The following videos will take you through about a century of the fundamentals of fencing. While it is true that, at the elite, Olympic leel, much has changed, the basics of fencing remain unchanged over the decades and centuries.
The five videos which follow are all silent. No lengthy, pedantic lectures. They simply offer, in quiet visual precision what works.
The first video is silent by default of technology. It dates from the 1920, before the advent of sound film. The text cards are in French, and this is taught by the French fencing champions of the 1920s... men like Lucien Gaudin and Roger Ducret, among others.
The second film, dating from the 1930s, is taught by one of our first great American fencing masters, Julio Castello.
The final three films come from the great Maestro Giorgio Santelli. As a young man, he fought a duel on behalf of his father's honor, then moved to America and became one of our great Olympic fencing coaches.
If you are interested in see other vintage videos of fencing from decades past, visit my YouTube channel, D'Artagnan's Revenge.