KINGSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) Fencing will be part of the Olympic coverage on Tuesday. On Tuesday morning, Dave Caulfield, Reporter and Fencer showed us the finer points of the sport.

The touches, the technique, and of course, the mind games make the Olympic sport of fencing unique and fun.



“It’s a physical game..but its also a mental game…built in layers of trying to be very sneaky to hit your opponent,” Fencing Coach for Northeast Fencing Alliance Ray Stedenfeld explained.

Stedenfeld started fencing when he was in high school. He now teaches the art of sword fighting to area kids and adults in northeastern Pennsylvania.



To learn the sport, first, you study footwork, and then, you train to hit and block with a weapon.



“We’re actually conditioning to respond by instinct without having time to respond,” Stedenfeld said.

In real time, the actions during a fencing bout seem normal. However, when you slow it down, you will see all the small but important moves that can win or lose a competitor a match.

Each of the weapons, namely, foil, sabre, and epee, has something special to offer.

“In foil, we get to get in with it and be really physical with other people,” Foil Fencer Ekta Aurora said.

“Sabre I like because it’s very fast, but epee is probably my favorite,” Fencer Matt Metzloff said. “Mentality is important, there’s mind games involved, and you can hit anywhere on the body.”



Epee will be on display in Rio Tuesday.

The Northeast Fencing Alliance usually meets on Fridays in the basement of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Kingston.

Northeast Fencing Alliance Information