Fencing has been known since ancient Egypt times
and expands along with the development of human culture. Although jousting and
tournament combat was a popular sport in medieval Europe, modern fencing
weapons have changed from combat (rapier) since the 16th century. Rapier
evolved from military weapons to stab and cut, but the most popular among
civilians to use to defend themselves or fight a duel.
Killing in a duel had long been outlawed by the
beginning of the 1800’s, and by the 1820’s the wearing of swords had passed out
of fashion and fencing was moving into the realm of sport. Sport fencing was
originally done only with the foil,
the blunted practice sword used to teach the basics of swordsmanship. In the
second half of the century, the lightweight dueling sabre gained acceptance as a sporting weapon. The thrusting sword
often used in these duels was heavier and stiffer than a foil and this weapon
eventually became standardized into the fencing epee. These are the three weapons used in modern fencing.
Fencing is one of the six oldest sports and has
competed since the First Modern Olympics started in 1896 here only the men’s
foil and men’s saber that competed. Epee was introduced at the 1904 Olympics.
Fencing became the only combat sport that using electrical equipment to help
referee making better judgement. Epee already used electrical equipment in the
1936 Olympics, foil at the 1956 Olympics, and Saber at the 1988 Olympics.
Women’s
Foil was first competed at the 1924 Olympic and Women’s Epee of the Olympic
1996 although it was introduced at the World Championship in 1989. Women’s
Sabre was first exhibited at the World Championship in 1998 as a demonstration,
and began to compete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Nowadays,
Fencing develop very fast in many countries and it’s been using in many kind of
purpose beside sport itself. Many schools in modern countries like in U.K.,
Hong Kong and Singapore have fencing for their extracurricular activities
because they know that fencing gives many positive values for children.
As in
Indonesia, only a few schools have fencing as extracurricular activity. B Sport
Management (BSM); as a part of Indonesia sports and fencing community, believe
that fencing is very important for developing good mentality for children and
need to promote fencing through schools. For these purposes, B Sport contrives
B Fencing Program as school extracurricular program. This program also becomes
part of developing fencing in Indonesia starting from the grass root,
development and high performance level.
