Real Fencing w/ Foam Sabres (Part 1)

This is part of a series of three clips filmed of an interesting bout fenced between myself and one of my instructors at the Augusta chapter of the Loyal Order of the Sword on the morning of 01/20/2018.

I own several foam latex LARP military sabres crafted by the British company Artyfakes. I use them when I cosplay Captain Hikaru Sulu from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" to play up the character's hobby of fencing.

Of course, LARP weapons aren't anything like the real thing. They're only about 1/6 the weight of a steel gymnasium sabre that we use in military sabre training. But their centers of balance are situated at the right spots, so I couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to fence with them.

I brought a Captain's Sabre (brass hilt, thin blade) and Basic Sabre (steel-grey hilt, thick blade) to fencing class this morning and my instructor obliged my offer of a bout. The super light weight definitely feels a bit strange compared to the steel and synthetic blades we're used to, but yes, you can definitely fence with these things if you know what you're doing.