On day 1 of the Pan American Fencing Championships, US Fencers Jason Rogers (MS) and Courtney Hurley (WE) won gold in their respective competitions. Even though Jason Rogers was beat out by Daryl Homer for the US National Team selected to compete at the FIE World Championships, Rogers had already qualified for the Pan American Championships the month prior.
Andy Ma has been named the new head coach for the University of Pennsylvania's fencing teams, replacing the retired David Micahnik. Ma comes to UPenn from the Fencing Academy of South Jersey in Cherry Hill where he has been President and head coach for the last 15 years.
Mariel Zagunis defended home turf and took home her 4th world cup victory of the season, solidifying her position at the top of the points standings heading into regional competition later in the month.
Sam Stevenson's article, Fighting Fit-The Exciting Sport of Fencing, begins with a brief look at the long history surrounding fencing, explaining the origins of its initial appearance in Europe to its progression as a modern sport with unexpected ties to Hollywood celebrities like Will Smith and Keira Knightly, and popular films like The Mask of Zorro.
This foil lesson is a must see. This video is provided by Rolando Balboa and was taken at the foil coaching clinic in April. Gia Kvaratshelia is the Varisty Foil Coach at the University of Notre Dame. This is a 10 minute warm-up portion of a two hour presentation he made for advanced foil coaches on modern foil techniques and training methods.
The lesson starts out with a warm-up that focuses on hitting with extension from every angle within extension distance. The warm-up develops creativity in the fencer since the "problem" being solved is how to hit within the confined space with the current lockout timing.
Dr. John Heil, working in conjunction with Fencing.Net, will be putting on a series of Sport Psychology Seminars/Workshops during the first few days of the 2009 Summer Nationals.
We discuss one of the aspects: Losing and Regaining focus in todays blog post.
