Eissa Albinali

I have been fencing in Spain for just over a month now and recently went to my first fencing meet. While in Spain I have realized that there are many differences between fencing in the US and in Spain.

To begin with, one colossal difference between fencing in the US and fencing in Spain is the type of fencing that I do. Back in the US I used to fence foil but here I do saber. There are three different types of fencing, foil, epee and saber. Each type has its own sword, uniform and set of rules. When I found out that I was going to do saber, I was dumbfounded. To most people who don’t fence, all three types of fencing look the same, however, to a fencer the three types are very different. Yes, each type has its own sword, uniform and rules but it’s more than that. Each type is a different game. I was even thinking about not fencing entirely because of how different it might be. I was nervous to try something new that I was not used to. I didn’t know much about saber because I was not exposed to it in the US. I was never interested in learning about it, so when I knew that it was my only option, I was caught off guard.

Like I said earlier the rules in foil and saber differ from one another. In foil you can only hit the torso, however, in saber you can hit the whole upper body. The sword used in foil is also different from saber. The foil bends up and down, while the saber bends from side to side. The saber bends the way it does so that you can hit with the side of the blade and not just the tip. Unlike the foil, where you can hit with only the tip. I’ve been fencing for three years and have never used my sword the way it’s used in saber. It’s crazy to think that after all this time I am fencing in a way that I have never fenced before. Imagine practicing your favorite sport for many years and after all that time it is getting changed. It is somewhat sentimental.

When I went to my new club for the first time, I was nervous. I was worried that it would be too different from what I was used to in the US. I arrived at the club feeling a bit anxious. I was excited that I was going to fence after a long time, however, I didn’t know how different it would be. I walked in and met the coach. “Hola”, he said. It had not hit me yet that since I am in Spain, I would be coached in Spanish. Being coached in Spanish put a whole new twist on fencing. There will be so much I must learn, including the language, new type of fencing and adapting to the new environment. Was it worth it to fence at the cost of everything I must adapt to? I was questioning what I was going to do.

The coach talked to me a bit more in slow and easy Spanish. He asked me if I had done fencing before. I told him I fenced before, but not saber, foil. He saw the look in my face and my tone of voice. He realized I was a bit nervous about switching to saber. He told me that it does not matter what type of fencing I am doing, there is a reason why it’s just a different type of fencing and not a totally different sport. This changed the way I though about saber. These simple words got me to think a bit deeper about fencing. I realized that he was right. Every type of fencing is just a different type, not a different sport. Before he told me this I was thinking too much about the differences and not the similarities. And who cares about the differences. This will just expand my knowledge of fencing. It will help me improve as a fencer overall.

We finished talking and he asked if I wanted to look around the club. I said yes and went along with him. The first thing that caught my eye was the area where they stored the swords. In this area they had many swords, pieces of gear and masks. This reminded me of the part in my old fencing club that we stored all the swords, pieces of gear and masks. The more I looked around, the more it reminded me of my old club. Yes, there were many things different about the two clubs but nothing too different. It’s like the difference between foil and saber. Different types of fencing, but still the same sport.