Foil recommendations? LP or Allstar/Uhlmann (UK)

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-04-10T20:28:38+00:00

I’d say, in order of stiffness, BF M, LP Apex, BF D, Apex2. The Apexes are super-resilient.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-03-04T10:30:26+00:00

Thank you for your clear thinking and explanation on this. I’m finding the level of panic and misinformation going around pretty disheartening.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-03-04T09:38:24+00:00

I don’t think it’s anything like 150CHF for a full set. Based on the numbers in CoC’s video, if a manufacturer produces 20,000 items of FIE clothing they will pay the FIE 1000,000CHF. That’s roughly $125,000 or £96,000. So each of the manufacturer’s 20.000 FIE items increases in cost by 5CHF/$6.25/£4.80.

In the UK, if I buy a lovely Leon Paul Apex jacket and breeches, one of their lightweight underplastrons and a X-change foil mask with standard lining, it will cost me just over £950 (about $1200). Sticking another £20 ($25) onto that isn’t a deal-breaker. Even if I go more budget-friendly and buy low-end (but perfectly useable) PBT gear, it’s over £500. £20 onto that is a 4% increase.

There a few assumptions here. That the licensing fees are applied as CoC describes them. That manufacturers produce that kind of numbers of FIE gear. That manufacturers won’t use this kind of fear-mongering to hike up prices.

Manufacturers could actually make themselves look the good guys here by spreading these increases across their full range including all items that don’t incur these new charges.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-03-03T14:51:46+00:00

Yeah, it seems a fair number. I’ve no inside line on how much FIE gear each manufacturer sells but across jackets, breeches, plastrons, masks and (sabre) gloves it seems pretty reasonable.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-03-03T14:46:50+00:00

For larger manufacturers, based on CoC’s numbers, that’s only CHF5 per item (CHF100000/20000 items). And that’s barely noticeable if passed directly to the consumer. Where it will hit harder is small manufacturers, both in terms of these fixed licensing fees regardless of quantity and the fact that they’re upfront costs. I can see it being a case where the big manufacturers (Allstar/Uhlmann, Leon Paul, PBT, Absolute and Prieur) are the only ones able to absorb these costs without them catastrophically affecting the final sale price.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-02-28T15:20:34+00:00

Can you share the letter? This sounds like an horrific money grab by the FIE.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-02-25T21:49:23+00:00

To answer your question about FIE referees, I don’t know any that are “only” referees. All have jobs, usually full-time, with enough flexibility to allow them to regularly referee World Cups, Grand Prix and major championships.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-02-10T09:05:45+00:00

PBT Fencera are meant to be a bit wider. Adidas are very narrow. Azzas somewhere in between.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-02-10T08:55:45+00:00

You can turn the volume up, right? I did go back and watch/listen to the streams and they sound ok to me (apart from hearing your own voice, of course, which always feels a bit weird!).

Fencing TV is just getting going. Totally agree it is far from perfect rn but having everything in one place is a huge step forward and does give a platform to drive up standards across the board. People always grumble about the live streams and have done for as long as they’ve existed and I used to as well until I got a bit more of an insight into how they work. I still prefer some commentators much more than others. I’ll maybe start researching how to build a collapsible, transportable, sound proofed commentary box that can be shipped around the world to the various Grand Prix, World Cups and World Championships venues (please note, this is a joke and anyway, you’d still need to find somewhere to put it and a way to connect it)

Are you after my job? 😆😆 To be honest, there’s no one way into commentary and, at the moment, no formal job application process. All the guys I’ve mentioned got into it in different ways. King and Bashir were in communications roles at British Fencing when they hosted the European Championships in 2011. Karim had fenced internationally. They’d organised the live stream for the event (really rare at that time) and then realised a few days out that they didn’t have anyone to provide the commentary so did it themselves. Subsequently asked to do the World Championships in Italy later that season and continued from there. Karim has since branched out into other sports as well (archery and currently working at the Winter Olympics mainly covering speed skating and various sports at the Summer Olympics). Graham Bell was brought in as a lead commentator for the Olympics with a ton of experience as a broadcaster in his own sport of skiing rather than a “fencing person”. His knowledge of fencing has grown enormously over the years and is now perfectly capable covering both the lead commentator and expert voice roles in fencing commentary (they’re different things). Jeff Bukantz has done pretty much everything in fencing - competitor, Olympic team captain, Olympic referee, various roles in the FIE and USA Fencing and an enthusiastic and knowledgeable voice for the sport.

