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When it comes to fencing, the average person probably doesn’t know much beyond what you get from The Princess Bride. For example: Did you know there are three different styles, each with a different kind of sword and its own set of rules?
Storyboard Podcast: Episode 93
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Luckily, we found an expert to break things down. In this episode of the Storyboard podcast, Olympic foil fencer Doris Willette joins Wired senior editor and fellow fencer (albeit not quite Olympic-level) Adam Rogers to nerd out about their shared love of parries, ripostes, stabs and feints. She weighs in on everything from the basics of the sport to her physical and mental training regimen, as well as her experience at the 2012 Olympic Games in London — both on and off the fencing strip.
“The mask going on at the beginning of the bout,” says Willette, discussing her mental preparation. “Once you put that mask on, you are becoming — not a different person, but you are becoming a competitor.”
Put on your gear and grab your weapon of choice — foil, épée or sabre. From Wired magazine, it’s the Storyboard. En garde!
P.S. See Willette fencing in the video below, from the 2010 Division 1 Women’s Foil North American Cup in Atlanta.
