New 'SwordSeat' is making fencing more inclusive and accessible

Wheelchair fencing - an adaptive form of fencing that does exactly what it says on the tin, where participants are sat and secured into tethered down wheelchairs in which to play their bouts. While this does open up the sport for more disabled people or those with long term health conditions to participate where the stood version of fencing was less suited, a huge barrier still remained where the chairs and rigs required for clubs to offer this totalled over £15,000 and only a handful of the UK’s 400+ fencing clubs have wheelchair fencing rigs

The answer, a flat pack style wooden frame called the 'SwordSeat' using just £150 worth of plywood!

This low cost solution (which can be built using minimal tools and materials) aims to make wheelchair fencing available to more clubs and a broader demographic of participants thanks to the costs barriers being significantly reduced. 

Funded through generous donations from the British Fencing Charity, on behalf of British Fencing, and directed by Rick Rodgers, Dr. Ed Elias, the SwordSeat was designed and developed by engineers at the University of Bath. The SwordSeat is a pair of chairs constructed from a simple six-piece slot together design, that means it can be easilly assembled by participants or clubs and correctly position competitors for seating fencing combat.

You can see the SwordSeat in action with April 2025's Club of the Month Award winners Sunnah Sports in Bradford here.

British Fencing Inclusion Officer (Disability) Rick Rodgers, who initiated the project, added:

“The SwordSeat is a game changer. It’s really going to open up the grassroots and give us a much larger pool of participants to enjoy this incredible activity and potentially become future Paralympic athletes."

“Reducing the equipment cost by more than 90% makes it roughly the price of a fencing mask or jacket: things that clubs loan to new fencers. It’ll save participants who need to fence sitting down from spending thousands of pounds on a new wheelchair before they even know if they like the sport."

“The SwordSeat means that BF now has an end-to-end offer for people looking to try the sport, with support from the grassroots up to elite level. We hope to see a pair of SwordSeats not only in every club in the country, but also being used in schools and a range of places where getting access to the wheelchairs and equipment has until now been impossible due to the price tag.”

Plans for the seat are now available online at the British Fencing website here.