I’ve been studying CMA for almost 5 years, and I started fencing this past January—I’m lovin’ em both, and plan to continue with both, so I’ll give you my perspective. First, if you think Chinese swordsmanship is vastly superior, and that fencing has shallow sword techniques and strategies, then you really should attend a fencing class, and put yourself to the test against a good fencer. That’s what I did.
In Taiji, I’ve mostly studied saber, and just a tiny bit of sword. In my honest opinion, if you were to put a real saber in the hand of your average Taiji guy with 2 yrs. saber experience, and you put a real rapier in the hand of the average fencer with 2 or 3 yrs experience, and had them fight, IMO the fencer would win about 95% of the time. When you start talking about 10 yrs experience, and the Taiji guy has done a LOT more sparring, then the skill levels would equal out, and probably the Taiji guy would be at an advantage because of all the supplemental things he’s learned. I don’t think that either my Taiji or fencing teacher would disagree with that.
Fencing is a great cardiovascular workout—we do about 20 minutes of intense conditioning/footwork drills per class without weapons, and we even do “wall sits”—sort of where you sit in a horse stance with your back against the wall. I do feel that the full speed bouting against a resisting opponent is necessary to really get good at swordfighting, and this is really stressed a lot in fencing.
From my experience, I’ve found a number of similarities between the two—both stress keeping the body really relaxed, both stress keeping the knees slightly bent to maintain a low, stable center of gravity, and keeping your height constant and not bouncing up and down. In fencing you control the weapon primarily with your thumb and forefinger, and you try to develop the “sentiment du fer”—a real sensitivity and subtle control. You start out learning a lot of the parrying techniques in wider circles, and as you advance you try to make the circles smaller and all your movements more subtle. The body mechanics of the fencing lunge are very similar to the “press” from Taiji.
Of course, there’s a lot of differences, too. The foil and epee are both stabbing weapons—the point is the only way to inflict damage. This means there’s a different arsenal of offensive techniques than you would find in CMA. Also, the sporting aspect of fencing means that some of the stuff is martially unrealistic----lighter weapons, limited target areas, techniques that score points but would not be lethal in a real fight, rules such as “right of way”, where only the attacker can score a point even if both hit, etc. CMAs retain more martially realistic techniques, and of course there’s a lot more depth to the additional aspects of the art—barehand techniques, qigong, meditation, health, etc.
One important thing I got from my Taiji teacher is the ol’ “empty your cup” philosophy----I went into fencing with the attitude that I didn’t know anything about swordfighting, and that’s been useful. I try to notice differences and similarities between them, and I’m sure useful things that I learn in one may sometimes come out in the other, but for the most part I try to focus on what my teacher is telling me in each art. Personally, I’ve found them more mutually supportive rather than detrimental to my swordsmanship—you just have to remember that they’re different arts with a different focus. I love them both.
