This study employed a cross-sectional design using an anonymous online survey. Given the survey targeted a specific fencing community, it was initially developed by the primary researchers in English but was administered in the participants’ native language, to ensure clarity and accurate expression of intent. A 10-person expert panel assisted in piloting, and provided feedback from which the survey was refined and adjusted to ensure appropriate length, structure, and clarity of questioning, prior to the final distribution. Only participants who voluntarily agreed to participate and provided informed consent were included. The project was conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and received ethical approval from Scientific Research Ethics Committee of Shanghai University of Sport (No. 102772023RT058).

The study used purposeful sampling to provide opportunity to include Chinese national or international level [i.e., Tier 3–5 (McKay et al., 2021)] fencing athletes across nationwide training centers and camps. Participants consisted of active fencers, as well as retired fencers with equivalent athletic levels who concurrently held team coaching, assistant, or management roles. Referees were excluded from the analysis. Eligible participants were required to be over 18 years old and in good physical and mental health determined by the absence of current injury and medication. Participants were encouraged to respond the survey individually in a neutral emotional and cognitive state.

The survey was administrated via the Chinese Sojump online platform¹ and was accessible on participants personal electronic devices through a sharable digital link. For inclusion of response in the data set, respondents’ informed consent and completion of all survey questions were required. The conditional formatting applied in the online system prohibited next-page navigation, skipping questions, or background reading to encourage quality completion that was representative of the participants’ current perception. Completion time and platform identifier code were automatically recorded for validity check. The online link to the survey was distributed by an expert fencing panel, Chinese Fencing Association, and Fencing Academy of China.

Given the exploratory nature of the bespoke, cross-sectional survey, and the targeted high-level fencer’s distinct feelings might fluctuate over time due to the changing environment and state, only content validity was considered (Anyadike-Danes et al., 2023). The theoretical framework for defining the workload factors contributing to the mental fatigue inducement in fencing was grounded on the concepts of internal/external load and fatigue (Halson, 2014). The decomposition of crucial moments in fencing bouts, considered as potential contributors to mental fatigue from a temporal perspective, was supported by time-motion analyses in foil, sabre (Aquili et al., 2013), and epee (Yang et al., 2022). The motion schemes of fencing experts also provided important reference.

The three researchers (CB, SR, BR), with both mental fatigue and sports domain expertise, designed the general survey constructs and logic in English. A bilingual researcher (CB) then translated the survey into Chinese on the platform and assembled an expert panel (n = 10) for two rounds of piloting and refinement. The panel included two coaches, one administrator, and three active fencers from the national fencing academy with undergraduate or above education level, one mentor from collegiate fencing teaching group, one performance director of the national fencing team, one leading lecturer of the national Foil coaching courses, and one sports science professor. They first reviewed and modified the draft independently, checked the clarity and the intention of every item, and evaluated content including fencing specificity. The pilot feedback was compiled and incorporated into a revised version of the survey. To ensure the revisions provided the desired clarity, an online meeting was held between pilot members and the lead author to resolve differing suggestions and reach unanimous approval through a public review and feedback process. This version was then finalized and activated for distribution.

The survey was organized into five sections, presented across five pages: an initial page for informed consent, a page outlining the background of the mental fatigue concept in sports, and three pages containing 17 questions. The original survey has been uploaded as a Supplementary Material. The response formats included single-select, multi-select, one open-ended answer, and visual analog scale (VAS) sliding matrixes. The order of options within the multiple-select and the VAS matrix were presented in a randomized manner, as allocated by the platform’s conditional logic. The survey structure covered several key areas: Basic information (identity, fencing experience); Perceptions of mental fatigue (general attitude toward mental fatigue, retrospective self-reported perception of mental fatigue (MVAS) in different fencing contexts, descriptions of mental fatigue in fencing, and synergistic influence factors on mental fatigue); and Understanding the mental fatigue inducement process and contributors (examining the impact of five general workload factors - physical, technical, tactical, psychological, and environmental loads in the training and competition contexts; and six critical combat moments - posture preparation, step movement, timing decision-making, attack, defense, and riposte execution in fencing bouts). Participants responded to the multiple contributors via presentation of a VAS matrix, with each rated by sliding each individual VAS to indicate its relative contribution.

