En Garde Sabreuse!

Dueling scars and deadly thrusts may be passé in the world of fencing, but a keen mind and lightning reflexes remain de rigueur.

Caltech junior Laura Decker has both, and they have carried her through the recent Western Regional Fencing NCAA Qualifiers to the 2010 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships, which Harvard University will host in Boston March 25–28. At the Regionals, held earlier this month in San Diego, she placed second in the women's sabre competition, becoming the first Institute fencer in five years to earn the coveted NCAA qualification.

Decker, who hails from Bridgewater, New Jersey, has been interested in martial arts of one kind or another since high school, when she studied ninjitsu, which is, she says, "what's left of what the ninja actually did." She received top instruction—one of its masters lived within 40 minutes of Bridgewater.

When she arrived at Caltech, she had no plans to take up fencing, but her freshman roommate was involved with the sport. Decker decided to sign up for fencing class and "got roped into a fencing match after just one day." The first class met on Thursday, and the match took place that Saturday. Decker didn't win, but she did land a few "touches," scoring points by successfully landing the tip of her blade on an opponent's body.

The sport of fencing features three different "weapons"—the épée, foil, and sabre. Decker fought her first match with the heavier thrusting weapon, the épée, but then opted for the sabre, a very different weapon descended from the cutting, slashing cavalry blade. She thus became a sabreuse—the term of choice for a female sabre fencer. 

"The sabre looked like more fun," she says. "I'm a bit of an impatient person, so the rapid movement of sabre fencing looked more interesting."

Rapid movement indeed. In sabre fencing, the entire upper body is a target, and touches can be scored with the edge as well as the tip of the blade. Since it's often easier to attack than defend, sabre matches can be very fast moving.

With the foil or épée, a match is over when five touches are scored or after three minutes, whichever comes first. With the sabre, a match is over after five touches but never lasts three minutes. In sabre fencing, Decker says with a smile, "thirty seconds is a long time."

Decker might never have become a fencer if she hadn't come to Caltech, where, she points out, intercollegiate athletics are far more open than at many other schools. And because, like most students at the Institute, she's in athletics for the fun of it, it helps her keep things in perspective.

"We're the team that sits on the sidelines doing quantum mechanics between bouts, so we don't get very stressed about fencing. Stressed-out fencers," she adds, "tend to lose bouts."

She has actually found that trying to psych herself up for a bout doesn't work particularly well. "Fencing is very mental," she stresses. "You must be in the moment, not thinking about the next touch."

Decker first started training seriously last May, toward the end of her sophomore year. "I thought that if I was going to lose, at least I would look good," she says. Sabre tactics rely heavily on footwork, so she spends a lot of time working on that—it's sort of like practicing dance steps over and over, building up muscle memory. She also cross trains, both lifting weights and running.

Fencing takes a lot of application, she says, and a lot of confidence. "For a long time I thought of myself as a beginner," she recalls, "and winning was a nice surprise. It wasn't until I realized that I knew how to fence, that I knew what I was doing on the strip, that I started beating people I never expected to beat." Again she emphasizes how important it is not to overthink. That's the shortcut to losing focus, to taking yourself out of the moment.

Interestingly, she finds that fencing helps her with her studies in that she has to get her work done in a timely manner. "I have to get this set done because I have to be in Chicago this weekend."

That will be less of a factor this time around, since the NCAA championships coincide with spring break. Still, she is facing a rigorous trip, competing in not one but two championships.

Her first stop will be the NCAA tourney in Boston, and after that she flies to Dallas for a North American Cup tournament, part of a series organized by the U.S. Fencing Association. On March 28, she will return to Caltech—and the start of third term.

Decker is seeded last in the NCAA championships but is happy having no expectations. She will be facing off against the fencing world's crème de la crème, including Olympic competitors and top foreign fencers who are studying in the United States. She's comfortable with that too.

"I fence better against good fencers," she says. "They react the way they're supposed to. If you feint"—mount a deceptive attack to trick your opponent—"you know how they'll respond."

One of her NCAA competitors will be a 20-year-old who at one time held all five world championship titles simultaneously. Decker faced her at a Northwestern University tournament. "She was fun," Decker says. "She really knew what she was doing." Decker lost, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hopes for a rematch.

Fencing has given her a lot of memorable experiences, her current favorite being a victory at a big local meet. She was fencing a DE, or direct elimination, bout. Instead of being over after five touches, a DE continues for 15, but if you lose you're out of the meet entirely

She was facing an opponent she knew she should be able to beat, but found herself down 10 to 14. Then she got a touch, and her opponent "started freaking." Lost her focus, Decker says.

"I knew what I had to do, and what I did worked," she says. "It was a cool moment—the best feeling in the world."

Knowing what to do and seeing it work—sounds like another Caltech moment. A chemistry major who, perhaps not surprisingly, loves medieval history and is tempted by the history option, Laura Decker expects many more such moments before she hangs up her sword.