Fencing on the strip

What is my Favorite Sport and why?

My favorite-and also the only- sport I will watch and participate in, is fencing. Why fencing you ask? Because it is a game of intellect rather than brawn. I’ve been to football games and every single game I see guys ram themselves whole heartedly into each other, allowing some muscular fore-armed guy to throw the ball or run like hell in the attempt to touch a little piece of heaven on the enemy’s side. It reminds me of war, especially the civil and revolutionary wars in America. The soldiers lined up in a row, clashing into one another with bayonets, while some guy with a bit of intellect manages to lead them all to victory on the other side of the field. After a while, as I sit in the stands at these football games, the roar of the crowd and the clashing on the field become a dull hum in the back of my mind as my thoughts turn to other, more important things, than a game of mock war.

Again, fencing is not a game of brawn. Yes, in fencing things clash. But it is the clash of minds speaking through the meeting of foils that one hears. When on the fencing strip, everything fades away except your opponent, you watch the tip of his blade playfully go round and round, as you move your feet to keep yourself at tip to tip with your opponent. You cannot see your opponent’s eyes, they are hidden behind his mask of meshed steel. But you wait. You watch. You follow his movements by mimicry. He lunges. You parry. You repost. He parries too forcefully in response. Your blade sneaks out from under his wildly parrying foil. His power has become his weakness, an opening! The rubberized point of your blade flicks into his Lameẻ, metal on metal, the buzzer sounds. You’ve scored a point! Only 14 more points to go, and all points must be earned in different ways. For if you make the same move over and over again, he is sure to devise a way foil you and gain a point of his own. So, in this sense, fencing is a clashing of minds. You must try to outwit your opponent in order to win. This is why fencing is commonly referred to as chess on wheels. Of course speed and dexterity play a part in the game of fencing as well, if you were slow or clumsy in your movements, you could never win a bout.

When watching a bout in fencing, sometimes the blades become a blur as I try to watch. The higher the competitors are ranked, the faster the steel blurs as they race to outwit one another on the strip. And even though sometimes all I see is a blur of metal blades, I still enjoy watching it because I too know what it is like to be in the seemingly directionless fray.

So, in conclusion, you full blooded American men can keep your game of mock war called Football. I, myself, will enjoy the grip of my blade, the view out of my meshed mask and the sound of squeaking sneakers on the strip over the feel of shorn grass and the smell of pigskin leather any day.