What age did you start fencing?

[Sciurus-Rex]

I remember from before the invention of "swords." We used sticks, when we could find them. And rocks to keep score -- and to settle ties: "What hand am I holding the rock in?" <WHACK!> "Correct; left wins."

Ah, those were the days.

[Point_Left]

Good choice. No-one has ever been drowned on the strip.

I think I've come close to drowning in sweat on a few very warm days...

[Elbethil]

I was fifteen, a bit over a year ago.

Anyway, I'm wondering, what do "U-10, U-12, U-14, Cadet and Junior" mean, exactly?

[Mr Epee]

Noticed a number of new user names lately, so I'm bumping this one.

[RoninX]

I guess I was 13, or 14... hmm... it was over a summer vacation that I took my first lesson. So I musta been 14.

Good lord I've been fencing almost half my life now...

[jdoiv]

started at 19 back in '87. Been in and out of the sport several times since. Life keeps getting in the way....

[fencingfrog]

i started last year, when i was 13. wow, it's been over a year already...

[u r the spoon]

I had just turned 18, my first year of college. While sidelined (fairly recently) for two years with a shoulder injury, I didn't completely stop--just stopped competing nationally. It has pretty much taken me two years to get back to where I was competitively...

I turn 30 this year-and will celebrate the start of my 13th season in fencing terms. Lucky 13. Our favorite saying around the club for the kids is, "Don't argue with me, my shoes have been fencing longer than you."

[FeatherBlade]

Started to fence at 23, still am 23 but VERY happy and don&#180;t want to stop fencing!!!

[JasminaJ]

I started at 48. Wish I had started sooner!

[Joe biebel]

I started at 48. Wish I had started sooner!

I have a guy in my club that says this too. He is 53 or 54 just like me, and has attained a rather high degree of skill in his 3-4 years of fencing. I say the opposite. I tell him that while I've been fencing for 37 years, I have a lot of "worn out" parts. I would love to starting now with fully functioning joints.

It really is a win win situation. Either you have all of the experience at the cost of worn out parts or you have "pristine" parts at the expense of experience. Truth be told, if I had the choice, I'd take the experience with a small amount of physical disability.

[chefencer]

Allow me to make a short story long: At the age of 14 I had my first beginner’s class (along with my mother as she sought an alternative to belly dancing classes) at Dallas Fencer’s Club in 1978 from a husband and wife who used to run the club workouts in that era (anybody remember their names?). I recall quite clearly -a sure sign of imminent senility- the feeling of impatience as we’re sitting in our little group, cross-legged, receiving the obligatory “History of Fencing”, “Explication of the Three Weapons” and “The Target Area/4-6-7-8 Diagram” lectures, earnestly wishing she would hurry the blazes up and give me my weapon! Her husband ran the individual lessons and I can also summon up the shock I felt during one of those lessons as I received my first smack on the inside of my inward turning knee from his foil along with: “I Told you to keep it straight, next time I’ll really get your attention!”… the times were vastly less litigious then…

My life subsequently intervened and it wasn’t until I went to college that I was able to get back, but fencing club is where I met my wife and had my most interesting times at school…

[TitanHawk]

I started when I was 19 was very on and off for the next year and 1/2. I've been fencing competivily for the last 8 months or so.

[oso97]

Allow me to make a short story long: At the age of 14 I had my first beginner’s class (along with my mother as she sought an alternative to belly dancing classes) at Dallas Fencer’s Club in 1978 from a husband and wife who used to run the club workouts in that era (anybody remember their names?).

Bill and Marrietta Towery perhaps? They're in El Paso now...

[chefencer]

Bill and Marrietta Towery perhaps? They're in El Paso now...

YES! Cool it is this Forum! The Towerys! Thanks!

[seven6ty]

I put under 14. I was a freshman in high school at the time, and I guess I would've had to have been 13 at the time now, actually. So yeah, geebus... That was about 14 years ago now then, I was thinking it was only 13, hmph. Took nearly four years off though at the end there.

[ParryRiposte]

I recall quite clearly -a sure sign of imminent senility- the feeling of impatience as we’re sitting in our little group, cross-legged, receiving the obligatory “History of Fencing”, “Explication of the Three Weapons” and “The Target Area/4-6-7-8 Diagram” lectures, earnestly wishing she would hurry the blazes up and give me my weapon!

I know exactly what you mean!!! When I began fencing at 12 years old, I did a TON of research on fencing and stuff before I ever took my first lesson (this is stabbing people for fun! is what I thought). I was a fencing nut from the get-go! Then they rattled this stuff off to me again for the first three days of my beginner class, and that rather irritated me. My dad was taking a beginner class the same time as I was but on different days, and sine there were only a few people in his class, they got to play with weapons before my class ever did! That really annoyed me. But hey, all the fine points like lines and targets and right of way are vital to your fencing; you have to learn it some time.

[WonderWoman]

I was 18 when I started. It was my first semester in college and I was looking for a class to make me a full time student. I've been taking it every semester since. This summer will be my...6th semester.

[Happy Feat]

I don't remember the date...I just remember the silver buttons.

[sjpfencer220]

Anyway, I'm wondering, what do "U-10, U-12, U-14, Cadet and Junior" mean, exactly?

The u10, u12, and u14 are short for under 10 (years old), under 12 (years old), and under 14 (years old). You will see them on schedules as y10, y12, and y14. Cadet is Under 17 (years old) and junior is under 20 (years old). You have to be in the correct birth year range (for example, y14 is from 1991 to 1994) or if you are born in a later birth year (for example you were born in 1995, making you eligible to compete in y10) have points in y12.