The Point: Weapons On and Off the Fencing Strip

This is not a fencing book per se. That is, it will not give you line drawings showing the proper execution of parry riposte in quarte. Nor will it give you insight in world champions, tactical strategy, or teach you the unbeatable secret thrust of legend.

Instead, it is a book about language, stories, and uses fencing as a vehicle to highlight meaning and get to “The Point” of what is important. Fencing becomes a metaphor for how we communicate. The classic duel is not only honour and bravery, but history and a shrewd pragmatic tool. He addresses if the pen is indeed mightier than the sword and the weapons wielded by history’s most fascinating characters. And these “weapons” will include the gavel, multi-million dollar budgets, and Roberts Rules of Order just to name a few.

Perhaps one of the great things about the book is that will appeal to coaches. On the very first page, Brus challenges us with a coach confronting a fencer and asking “What’s the Point?” This becomes the thesis for the book and the author will constantly refer back to this central idea in subsequent chapters. He frequently quotes and uses popular fencing films and books such as The Three Musketeers, The Duelists, Cyrano de Bergerac, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and many others. As many members of the fencing community are familiar with these examples, it allows for wonderful imagery that helps us see them from a different point of view. While we are enamored with the cut and thrust of Hollywood, there are often truths that sometimes go unnoticed. But it always seems to cycle back to this interaction between the fencer and coach. In this respect, we get to see how all of history’s fencing literature shades and influences our opinion and makes us appreciate the subtle but sharp blade of language.

~ The Swordmaster
USFCA magazine
Summer 2026