Fencing Sabre from 1936 Olympics

Epee is about as "realistic" as any other modern fencing weapon. The blades are way too light and the technique relies too heavily on wrist hits, flicks, and "I hit you 1/2 second before you hit me" to be anything close to historic swordplay. You want realistic swordfighting, go find your local WMA, SCA, HEMA, or ARMA branch. Modern fencing is great, but in no way is it "supposed to be like the duelling sword of the past".

of course, you need to do more research of fencing history before posting... (This is one fencing myth that needs to die!) As mentioned above, Italian dueling sabres were meant specifically for non-mounted duels. The Hungarians also dueled sabres on foot in the 17th century (google for "hungarian sabre manuscript", first link). However, modern sabre's rules are more based on 18th century singlestick than anything else, which itself comes from the practice of backsword and dueling sabres.

Is this real fencing? They are damn fast!

Of course it is real. There are three types of fencing-this one happens to be saber.

So who won?

The Hungarian.

Woah! This is so old! It's amazing to see how much the weapon has changed over time! I think many people who don't fence expect this kind of fencing.

by the way it does actually takes a lot of skill to fence nowadays...its just barely to see for observers which are not close to fencing

the rules have changed...nowadays the time span where both could score is much shorter, so its more effective to score by a fast action. if you fidget like that its really easy for the enemy to score by a "tempo"

does anyone teach fencing like this anymore i would love to learn it