What distinguishes classical fencing from modern sport fencing?
Classical fencing is a form of traditional fencing in that it is an unbroken tradition, but since its methods and philosophies are not those of the contemporary sport, I would also classify it (in opposition to some other practitioners) as a form of historical fencing. That being said, exact definitions are harder to arrive at. The question of what “classical” fencing is has been answered in many ways: martial (fencing “as if the weapons were sharp”), technical (“clean” fencing), historical (“fencing as practiced in the nineteenth century”), and by what it’s not (fencing “without orthopedic grips” or “without electric scoring”). We should probably include an idea of orthopraxy in our definitions: I.e., it is fencing strictly in the mode of one of the two great national schools, that of Joinville (France) and that of the Scuola Magistrale in Naples (Italy). Each of these definitions has its merits, but each is also open to criticism. First of all, the weapons are not sharp, we can not s