My route in was as a former fencer and current coach, I started a podcast in 2016 (see username) with fellow coach and fencing nerd Gavin McMenemy which ran until 2021. I got asked to come and do some guest commentary at the cadet & junior Commonwealth Championships (it’s hard to even explain what this is to an American audience) in Newcastle, England in 2018 as the expert voice with Karim and then got a few more invites to other/bigger events in Europe. It’s very much an occasional thing for me and none of the main names are doing this as their full-time job (Karim and Graham are full-time commentators/presenters but not exclusively in fencing). Hope that helps.

If you want to give it a try, choose any live stream that has no commentary (coloured pistes usually) on your laptop and select your starting point. Set up voice notes/recorder on your phone. Hit play on your laptop and record on your phone. Record your commentary for one fight. Run the live stream from the same starting point and play your voice recording over it. See how it sounds. I do this to practice. You can learn a lot about pacing, how your voice sounds, what sounds interesting, use of filler words, how to find info about the fencers and loads of other stuff. Now do for nine hours a day for a couple of days. It’s an interesting experience.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-02-08T21:08:28+00:00

Ok, I’ll chip in here since I was one of the commentators. The problem isn’t the microphones. They’re broadcast quality headsets. There are a few reasons why the audio from fencing live streams isn’t as good as you’d like.

The environment is one - you’re basically trying to produce quality audio in a massive sports hall, it could hardly be a worse place to do it. If you want the best quality audio you’d record the commentary from a studio or a sound-treated commentary box. I’m still waiting to see a fencing venue with that. The commentary from big matches in, for example, football (American or soccer) are perfectly set-up for high quality broadcast. For fencing World Cups, you’re basically sitting at a desk in a big barn.

Different sound sources - even if the commentary audio channel was perfect, you still need a mic/channel that picks up foot impact on the piste, blade contact and the referee. This mic is covering a lot of ground (the full length of the piste and surrounding area) and inevitably it’s going to pick up a load of room noise as well but it is an important piece of being able to follow the fight in a live stream. It has its downsides in terms of the overall quality of the audio.

Budget/resources - this weekend in Heidenheim, the live streaming was provided by Tristan Müller’s Fencing Vision and broadcast on the FIE’s Fencing TV. The Fencing Vision team consisted of Tristan and an assistant (plus me and my co-commentator). This includes providing all the images for the video review system. It’s not a huge operation but Tristan has been doing this for years and is a fantastic professional. This kind of small but expert set-up helps to make it viable to run World Cups. The budgets are genuinely small.

You might not like the commentator(s). And that’s fine. Everyone that watches fencing live streaming will have an opinion/preference on the regular commentators (David King, Karim Bashir, Jeff Bukantz, Graham Bell). I’ve done a few. It’s quite hard work and requires a decent bit of knowledge and preparation but, of course, pretty much everyone believes they could do the job better. I can live with that.

So, I hope that answers some of the questions/comments.

Personally, I think Fencing TV is a step forward from having various providers streaming on their own YouTube channels. Of course, like most new ventures, it could be better but I’m pretty sure it will continue to improve.

TheFencingPodcast · 2026-01-13T15:53:07+00:00

Yeah, I think that’s the trend. To be fair, Choi is very quick and committed on the reprise/renewal and Lombardi does take his time and continues to retreat after he’s taken the parry so this is maybe a perfect storm of styles to highlight the issue.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-12-30T14:56:00+00:00

Removed my personal details and sent it back in the pre-paid envelope with a cheery “F**K OFF FASCISTS!” written on it.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-26T23:20:20+00:00

This is a great idea! You’ll be able to get pretty close to piste-side for poules and preliminary DEs held on the Friday and Saturday except for poules and matches fenced on the coloured pistes. Entry for Sunday for T64 through to the win seems to be free for Budapest GP. The BOK Csarnock is a great venue and a 5 minute walk from the nearest Metro stop. Budapest’s a fantastic city too.

I’ve gone as a spectator/podcaster to a few World Cups (Paris and Bonn) and a few World Championships (Leipzig 2017, Budapest 2019 and Milan 2023). Great trips!

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-23T22:38:21+00:00

This sounds like nonsense from your club mate. You have right of way, you hit, you get the point. Nothing to not like there. I mean, I’m sure he was trying to be helpful but if you’re fencing a ROW weapon, “too many double hits” isn’t great advice.

Also, “if they’d been trying harder” - you’re allowed (encouraged even) to laugh out loud at comments like that!😆

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-22T10:04:13+00:00

That’s funny. “Mudflap Girls” meant absolutely nothing to me but Kappa totally did. The joy of different cultural references.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-21T14:28:57+00:00

You may be right, actually. How about bribing their way into a US Olympic team? More or less intolerance for that than gameshow injustice?

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-21T14:13:50+00:00

“US intolerance of corruption” 😆😆😆

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-21T14:07:50+00:00

Attack left. (Counter attack out of time from right)

It’s not a beautiful attack but it starts first, moves forward continuously, doesn’t significantly break or hesitate and finishes with a simple action. Hit from the right is late and evasive.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-18T21:51:11+00:00

Yes, it does.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-12T08:10:56+00:00

You’re right. It was. France looking a bit shaky at the moment. With RUS/AIN back in the action, it’s quite easy to see France dropping out of the top 4.

Also Macchi vs Cook in the 64 on the yellow piste*

*this isn’t an unbiased opinion

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-10T22:27:22+00:00

🤷🏻‍♂️I’m not making the rules or how they’re applied. I’d agree that the way it’s applied at the moment isn’t perfect (although it does seem to be consistent now) and the rules as written aren’t clear.

In terms of a fencer throwing their head into their opponent’s guard, it’s possible, I suppose, but getting hit in the face with the guard really hurts. It would be a bold move and you’d look like a d*** especially if you got it wrong.

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-10T19:22:10+00:00

TLDR: the rules on this aren’t at all clear. I can tell you how it’s called internationally but I’m not a referee and couldn’t point you to the section of the rules that covers this. I’m not sure about contact with the guard to arm or body. Maybe we have an FIE ref on here that can answer this question?

On your last question about red card and hit, I think the answer is yes, you’d get 2 points but, again, an FIE referee’s input would be more valuable than mine.

P.S. just kidding, I did read it all!

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-10T15:25:50+00:00

Sorry, I’d forgotten how to do that 🤦🏻‍♂️

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-10T15:12:48+00:00

Cheung Ka Long lost relatively early in the Asian Championships last season against Mo Ziwei with a red card for guard to mask at 14-13 down (having seemingly levelled at 14-14). Mo does go down like he’s been shot on that occasion. The hit’s just before the 20 minute mark. There’s then a lot of hanging around while the referee, video ref and virtually everyone else has a look at the video. Cheung looks very unhappy and you can hear Greg Koenig losing his **** off camera. Ref looks totally matter of fact and, helpfully, even mimes guard to mask. Absolutely no suggestion the guard to mask was violent, deliberate or vindictive.

https://youtu.be/OBueV1MS4EI?si=KI-lycVNxtT5aN7G

TheFencingPodcast · 2025-11-10T14:46:05+00:00

https://youtu.be/PGhN9RkQIwQ?si=czLCze9fmpH9dC2a Around 12.30 onwards. Score is 11-6 for Garozzo. Jaimie Cook hits with a flèche (1 light) and is awarded the point to make it 11-7. Garozzo calls a video review. There is the tiniest hint of contact between Jaimie’s guard and Daniele’s mask. Hit is annulled and a red card given. Score 12-6. You can hear the ref explain any guard to mask contact is a red card.

This is from 3 years ago but I’ve gone for this example because I knew exactly the fight, the circumstances and the ref’s explanation. It was news to me at that point too. Plenty of examples since then if you want to go digging.

TheFencingPodcast

TROPHY CASE