How to Watch and Understand Fencing

You only need three things to follow a bout: the scoring lights, the referee’s call, and one rule, right of way in foil and sabre. A coloured light means a hit on target and a white light means off target (foil only). The referee’s hand signals then explain who scored. This guide is written for parents, family and anyone new to the sport, from a first club session to a first real competition.

Picture it from the edge of the strip: your child is inside a mask and a padded jacket, two lights keep flashing, and the referee is calling out words in French. It looks unreadable until you know what to look for, and then it clicks.

The strip: where the action happens

The fencing strip (or “piste”) is a long, narrow rectangle, roughly 14 metres long and about 1.5 to 2 metres wide. Fencers start facing each other at the centre, on lines set a fixed distance apart, and they move forward and back along this narrow track, never side to side. That narrowness is the whole point: it forces direct confrontation and turns footwork, distance and timing into as much of a weapon as the blade itself.

You will notice lines marked across the strip, including a warning line near each end. Step off the back of the strip and the referee will call a halt and award a touch against the fencer who went off. Watching footwork along this strip, the advances, retreats, and sudden lunges, is often more revealing than watching the blades.

The kit: what all that gear is for

Before you can read a bout, it helps to recognise what each fencer is wearing:

• Mask: a wire mesh mask that protects the face and is wired into the scoring system for foil and sabre.
• Jacket and plastron: heavy protective layers, with an underarm protector (plastron) worn under the jacket on the weapon-arm side.
• Lamé: a metallic conductive vest worn over the jacket in foil and sabre, so the machine can tell when the valid target area is hit.
• Body cord: a cable running from the weapon, through the jacket sleeve, to a reel at the back of the strip, connecting the fencer to the scoring box.
• Glove and weapon: a padded glove on the weapon hand, and the foil, épée or sabre itself.

If this is your child’s first time near this kit, or you want to understand the differences between weapons before watching, read our guide to foil vs sabre vs épée alongside this one.

What the lights actually mean

The scoring lights are the single most useful thing to watch, once you know the code. Each end of the strip has a box with coloured lights, and each fencer is assigned one colour, usually red on one side and green on the other.

• A coloured light means a valid touch landed on target.
• A white light means the touch landed off target. This happens only in foil, where only the torso counts. In sabre an off-target hit does not register and play continues.
• In épée there is no white light, because the entire body is a valid target.
• Both lights firing at once means both fencers hit within the same fraction of a second, and this is where the rules decide who actually scores the point.

If you want the full breakdown of how points are actually awarded once those lights come on, we have written a dedicated piece on how fencing scoring works that pairs well with this guide.

Right of way, explained simply

This is the part that confuses almost every newcomer, and it only applies to foil and sabre, not épée.

Think of right of way as the rule that decides who “owns” the attack at any given moment. If both fencers hit each other within the same split second, the referee does not just award the point to whoever looks fastest. Instead, the referee decides who initiated the attack correctly, who defended it (a parry) and who therefore has the right to score.

In short: the fencer who begins a properly formed attack (arm extending toward the target in foil; a clear forward threatening action in sabre) keeps the right to score unless their opponent parries (blocks) it or the attack clearly misses.

In épée, none of this matters. Whoever’s hit lands first scores, and if both land within about 40 milliseconds of each other, both fencers score a point. This is why épée bouts often look more cautious and patient, while foil and sabre look faster and more aggressive: the tactics are shaped directly by these rules.

What the referee says and signals

Fencing’s official language is French, so at competitions the referee runs every exchange with the same short French commands, wherever in the world the event is held. In club training, coaches often use the English equivalents.

To start and stop the action:

• “En garde!” (on guard): fencers take their stance behind the on guard lines.
• “Prêts?” (ready?): the referee checks both fencers are set.
• “Allez!” (go, often said in English as “Fence!”): the exchange begins. Nobody moves before this.
• “Halte!” (stop): the action stops at once, either because a light has come on or because something needs sorting out, such as a fencer stepping off the strip or body contact.

After a halt, the referee says what happened:

• “Touche à gauche” or “touche à droite” (touch to the left or right): the point goes to the fencer on that side. The referee also raises a hand on that side.
• “Pas de touche” (no touch): nothing is scored, for example after an off-target hit in foil.
• “Simultané” (simultaneous): in foil and sabre, both fencers attacked at the same time and neither had right of way, so no point is given.

In foil and sabre the referee also explains the call with hand signals before awarding it: one gesture for the attack, a sweep for a parry, then a point towards the fencer whose riposte (the reply after a parry) landed. Watch the referee’s hand rather than trying to follow the French, and within a few bouts you will start reading the pattern before the score updates.

For rule breaks the referee shows a card: yellow is a warning, red gives the opponent a touch, and black means exclusion from the competition. Our guide to what is not allowed in fencing explains which offences lead to which card.

Following a bout at a competition

A few practical tips make watching live competitions far easier:

1. Check the score sheet or scoreboard near the strip, most bouts run to 15 touches in direct elimination, or 5 touches in a shorter pool bout, as explained in fencing tournaments explained: poules and elimination.
2. Watch the fencer’s feet, not just the blade. Distance control usually explains a touch better than the blade action itself.
3. Do not worry about missing the exact moment; a quick glance at the scoreboard or the referee’s call will fill you in.
4. Follow one fencer at a time early on. Trying to track both fencers equally on your first few bouts can be overwhelming.

If your child is heading to their first tournament, our guide on what happens at your first competition walks through the format, the waiting around, and what to expect on the day.

Why fencing is so gripping to watch

Once the lights and the calls start making sense, bouts are easier to follow. They are short bursts of decision making, closer to a chess match played at sprinting speed than to swashbuckling. Fencing has been part of every modern Olympic Games since 1896, and a single lapse in concentration can decide a bout.

If you would like to stand on the strip yourself at Fencing Masters, mask down, blade up, waiting for “allez”, request a trial lesson.