How fencing works: three weapons, each under its own conventions.

Fencing is one sport with three weapons, and the rule books treat them almost as three games. Foil, epee and sabre share a piste, an electrical scoring apparatus and a set of general rules, but each weapon has its own valid target, its own way of deciding who scores when both fencers are hit, and its own article block in the FIE's Technical Rules. This section keeps them apart: every rule named here comes with its weapon, the body, the document, the edition and the article number.

These pages describe how the sport is organised and what its rule books say. They do not teach footwork, blade work or tactics, and they give no training advice. Those come from a qualified coach in a club. Injuries are a matter for a doctor.

Which rule books, which editions

Rule texts change. The edition in force, the competition's own regulations and the referee on the day always have the final word.

The shortest possible version

• Foil: a thrusting weapon only (t.76.1). The valid target is the trunk plus the lower part of the mask bib (t.77.1). An off-target hit stops the phrase (t.78), and when both fencers are hit the referee decides by the foil conventions, often called priority or right of way (t.82 to t.89).
• Epee: a thrusting weapon only (t.90.1). The whole body, clothing and equipment are valid target (t.91). There are no priority conventions: when both hits register as valid, each fencer is counted hit (t.92).
• Sabre: hits count with the point, the cutting edge, the flat or the back of the blade (t.96). The valid target is everything above the line of the tops of the hip bones (t.97.2). A hit off the target is not registered and does not stop the phrase (t.98), and the sabre conventions decide priority (t.100 to t.106).
• Wheelchair fencing: the chairs are fixed in a frame on the piste (IWAS Technical Rules, January 2018, t.13), and in wheelchair epee the target is the upper body above the line of the tops of the hip bones, plus any part of the wheelchair above that line, unlike standing epee (t.62).

The pages in this section

1. What fencing is: the three weapons side by side, each in its own column, and the rules they share.
2. Foil: the trunk target, off-target hits and the foil priority conventions.
3. Epee: the whole-body target, no priority and the double hit.
4. Sabre: cuts and thrusts, the target above the hips and the sabre conventions.
5. Bouts and formats: pool bouts, direct elimination, team relays to 45, penalties and the non-combativity rule.
6. The piste: 14 metres by 1.50 metres, its five lines and what happens at the boundaries.
7. Officials and video refereeing: referees, judges, video appeals and the nationality rules.
8. The FIE and national bodies: the FIE from 1913, its member count given both ways, and national federations with their founding dates.
9. Rankings and the World Cup: official FIE competitions, World Cup criteria and how ranking points are counted.
10. Ages and categories: the FIE licence age, cadet, junior and veteran categories, and national youth categories.
11. Wheelchair fencing: the frame, the measured distance, the categories and World Para Fencing.
12. The Olympic and Paralympic programme: the twelve Olympic events, LA28 places and the Paralympic programme.
13. How people learn: referee and coach qualifications as the bodies that award them describe them.
14. How many people fence: membership figures as each body claims them, with dates.

Fencing terms used across these pages are collected in the glossary.