A.h.Challenge. Make fencing a profesional sport.

How could you start a fencing craze in the u.s.?
Errol Flynn focuses on his other blade skills?
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Limited to just sport fencing or would other styles be okay? Classical or academic fencing, or something similar, would probably be more likely to do better
 
Anyone watch extreme fighting or whatever they call it...take the "button" off the point and you might get a rise out of the jaded asshole segment of the population...
 
Anyone watch extreme fighting or whatever they call it...take the "button" off the point and you might get a rise out of the jaded asshole segment of the population...
That's along the lines of what I was thinking with my post above.

Let's say that some Americans stationed in post-war Germany get intetested in the academic fencing fraternities. The military frowns on it, and by trying to ban it, makes it more popular (forbidden fruit). It catches on and the GIs bring home this crazy German game.

The increased intetest becomes a broader interst in historical swordplay and people start looking into HEMA much earlier - 1960s vs 1990s. Unarmed MMA develops in the early 80s as per OTL.

Sometime in the early/mid 80s, someone makes a film that really focuses on HEMA seriously - think Ridley Scott's The Duellists, but even better - making it more broadly popular. Somebody rides that wave by mixing HEMA fencing and MMA, a la the way the Russians have with HMB in M-1 Medieval.
 
I don't really see how the needlessly bloody academic fencing would be any more popular than modern sport fencing.

A number of things IMO hold back fencing as a popular sport. One is that fencers wear near identical kit that hides their faces. That makes it hard to identify and get attached to individual fighters. Fencing is also frickin' expensive if you want your own kit. Finally, half the time Olympic fencing is a chaotic clusterfuck over in seconds that would degenerate into an exercise in murder-suicide when fighting with sharp swords. It's just a teensy bit difficult to take two people doing what amounts to jousting with car antennae seriously.
 

This might be the closest thing, and that's mostly a Russian thing. Maybe turn it into some sort of team sport?
 
How could you start a fencing craze in the u.s.?

I'm not sure you could have it be 'a craze' while it's still fencing in its current form.

What you COULD theoretically have is "Armed Ultimate Fighting Championships" (AUFC). Fighters could then use a variety of dull, light, padded weapons to beat each other into submission. The weapons would essentially be like weight classes and fighters would wear some light armor appropriate to the weapon class.

In the fencing class, fighters would use foils with no points and padded side and would wear only light armor, light helmets, and clear face plates. In battle axe class, they'd have much heavier armor and more enclosed helmets.
 

Puzzle

Donor
Fencing isn't much fun to watch, as an untrained observer it just looks like spastic twitching and a random result. When most people think of swordfights they think of Star Wars or pirate movies, big dramatic swings and spinning. Before there's protest over how that's not at all how sword fights work, a century of film making shows that's that what people like to see. If you can somehow get fencing to be more entertaining it could take off.
 
A more HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) type approach combined with a canny entrepreneur or local TV station could make it happen. Professional wrestling back in the 60's was quite different than today, with mostly local stations carrying it. ID'ing participants is no big deal, that's what heraldry was for anyhow. Symbols/numbers on shields or tunics solves it nicely. Fencing isn't popular today because it is so ARTIFICIAL. Historical fencing OTOH was done with actual weapons or drill weapons to approximate them, and done as a martial art, and it isn't nearly as boring or unrealistic.
 
A more HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) type approach combined with a canny entrepreneur or local TV station could make it happen. Professional wrestling back in the 60's was quite different than today, with mostly local stations carrying it. ID'ing participants is no big deal, that's what heraldry was for anyhow. Symbols/numbers on shields or tunics solves it nicely. Fencing isn't popular today because it is so ARTIFICIAL. Historical fencing OTOH was done with actual weapons or drill weapons to approximate them, and done as a martial art, and it isn't nearly as boring or unrealistic.
Exactly. The trick (unless you want something more future and less alt-hist) is kickstarting HEMA earlier, like I did above.
 
Fencing is also frickin' expensive if you want your own kit.
Per the Leon-Paul website... FIE level (i.e. national and international competition level gear) starter kit is around US$1000. Add another could of hundred for the spare weapons and blades you need for serious competition.

Sure, that isn't cheap but it's not horribly expensive in comparison to the gear you need for serious level Cricket (a good quality bat set you back several hundered dollar); Baseball (ditto); Murder-On-Ice Ice Hockey (sticks don't seem too expensive but all the protective gear...); Time Out Brain Damage Hand Egg American Football (near to dress up as a small tank... and that's before factoring the cost in lost brain cells) or horse riding.
 

Puzzle

Donor
Sure, that isn't cheap but it's not horribly expensive in comparison to the gear you need for serious level Cricket (a good quality bat set you back several hundered dollar); Baseball (ditto); Murder-On-Ice Ice Hockey (sticks don't seem too expensive but all the protective gear...); Time Out Brain Damage Hand Egg American Football (near to dress up as a small tank... and that's before factoring the cost in lost brain cells) or horse riding
As a baseball amateur you don't need a several hundred dollar bat at all. Ice Hockey is stupidly expensive, no argument there, but schools pay for football pads and helmets. A thousand dollars per athlete is prohibitive for public schools.
 
You don't have to get top shelf gear to start. If your an individual, you can get it from Ebay. If your an educational institution your going to pay more for it, but it will have a relatively long life. A lot of swordplay and combat is learning the moves without contact. There will be a long interval of time from starting to when you actually start swinging at someone, your gear is going to be very basic because its all you will need.
 

Puzzle

Donor
There will be a long interval of time from starting to when you actually start swinging at someone
That's a downside in itself. In the most popular sports, soccer, basketball, etc. you can just jump right in with fairly simple instructions. If you need expensive equipment and extensive practice, which I have no idea if it's true or not as a non-fencer, it will be hard to get it to be mass market.
 
Its no more difficult than HS wrestling IMO. I've done both, and competitive shooting. As with all martial arts, this is one for individuals, more so than teams.
 
Per the Leon-Paul website... FIE level (i.e. national and international competition level gear) starter kit is around US$1000. Add another could of hundred for the spare weapons and blades you need for serious competition.

Sure, that isn't cheap but it's not horribly expensive in comparison to the gear you need for serious level Cricket (a good quality bat set you back several hundered dollar); Baseball (ditto); Murder-On-Ice Ice Hockey (sticks don't seem too expensive but all the protective gear...); Time Out Brain Damage Hand Egg American Football (near to dress up as a small tank... and that's before factoring the cost in lost brain cells) or horse riding.
Yeah, that's not starting kit, but rather as close to professional gear as you'll get OTL. A decent starter kit runs ~US$100-150. Varies a bit for HEMA fencing, but in a TL where HEMA's more popular, prices will come down.

And note that there have been a couple of attempts at professional fencing leagues in the US - in the late '90s and last year. In both cases, it was more poor organization and bad business decisions that caused the failures.
 
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