Focus and attention
The best way to keep from getting hurt in a fight is to avoid it. This is the backbone of almost every self-defense class and seminar.
The basic idea here is that if you don’t ever go walking down a dark alley at night, you can never get mugged in a dark alley at night. There are all kinds of techniques here to prevent becoming a victim of a crime. Think about parking your car under a light, not going into a parking deck alone late at night, making sure you have your keys ready when you get to your car so you’re not fumbling with them.
Something that goes hand in hand with all of that is being aware of your surroundings. This is a skill that fencing teaches pretty wonderfully, because in fencing we have to be so keyed into our surroundings. Focus is a transferable skill. When you’re focusing on your fencing, you’re teaching your brain how to focus in the future.
The essential thing here in terms of self-defense is that fencing teaches you to split your attention effectively. Listening to the ref and the coach and then also paying attention to your opponent and their constantly changing attacks and counter-attacks helps the brain deal with the cacophony of stimuli. If a fencer was to find themselves in a situation where they needed to use self-defense, either to avoid something happening or to face something that’s happening, that fencing training in focus and attention would help.
Footwork and agility
The footwork and agility that fencers work hard to hone in practice is potentially helpful in dangerous situations. Most dangerous situations that people are in require fast reflexes. It’s not only for self-defense: a crazy road situation can be such too. Fencers by nature train to improve their reflexes so that they can have faster reaction times. It’s part of the DNA of fencing.
Bruce Lee did take some techniques from fencing, particularly footwork and stance, when he developed his Jeet Kune Do style of martial arts. His style is meant to be used for self defense in the real world, not for sport. From that standpoint, we can assume that fencing does offer some foundational techniques that can help in a real world scenario.
The real world isn’t the movies
Speaking of Bruce Lee, let’s talk about fencing on film. Fencing in the movies, when we sometimes see superheroes pull out a foil or sabre and go toe-to-toe with an opponent in a life or death match is not accurate to real world self defense. It’s sad to realize that this is the case, but it doesn’t make fencing any less exciting.
We often see someone in a movie or a TV show pick up some long object, like a broom handle or a piece of pipe, and they use it as a sword. This looks really cool and it’s fun onscreen, but that isn’t what it would look like in real life.
Conditioning vs. expertise
The bottom line here is that the conditioning that fencing provides is definitely going to give a fencer some skill in a self-defense situation. Both mental conditioning and physical conditioning.
Improved awareness, agility, mental toughness, physical stamina, etc. won’t guarantee a win if someone is in a street fight, but they definitely contribute and offer some advantage. Something is better than nothing in this case.
What fencing does teach us is how to stay present in our bodies and how to move swiftly. While we don’t carry around swords to defend ourselves, we can at least use some of the skills that we have built in fencing to make some headway in a tough situation.
While fencing can offer some advantages in terms of physical and mental attributes that may be beneficial for self-defense, it is not a complete substitute for specialized self-defense training. Self-defense programs often include techniques for escaping grabs, dealing with multiple attackers, and using everyday objects as improvised weapons, which are not part of traditional fencing training.
In the case of Attilio Fini, his background in fencing definitely contributed to his ability to react quickly and disarm the attacker, but it’s essential to remember that each self-defense situation is unique, and success depends on a combination of skills, awareness, and decision-making. If someone is specifically interested in self-defense, it’s advisable to seek out dedicated self-defense training programs that address real-life threats and scenarios.
Photo by Flickr user roanokecollege
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