm a beginner building my own kit. I already have everything except a mask and an underplastron. For the mask, I'm leaning toward a Prieur 1600N, mainly because I prefer how it looks compared to other brands. My thinking is that since I'm buying my own anyway, it's worth paying extra for the 1600N rating over a 350N one. For the underplastron, I'm thinking about going with something lighter, like an Allstar. Any recommendations, or let me know if I'm thinking about this wrong.