Lots of questions, 10 yo son new to fencing

[waxburner]

My 10 year old son has recently become involved with fencing and is really enjoying it. The club he has joined has equipment he can borrow, but I would like to look into purchasing the necessary items for him (new or used).

Could someone tell me about how to size a mask, the jacket, and the best type of sabre to start with? He is currently using foils in class.

Does he need gloves? Does he necessarily need shoes at present or can he use his athletic shoes for now?

Can anyone refer me to information about college scholarships for fencing? (I need to be looking ahead)

Any beneficial website you could refer me to would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your assistance,
waxburner

[mrbiggs]

My 10 year old son has recently become involved with fencing and is really enjoying it. The club he has joined has equipment he can borrow, but I would like to look into purchasing the necessary items for him (new or used).

Could someone tell me about how to size a mask, the jacket, and the best type of sabre to start with? He is currently using foils in class.

Does he need gloves? Does he necessarily need shoes at present or can he use his athletic shoes for now?

Can anyone refer me to information about college scholarships for fencing? (I need to be looking ahead)

Any beneficial website you could refer me to would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your assistance,
waxburner

The mask and the jacket sizing is availible on the internet, on the site of a vendor you buy from.

He needs a glove for his weapon hand. This is absolutely necessary, as it prevents blisters, protects his hand, and prevents blades from being caught in the sleeve. If his club provides him with one, his own one is not necessary. He just needs to fence with one for protection. Athletic shoes are fine for fencing at any level; I wouldn't worry about fencing shoes until he becomes serious about fencing.

College scholarships are few and far between in fencing. He would need to be VERY good to even be considered. But, even though fencing is very unlikely to get a scholarship, it often helps an applicant get into a college. And some very good schools have fencing. (Yale, MIT, for example).

I'll let others tackle some of the other points. And anything I got wrong.

Good luck!

[smeric28]

The mask and the jacket sizing is availible on the internet, on the site of a vendor you buy from.

He needs a glove for his weapon hand. This is absolutely necessary, as it prevents blisters, protects his hand, and prevents blades from being caught in the sleeve. If his club provides him with one, his own one is not necessary. He just needs to fence with one for protection. Athletic shoes are fine for fencing at any level; I wouldn't worry about fencing shoes until he becomes serious about fencing.

College scholarships are few and far between in fencing. He would need to be VERY good to even be considered. But, even though fencing is very unlikely to get a scholarship, it often helps an applicant get into a college. And some very good schools have fencing. (Yale, MIT, for example).

I'll let others tackle some of the other points. And anything I got wrong.

Good luck!

that about covers it, though i would recommend purchasing a glove if nothing else, club gloves get so nasty it's easily worth the 10 bucks not to catch the plague from a sweat incrusted pig hide.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Hi and, on behalf of your son, welcome to the sport!

I think Biggs gave you quite a good starter. I'll just like to add that at this point I think it would be best to have a look into 2nd hand equipment as your son is still:

1. New to the sport and may or may not stay for very long.
2. Still growing.

I'd suggest, when buying 2nd hand equipment that you try to get the opinion of a more experienced fencer or coach. That way you'll be adviced if it's worth buying or not.

Be particularly cautious / careful with the choice of mask - it's for protecting his head after all - and make sure it fits properly!

I'll leave the question of sabre to the sabreurs/sabreuses of this forum to answer (I'm an épéeist myself), other than that, have fun!

[Peach]

At this stage, you should be guided the recommendations of your son's coach. I have a small club, and it can be difficult when the parents decide without consulting me to buy equipment for their children. They often buy the wrong things or jump the gun and buy full kit when the kids won't need anything for a long time and outgrow it.

Some of my students did enter competitions, but youth novice tournaments in our area are fenced dry and we borrowed equipment for the finals. This allowed the children to experience a tournament without having too much of a burden on them due to parental expectations that any financial outlay was justified.

That said, if your son wants to fence sabre and his instructor can provide instruction and other children to fence with, you need to decide whether you need a practice sabre or an electric one. There isn't much difference between the two, because an electric sabre is basically just an electrified stick--it has a socket in the guard to take a body cord plug, and you can often modify a practice sabre after the fact to make it electric. You should be guided by local practice (i.e., ask the instructor) as to whether you get a two-prong or bayonet connector. You can buy a practice sabre from any supplier listed at www.usfencing.org (list reached by clicking "Internet Links" and then "Equipment Vendors"). You will want to buy a shorter blade for a child (size 2 as opposed to size 5). I buy from Absolute Fencing myself when I'm buying general practice equipment. Their prices are reasonable and they ship quickly. Again, ask your son's coach for advice.

As for college scholarships, there are a few of them around, but you should wait to look into this. The picture changes frequently. Schools drop fencing or change their funding disconcertingly often. They change from a team sport to a club sport, or they have teams only in one gender. If your son stays with the sport, and becomes a national competitor who has national points, you have a shot at getting a full scholarship to the small number of schools that have them, but it's not guaranteed. A list of the colleges which currently have NCAA fencing is at the NCAA website.

However, if your son loves fencing, and his grades are good, fencing has the potential to get him into schools with selective admission (the Ivies, for instance, have no sports scholarships, but they do have fencing), and if the school wants him badly enough overall, a fencer is also often able to get an academic scholarship, which is how some of the less athletically-weighted schools manage to attract competent fencers.

[SwordSoul]

if your son loves fencing .

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