Fencing is a popular and exciting sport that requires quick strategical thinking, precision and skill. However, the importance of proper footwear in fencing is often overlooked, and many fencing equipment brands or competitions don't often emphasis the importance. This makes us really sad to see many entry to medium level fencers don't have this awareness of the potential consequences of not wearing proper shoes to fence; some of the consequences may even end fencer's athletic career. This article will highlight the risks of wearing inappropriate shoes for fencing.
One of the biggest risks of not wearing proper footwear while fencing may lead to sprains, fractures, and long term injury on knees and heels. This is because the lunge position creates approximately 5 to 6 times of your body weight on front foot while you landed, the impact will be passed to your meniscus, many of the fencers I knew who fenced long time, achieved high rank worldwide, had to retire because of meniscus injury, therefore, choosing a right footwear always help. These forces will also act on fencer's front foot heel and heel counter, it will damage the bone and soft tissues on your heel area. Therefore, you need to choose shoes that have strong heel cup to provide support and cushioning and rubber wrapped up at heel counter area.
Agility and flexibility is another focus, during fencing competition, we often require sudden movements and changing directions, without proper footwear, it can be easy to lose your grip and support. This can lead to a fall or serious injuries such as sprains or fractures on ankles, which can put you out of training or competitions for weeks or even months, plus some recovery and retraining period.
Final risk is Action Deformation. Fencers practice day and night on their footwork, to develop the leg muscles to make their footwork control more precise and powerful. As we know, footwork is as important as the handwork, sometime can be more important. However, the footwork action may change along the way without right sense of feedbacks and supports on your feet. Along with the time, all the practice and exercise you developed may actually not fit the scientific way to fence to relish your potential, moreover, the rest of the body actions will start to format in imprecise way, when the action formation is done, usually is hard to change back. This will determine how far can a fencer goes on the league. After all, all the elite level fencers are competing each other in every dimension, wining based on small defects of the opponents.
Octav is committed to design and produce the top class fencing shoes for fencers worldwide, becoming a trusted brand among elite athletes and coaches. We were founded by fencer with 15 years experience, in Brighton, United Kingdom. We tackled durability, comfort, and performance-enhancing features, making sure our brand becomes a top choice for fencers who want to take their game to the next level. We gathered top designers in the U.K. and Germany who were previously at Adidas to create the shoes that balance innovation and aesthetic. We also engaged our research and development process thoroughly with elite fencing athletes in the U.K., France, China, and Bulgaria to align our commitments. If you are interested in our Conquer 2024 edition, you can order from here.
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