QC: I thought this would be more interesting. I have said in the past that people's words of encouragement could make a difference, I got a ton from my family, friends and club the past week and I probably wouldn't have won a match without it. Nor would I have been able to (Data Expunged due to Story Time later).
Anyway, I'm off for now, damn meetings.
lugum: Oh it's defnitely interesting. ;)
I am glad you have the blessing of a supportive family and friends.
We are awaiting the data.
Btw, Is there any danger in fencing? i am sure its protective but can something like go wrong?
For serious danger, not as much as there used to be so long as you take precautions.
Before every tournament, we do 3 things: We check helmets, we check swords, we check jackets.
The swords, specifically Foil and Epee, have a pressure mounted switch at the ends. This is calibrated to the amount of effort it would take for a blade to puncture human flesh. Alongside checks to make sure that the tip is set at proper distances, we check to make sure it depresses to a certain weight. If it doesn't, it takes more effort to trigger. If it doesn't trigger, a person puts more effort into a strike, and that does more damage to sword and body.
Helmets: Helmets have been re-fashioned since the 70's to make sure they will hold up. We do a puncture test with a tough tip in a large-pen to make sure there's no weak area in the mesh. We check for damages to the cloth where a sword could penetrate in, and we do a compression test to see that the whole helmet holds together.
Jackets, we don't use them if there's any tears, rips, holes, so forth. Not safe.
Why do we do this? The best example I can give comes down to an Olympic level fighter, Russian man I think. He was fighting a man in a tournament when his blade managed to break. Breaks occur in 2 ways really: First is that the sword bends improperly (The swords are meant to only bend WELL in one direction) and the other is that repeated bending, pressure, or age makes the metal brittle, and it comes across just enough force in one weak segment that the blade is broken. The fine tips of the sword with the thinnest metal tend to be the area that breaks.
This man in the middle of a lunge broke his sword on the other person's helmet. That sword is much more dangerous broken than intact, so you have a sharpened tip. The helmet standards weren't as good as they are today, and the broken blade pierced into the helmet, and through the man's eye, into the brain. He died of I believe internal hemorrhaging 3 days later, and brought the need for new safety regulations.
(Post edit)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Smirnov_%28fencer%29 Now, can this still happen? Yes, in the right circumstances. But every club is responsible to make sure that equipment is as close to reliable as brand new. We make sure blades can't puncture helmets and there's no failures or weaknesses, jackets are rejected if they are broken, and we train fencers to fight in a certain way that reduces this risk, with swords requiring the absolute minimum effort to be used.
If you want an example of what can happen with a blade that isn't broken, I'm a fairly good example. I've been bruised in the arm, the hand, chest, neck, so forth. A couple weeks ago I took a strike to the thumb that took off the top layer of skin, I wasn't wearing a glove. I was in a practice session a few months ago, no jacket. I took a strike to the arm and I have what resembles a burn scar. Swords sometimes eek up the sleeve of my jacket and I get mild punctures, bruises, so forth. I've been stabbed between my pinkie and ring finger, bled quite a bit from that one. But then, given my legs, everyone knows I'm a fairly reckless fighter.
