Protection... you know...down there
This ought to be Sara's entry, but she's reinventing herself right now so I will take the reins and credit her often.
The USFA rulebook mentions plastic male protection as highly suggested but not manditory, the reason is that the groin isn't really prime target realestate in any of the fencing weapons. In saber, it is off target completely. The main reason however is that the athletic cup seems to have been designed a hundred years ago, by someone who wasn't even an engineer. Some sports might "require" them but few beyond local youth sport groups even try to enforce it. (With mixed results.). The rule of thumb in fencing is that guys won't wear it until they get hit there one good time, after that they will be true believers. I have been hit there before, but never with force to convert me. I wore a cup in high school football, and let me just tell you, I wasn't running after anything. Pick up a car, yes, push a tree down yes, jog to the locker room, not a chance.
While sitting in Rock Ola the other day waiting for food, I was casually watching a tv show on one of the sports networks. The entire show seem to revolve around football players getting wacked in the nards, and interviews with coaches and players. Coaches would see a player down and think, "Uh oh, is it his hip? Is it his knee?" "What? Its only his nuts? Ok, good I was worried there for a minute." The players interviewed all said that they didn't wear them because they were uncomfortable, some even offered that their speed was cut by having one on. I can believe it. Contrary to popular belief (mostly women's) the stigma against wearing cups has nothing to do with mans ability or inability to "fill it", it has to do with the fact that a it is hard to walk around with a big piece of plastic crammed between your thighs. (You'd think those women would know that already.) If the guy has fat thighs, the cup is cutting into the fat, if the guy has muscular thighs the cup is cutting into the muscle. If the guy has no thighs at all, he's probably not involved in a sport that warrents cup use.
So I am having this exact rant with Sara who is listening patiently and I can tell from the look on her face she is giving it careful thought and wise consideration. Finally I shut up, and she speaks. What came from her mouth was so wise and true that it sounded like the voice of an angel. Allow me to share her wisdom.
Her solution was this. The current cup is designed to fit into underwear and fit tightly to your body, thus its discomfort. The fencing jacket instead of being strait like any normal jacket, comes down in a triangle in the front, the point of which is actually in your crotch. A strap is sewin to this point and it connects to two D-rings in the back creating a pretty good barrier such that a blade won't hit your thigh and slide up under your jacket and into unprotected space. This being the case, why not sew a pocket onto the inside of the jacket at the point of the triangle for a cup to slide into. It would offer up all the protection but would not impede movement. She even suggested redesigning the cup so that instead of resembling an oxygen mask it would be a concave oval more like a bannana split dish. I don't know who's sick idea it was it make it oxygen masked shaped to begin with, but he was probably a real dickhead. (excuse my language, but it was necessary for comic effect)
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Nobel Piece prize worthy infact! (sorry, couldn't resist)
