By Bianca Zaharescu
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Sunday, April 2, 2006, The OG, sports

The Game
There are three fencing categories:

• Epee — where the target is anywhere on the opponent's body

• Saber — where you can target either the torso or the head (the head is covered by a mask)

• Foil — where the target is limited to the torso

Daniel Pearlstein competes in foil, his weapon of choice being very lightweight and thin, and as such, requiring much precision to maneuver. The equipment Daniel uses is pretty expensive, though. He owns two blades, each of which costs around $70. Although foils do not dull easily, there is always the danger of them breaking.

The Competition
At tournaments, the fencers are randomly divided into pools of five, where they fence everyone else in their pools and are ranked accordingly. Then the higher-ranked overall players compete with the lower-ranked ones until everyone is placed.

The competition itself consists of five-point bouts during the preliminary rounds, and 15-point bouts after players have been ranked in their pools. The bouts are typically between two and three minutes long, and they end when one player manages to poke the other in the torso such that the tip of the foil forms a depression in the blade.