All original answers were exported from the platform in an Excel (Version 16.71, Microsoft, Redmond, U.S.) file. The completion duration and unique participant identifier was screened for potential duplication. All complete responses were included in the data corpus for analysis. Descriptive analyses were conducted in Excel. The mean with standard deviation (± SD) was presented for quantitative variables, while the response percentage (%) among all valid responses was reported for single- or multi-select items. The median value (i.e., 50 AU) of the digital VAS full scale range was defined as the cut-off for moderate-level fatigue perception (Nordin et al., 2016) when interpreting the retrospective MVAS results.

Further analysis was conducted in SPSS (Version 25, IBM, Chicago, U.S.). The Kolmogorov–Smirnov normality test was run to check and confirmed normal distributions for the MVAS outcomes. The MVAS were compared across contexts by paired t-test. Cohen’s d effect size was calculated in case of significant difference between two contexts, with conventional thresholds applied: 0.20 (small), 0.50 (medium), and 0.80 (large). The perceived contribution data from one VAS matrix, which included five different workload factors during training, five workload factors during competition, and six combat moments in fencing bouts, were normalized to a total of 100%. In cases where some contribution rates followed a non-normal distribution, the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were applied to compare all contributors within the matrix and between the different contexts (i.e., training and competition). The significance level was set at p < 0.05 (two-tailed).

NVivo (Version 12, Lumivero, Denver, U.S.) software was used to code the original texts generated from the open-ended descriptions of mental fatigue in fencing. The software was also utilized to analyze and connect the codes to establish higher themes, define and name themes, and interpret the answers, which followed the thematic analysis guidelines (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Due to the bilingual context, the primary codes were extracted in Chinese for better understanding and more accurate translation by the lead researcher (CB). Following subsequent translation to English the summarization and construction of concepts, cross-checking of the translated codes, and allocation to themes, was undertaken by two researchers independently (CB and SR). Following this, the obtained outcomes were translated back into Chinese for a final inspection of alignment with the original responses in the participants’ native language. The back-and-forth translations process followed Weiler et al. (2024) in the bilingual environment.

Responders were female (37.0%) and male (63.0%) adult fencing athletes or team practitioners with the Tier 3–5 profiles across all three disciplines. As shown in the Table 1, the majority were 18–25-year-old (91.3%), Tier 3 (60.9%) active fencers (76.1%). Thirty-four had Tier 4 profiles, and two belonged to Tier 5.

Regarding the attitudes toward the mental fatigue, more than half (57.6%) of fencers indicated difficulty in consistently distinguishing between mental and physical fatigue after fencing practice. In addition to the provided mental fatigue definition, developed from perceptions across other sports, 62 respondents contributed additional phrases to describe mental fatigue in fencing. Twenty-three (37.1%) respondents directly stated experience of the above-normal fatigue. They highlighted that mental fatigue happened in the match-related contexts. The mental fatigue in fencing was generally associated with negative emotional, psychomotor, and bodily responses (see Table 2). It was also perceived to cause subsequent sleep disturbance.

Based on previous fencing experience, participants recalled and reported the MVAS with 47.6 ± 18.7 AU in a typical comprehensive training session, with 49.2 ± 21.7 AU in the pool stage on an official match day with equivalent opponents, while the perception rated 57.6 ± 21.0 AU in the direct elimination stage was significantly higher than in the pool stage (t = 4.14, Cohen’s d = 0.39, p < 0.001). All fencers acknowledged the negative effects of mental fatigue on performance and health. They identified sleep quality (78.3%), match environment (50.0%), preparation duration (43.5%), diet (41.3%), and emotion (38.0%) might increase mental fatigue alongside fencing practice, followed by other factors such as interpersonal relationships (31.5%), non-fencing work (29.4%), academic requirements (23.9%), family ties (21.7%), transportation (12.0%), and media (6.5%). A high number of participants (84.8%) indicated that the integration of mental fatigue targeted training could also induce positive effects on fencing performance.

From the perspective of different workload factors that might contribute to the overall mental fatigue after fencing activities, significant differences between training and competition contexts were only observed in the tactical factor (see Figure 1A, 20.0% in training vs. 21.8% in competition, p = 0.01), while other factors showed no significant changes (physical, p = 0.07; technical, p = 0.77; psychological, p = 0.84; environmental, p = 0.54).

From the perspective of the combat execution moments of the fencing bouts in Figure 1B, respondents assessed the contributions of each moment in inducing the overall mental fatigue, with rates indicating that the accumulative moments of timing decision-making and attack execution (21.6% vs. 19.6%, p = 0.22) have the greatest contribution.

Respondents demonstrated high proficiency with national or international experience, representing Tiers 3–5 (McKay et al., 2021) of the sport. The active junior (18–20 years) and senior (> 20 years) fencers aligned with the relatively young age focus in fencing research (Harmer, 2019). The female/male distribution of respondents was consistent with another survey conducted on the British fencing community, with a similar 40% being female (Morris et al., 2022). The relatively balanced distribution enhances the generalization of this survey’s findings. Nevertheless, no evidence of discipline- and gender-specific differences was found by monitoring subjective fatigue and mental effort through simulated combats in elite fencing (Varesco et al., 2023). These findings supported analysis and interpretation of the survey from a unified perspective of the elite fencing population including current and recently retired athletes.

This study introduced novel perspectives on the mental fatigue inducement process, comparing general workload factors and combat moments that fencers rated to contribute to overall perception of mental fatigue. Significantly higher tactical loads accounted for the elevated MVAS post-competition compared to post-training, indicated by retrospective self-reports. The accumulative execution of timing-related decision-making, particularly in attacks, was rated as the most effortful moment that induced mental fatigue during the match.

Fencing is inherently a more offensive activity, in which a single attack can be initiated and completed within a very short time, often requiring immediate and decisive actions (Aquili et al., 2013). Fencers must continuously adapt their tactical strategies, execute precise techniques rapidly, and manage psychological load under competitive pressure (Gutiérrez-Davila et al., 2019; Doron and Martinent, 2021). Although movement speed is important, a key ability is to recognize the best time for starting an attack in response to the opponent’s actions (Roi and Bianchedi, 2008). This may explain the higher contribution of tactical loads to mental fatigue in the one-on-one competitive context. Adjustments to the tactical components of in-season training should be considered, along with the implementation of strategies to manage mental fatigue following intensive tactical sessions in the pre-competition period.

In fencing, cognitive skills such as visual–spatial attention, discrimination, and decision-making are essential to score (Varesco et al., 2024). Fencers perceived that the accumulative moments of timing decision-making contributed most to the mental fatigue inducement. Effective decision-making in fencing involves the allocation of cognitive resources to internal or external stimuli, the rapid analysis of the opponent’s subtle cues from body language (e.g., arm and leg span), previous actions, distance, and sword information (Turner et al., 2017), predicting and selecting appropriate responses, all of which demand substantial mental loads (Varesco et al., 2023). Based on these findings, future studies could design and test representative mental fatigue-inducing tasks and scenario-based simulations for fencing-specific research and training practice with high ecological validity.

The current survey showed practical value for future research and practice by capturing direct perceptions and understanding of the mental fatigue inducement from representative fencing athletes and practitioners. However, the cross-sectional and exploratory approach to the study limits the inferred causality between mental fatigue and fencing performance aspects. The participant group in this survey is representative of current and recently retired Chinese (inter)national-level fencing athletes, accordingly caution should be taken in extending or generalizing findings beyond this population.

This study forms a strong foundation for research and practice on mental fatigue in fencing sports. Future studies should include a diverse sample of fencers and incorporate long-term multifactor observations to validate and extend the current findings, for example by capturing real-time behavioral and neurophysiological data. Longitudinally tracking over different phases of training and matches could provide further evidence on the reported contextual difference and temporal/accumulative profiles of fencing-specific mental fatigue. Practitioners should place greater awareness on understanding the mental states of fencers, particularly emphasizing the role of individual health factors, pre-competition preparation quality, and the tactical component in training to mitigate mental fatigue and enhance performance. Additionally, to better understand the contributors to mental fatigue, it is important to examine how specific in-game scenarios, such as offensive situations and timing-related decision-making tasks in fencing bouts, impact performance when applied to deliberately induce mental fatigue. This will further support mental fatigue studies with greater ecological validity and will enhance mental fatigue-based training and management in practical settings.