How do you score points in fencing?

Question

im watching the olympics and i'm confused as to the rules and how you score.

Answer 1

When you get poked.

Answer 2

When you stab people.

Answer 3

There are three different types of fencing - epee, foil, and sabre. The one you are most likely seeing on TV is sabre.

To score a point in epee, you must hit your opponent anywhere on their body by compressing the tip of your weapon. When this happens, a light goes off and the referee will award you the point. If both fences hit each other at the same time in epee, they are both awarded points.

Like epee, to score a point in foil, you must compress the tip of your weapon on their target. However, foil is different because only their torso, back, and shoulders are target (if you watch it, you will see the foil fencers have silver vests, called lamés, covering their valid target). Foil also has something called right-of-way, a sort of set of rules for who can get a point. It is very common in fencing for both fencers' to hit each other (whether on the valid target or somewhere else on their body, called an "off target" hit in foil), but in foil and sabre, contrary to epee, only one fencer (in some cases neither) can get the point when that happens. To determine who gets the point, the referee must say who had "right of way" or the priority to hit their opponent. You can get right of way by hitting your opponents blade, or by attacking (when you move forward with the intention to hit) first.

Sabre is similar to foil in that it uses right-of-way, but it is different for two reasons. In sabre, contact on any part of the blade (the tip or the sides-which aren't sharp) can score a point, and the valid target is anywhere above the waist.

Fencing is a little hard to understand at first, but that information should help. I hope you watch more and you understand it now!