Any good places to learn fencing near Chicago?

[eaglepup]

Hi,

I'm considering learning fencing, and was wondering if anybody could reccomend some place to learn it in Illanois. I would appreciate any help I can get.

--eaglepup

[scarlet_woman156k]

I looked at your profile, and it says you live in Elmhurst. The Illinois Fencers Club in Mount Prospect or the Oak Brook Fencing Club would be nearest to you. I know quite a few of the IFC club members, and they are all pretty swell. Also, both clubs are reasonably priced.

There is also the Chicago Fencing Club, which would be quite the drive for you. And there is also Fencing 2000, which is downtown and can get expensive.

Look on this site at the "clubs" link and you can get contact information.

scarlet.

[Matt_Bailey]

Try the Chicago Swordplay Guild.
www.chicagoswordplayguild.com

[Fencing Angel]

goto the USFA site and click on link where can i fence. from there you will get a map all the states. click on the one you want. and it should give you a list of regestered clubs in that state. the address is www.USFA.org make sure it's .org otherwise you get some other site.

[Fencing Angel]

forgot one step. there is a level above: where can i fence. new to fencing?
sorry

[neevel]

The character of the clubs will also determine what would work best for you.

Fencing 2000 is the strongest competitive club in the Chicago area with a very solid coaching staff (esp. Bakhyt Abdikulov for foil and fmr. World Champ. Boris Lukomski for epee). If you become serious about fencing competitively (particularly with an eye towards the national level), you'll likely find that it'll be worth the drive and expense.

IFC has some pretty good people, and would a more relaxed atmosphere than F2K, oriented more towards local/regional competition. CFC also has more of a local competitive focus.

If you've got an interest in historical European swordsmanship (different animal from modern competitive fencing), check out Chicago Swordplay Guild.

-Dave

[fred]

Oak Brook would be closest for you. There is also a club in Naperville. Both are affiliated with their respective Park Districts, so you could check there.

I happen to be an IFC member, and took our beginner class. I liked it so much I now regularly pad out local competition pools for better fencers needing a better seeding We also run our class via the local park district, in this case Mt. Prospect.

Here's IFC's website:
http://www.totheescrime.org/ifc/index.html

If you are just looking to see what it's about, I suggest you go with whatever is most convenient for you. Any of the mentioned clubs have competent beginning-intermediate coaching (and IFC has some strong epee and sabre coaching if you get more serious. In foil, I'd have to agree F2K is the place to go.)

[eaglepup]

Hi,

Thanks everybody for your reply. I'll definentally have to start at one of those places. They all look like good places to learn, now I just need to make a decision about which one to start at. ^_^

--eaglepup