--- title: How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory | TIME description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory visits the Manhattan Fencing Center to get a lesson in what Olympic coach Yury Gelman calls "physical chess" canonical: https://time.com/video/TeZ5hoMc/ og:title: How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory og:description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory visits the Manhattan Fencing Center to get a lesson in what Olympic coach Yury Gelman calls "physical chess" og:url: https://time.com/video/TeZ5hoMc/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TeZ5hoMc/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory twitter:description: TIME reporter Sean Gregory visits the Manhattan Fencing Center to get a lesson in what Olympic coach Yury Gelman calls "physical chess" twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TeZ5hoMc/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory [Watch (HLS stream): How They Train: Fencing with Sean Gregory](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TeZ5hoMc.m3u8) (4:45)  _Published 2012-06-28. TIME reporter Sean Gregory visits the Manhattan Fencing Center to get a lesson in what Olympic coach Yury Gelman calls "physical chess"_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:25 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport](/video/6MqlQjDZ/) ### Climber Kyra Condie Trains TIME's Sean Gregory on New Olympic Sport [How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory](/video/wTK70mH0/) ### How They Train: Synchronized Swimming with Sean Gregory [Blocking the Border Fence in Texas](/video/hsbyOjyV/) ### Blocking the Border Fence in Texas --- ## Transcript I read about fencing when I was five years old in the dictionary. There was a little picture. Two guys kind of jousting. Everyone on the U. S.. Olympic fencing team fell in love with the sport in a different way. I used to watch a lot of" Zorro ,"" Three Musketeers ". Those were like kinda my favorite movie, like the swashbuckling. But they're all headed to one place: the London Olympics. [ SOUND ] Here at the Manhattan Fencing Center in New York City, coach Uriel Ghelman is drilling his team for the Games. It's a completely different sport, than what we see in the movies. It's sometimes called, like, physical chess and I like this name because. Fencers are thinking, and thinking, sometimes, two, three steps ahead. It's very interesting. I'm Sean Gregory, sports writer for Time. [ MUSIC ] I stopped by a recent training session to learn what it takes to become a champion fencer and get a lesson from Olympic medalist Tim Moorhouse. You're gonna hold this in your left hand. This is what's actually gonna plug, plug into the sabre when I give it to you. The first step is to get suited up in electronic scoring gear. It's rigged so the scoring machine can sense a" touch ." Which is just a kind of word for" hit ." And then when we plug into the actual machines, when you connect with your opponent's metallic jacket a light will actually go on that signals that you hit. So think laser tag except you're making direct contact with your opponent. There are three types of fencing disciplines, eppe, foil, and saber. They each have slightly different rules and target areas of the body. So saber is based on the the calvary swords, so the legs are off target, and the idea was kill the rider not the horse, I don't know what happened to the horse but you won't be riding one today. And you're sure there's no way she could uppercut me? Nope. Tim showed me the basic stance. So basically, on guard means right, He showed me how to parry, a movement that deflects the attack. All the movement is along this narrow strip. [ UNKNOWN ] Advance. Good, retreat. [ NOISE ] Finally we got to my favorite part, the [ UNKNOWN ]. Your arm's are gonna go out, and your leg's are gonna lunge out, yeah. Lunge. I asked Tim to fence with me, but he was obviously too scared. So he paired me up with another beginner. How are you? Ready, fence. See your attacking now because she hasn't stopped you, so she's blocking So, now you're gonna need to [ CROSSTALK ]. I need to [ INAUDIBLE ] to go right? Yes. So you block now it's your attack. Okay, now you lunge and [ INAUDIBLE ] so you let you scored the ball. Yes. [ NOISE ] We dueled a bit more. And I got a tiny taste of the extreme exertion it takes to pass. I'm sweating. My, my heart's beating. It's like 100 degrees in this suit. Yeah Is that part of the workout of it, I mean? Fencing is a really Be a difficult workout, when you're fencing, between every point your heart rate's between 180 and 195, so it's similar to a sprinter. Most saber fencing we have very very powerful legs cause we're lunging really deep and then pulling ourselves out of it, it's really important to have fast twitch muscles you want to be able to change directions very fast, so you have to be ready to kind of like, like a cat. Shrek. It's true that you have to have strength and endurance to fence. But Coach Glavin says, those are just two elements of a fencer's success. It [ UNKNOWN ] matter how tough you are, this is the most important part and how quick you can think under the pressure, this is the most important things, very small mistake, you lose the touch. Two mistakes, you lose two touches. And then you lose a bout. And people who goes for Olympics, they must be very disciplined. You can't make mistakes. The U. S. team has to fit in their training between jobs and school. That's a big contrast with European countries that provide government funding so that athletes can train full time. Is advantage in very interesting aspect. It's psychological because those guys, they fencing for money. And they get, get in huge, huge bonuses, especially for Olympics, we don't. And we don't have so much pressure. [ MUSIC ] But make no mistake, there's still pressure. Here at the fencing center, anticipation for London is high. [ MUSIC ] I mean, I've been training very hard for this, probably my whole life. I'm looking forward to the camaraderie. Being humbled at hope, opening ceremonies. Being around some of the great athletes. Doug Marwosniak went to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as an alternate but didn't have the opportunity to compete. And my goal is to go to the Olympics and. Medal. That, that is what I'm working toward. I don't really wanna go and experience it again, I did that in 2008, so I'm ready to do some damage. For Time Video, this is Shawn Griffin. 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