Why is fencing not a major sport in todays world?

Fencing has been one of four sports to have been in every olympics, so why is it such a small community?|||I agree that the delayed gratification required by having to learn a set of skills just to be able to even play does have a negative impact on its appeal. Also, there are image issues since fencing is commonly considered elitist and dangerous (neither of which is true). It is probably safer to fence than play golf and with the support of a club, a beginner can fence competitively with no personal outlay for equipment, but clubs are often difficult to find. Competitive sport fencing in the U.S. is larger than it has ever been, but that means just around 20,000 card carrying athletes in a country of 300 million. While it can be relatively cheap to be a competitor, running competitions require large indoor spaces (like convention centers), are labor and capital equipment intensive affairs that require fairly huge amounts of planning. U.S. fencing can only grow so much before it becomes unwieldy. It also doesn%26#039;t help that the rules are not particularly intuitive and require a good bit of explanation. Overall, it%26#039;s a niche for the obsessed few who are willing to invest their time and money training, learning and traveling in a rewarding ever challenging life-long sport.|||no blood is meant to be drawn lol|||There is a high cost involved in competing. This takes out most of the competition in the world.





That what makes soccer the greatest sport in the world, because it is so simple and needs very little equipment. Any country can play it.|||Fencing is one of those activities that require work to attain proficiency, this prevents people from just jumping in to play.


Think about any martial art and the skills required to %26quot;play%26quot;.


Qualified instruction is hard to find as well. There is no money to be made in fencing instruction as it is primarily a one on one affair initially


I disagree with the %26quot;high cost%26quot; theory. A beginning fencing set up is less than $120.00 (USD) Much less than other contact sports.|||dangerous





like hockey, if you don%26#039;t have the mask and expensive equipment, you might poke an eye out or something