You can?t learn to fence from a book, but you can learn significant things about fencing. Written for the average American fencer, this 271-page text has gotten "must buy" reviews from the British and Dutch fencing federations as well as by current president of the American Fencing Coaches Association (the USFA does not review fencing texts).

The main part of the text is a highly illustrated encyclopedia of all the moves used in foil fencing, which includes the theories behind the moves and positions, and detailed explanations of what goes wrong when trying to learn them. Just the section on stance, advance, retreat, lunge, and recovery types take over thirty detailed pages.

Included are sections on history, pedagogy, tactics, directing, repair (Dr. Volkmann?s celebrated repair manual is one of the sections), and the plans for a fencing dummy.