En garde!

What is your favorite sport? Do you practice it or prefer just watching it? Do you ever think what it
takes to be such a good player? I am not very good at sports but for sure I enjoy watching hockey and
especially fencing matches.
Fencing is physically and mentally demanding, where speed, strenght, footwork, finger-work and
psychology are essential to winning.  The first thing to watch is tempo, the rate of movement of the
fencers. When starting to watch fencing I would suggest focusing on just a competitor, by watching
the same opponent multiple times, you can gain a better understanding of how they think, how they
maintain a lead when they’re up, what they go for when they’re down, and a general understanding of
weaknesses.  I admit that my knowledge of the rules is a little shaky, but I can enjoy watching sports
as long as I know the competitors.
The fencing players might get paid for advertising contracts yet most of them are often not paid at all.
For all the effort they put in how can the prize be so small? Most of the money which is exchanged in
fencing goes to coaches, armorers and other officials and suppliers. 
The competitors wear a mask while duelling just like the storm troopers in Star Wars and this makes
fencing interesting too as you can imagine any story for their duel.