Other equipment

Other equipment such as knickers (short fencing pants with suspenders),underarm protectors (kevlar under-vests used for added protection), long knee-socks, and fencing shoes, while not being neccesary for practice, may be needed for competition. If you want to become a fencer I suggest you start by borrowing equipment (most clubs will let you borrow or rent used equipment). Once you are really serious about fencing you may want to invest in a weapon, a mask, a jacket, knickers, a glove, and a bag to carry them around in.

Electrical equipment

Most competitions will use electric scoring. The weapons will be hooked up to a machine that beeps and flashes lights to indicate when a fencer has scored a touch. This makes the director's (person scoring the bout) job easier, but they must still make important descisions regarding right-of-way and timing. As a fencer you need special equipment to fence electric. For Sabre you need an electric weapon, a lamé (pronounced Le-may-it is simply an electrified jacket), a body cord, an overglove (electrified glove), and an electric mask (because head is target area in Sabre). The body cord connects the mask, lame, overglove and weapon to the floor cord which conects to the scoring machine. When the electrified sabre touches the lame, mask or overglove of the opponent the buzzer goes off. For Foil the system is basically the same except that no mask or overglove is used and the point of the weapon must be depressed on the lame for a touch to be scored. In Épeé, the only piece of electric equipment needed is the weapon. Since the whole body is target area, the point being depressed at any part of the opponent is enough. The judges can tell when the point is depressed in Foil or Épeé because a small spring keeps the electric circuit closed until pressure is applied.