Canadian Fencer looking for a Good Club

[Mars]

I'm an epeeist, and have been recreationally fencing for over half of my life.I absoltuley love frencing and want to get competitive. I'm finding that I'm quickly outgrowing my club, it is mostly foilists and sabreists. All of my competition has already moved elsewhere.
I'm willing to move so I can fence. Can anyone suggest some good clubs in Canada to look into? Thanks a lot.
-M

[pammie003]

TFC in Toronto is strong in epee, with quite a few fencers ranked nationally. they bill themeselves as a high performance club. Here's their website. Peter Ho, the national women's epee coach is based there.

EXO in Ottawa is quite good as well, although the style they teach is quite different from TFC. Here's their website. Manu Guittet, who was the head coach of the 2000 Olympic team, is based there.

Outside of Ontario, I don't really know, beyond having heard there are some decent clubs in Montreal. My appologies... I'm not trying to perpetuate the view that Ontario is the centre of Canada, but I've never fenced out-of-province. Maybe next year.

[SJB]

If you're willing to move west Epic Fencing Club, www.epicfencing.net, is the home club of the No.2 Canadian Olympic Women's Epee team member Catherine Dunnette. As well as her coach Leslie Palmai, current Canadian Nation Women's Epee coach.

We're located in Calgary.

Message me for further details.

In terms of the West Coast Dynamo in Vancouver is another good club, http://www.dynamofencing.com. Victor Gantsevich is the coach of his son, Igor Gantsevich, No.1 on the Cadet Men's Epee team.

If the size of the city doesn't matter, as in you don't mind a small one, Saskatoon has Salle Seguin, head coach Claude Seguin, Nation Jr. Men's Epee coach, and his son J.P. Seguin was the 2001 Cadet Epee World Champion.

In short, you have *lots* of options outside of Ontario .

[Point_Left]

Where is it that you will be fencing?

Alberta:
www.fencing.ab.ca

B.C
www.bcfencing.ca

etc.

A list of all the provincial organizations:
http://www.fencing.ab.ca/links.asp?LinkType=prv

As far as who fences what weapon when: e-mail. And ask if they know who can coach.

[kalivor]

Well, you've been told about the best ones in Ontario and Western Canada, leaving Quebec, where your best bet for epee is probably Estoc: http://www.estoc.ca/

Unfortunately, it's outside of Montreal, though there are several good clubs in Montreal ... just none which are as strong as Estoc is.

Estoc is the strongest in Canada for ME, the Toronto Fencing Club is strongest for WE ... the other clubs previously mentioned also have good fencers and good coaches.

[Point_Left]

What are the strong sabre clubs in Montreal. Inquiring minds...(who are working in Montreal this summer) want to know.

[SJB]

Find out what club Henri Sassine is coaching at.

He's just opened a new club but the name escapes me.

Best sabre coach in Montreal, and one of the best coaches in the country, period.

He "built" the Banos brothers if that means anything to you.

[Lemberg]

Thanks to Spencer for remembering about Dynamo - we are definitely one of the strongest clubs for epee in Western Canada. Victor is an amazing coach with over 20 years of experience in the former Soviet Union, israel and canada (he is now also a junior national team coach for Canada). Aside from Igor, you may have heard of the Bajgoric brothers, and especially Tigran - the older of the two. Last year he took home the bronze at one of the NACs, and made top 64 at several World Cup events including the Monal (which is a pretty hard thing to do). Victor is also coaching three of Canada's best pentathletes Tik Maynard, Monica Pinnette 9th at the Athens Olympics (2nd in the fencing event) and Toshi Ihara from Victoria. Overall, there's a strong core of about 8 competitive men's epeeists in their late teens/early 20's. If the Russian/German style of power fencing with the blade is your thing and if you like to be warm in winter - Dynamo is a place to be. We train 4 times a week with additional practices before competitions. The only two "minuses" of the club - we don't have a single french gripper (which as I found out at last weekend's nationals, can be a bad thing) and the BC tournament circuit features only a few competitions a year. However, Seattle and Alberta are nearby and they have a lot more tourneys. If you want to see what Dynamo is all about, you may consider attending our 1-week long Hih Performance Training camp in Summerland, BC this summer (that's is Okanogan, about 3.5 hour drive from Vancouver) where Victor will be coaching alongside CFF Technical Director Manuel Belmonte. For more info on the camp please refer to our website at www.dynamofencing.com

[kalivor]

Given that this thread has just been bumped ...

Mars: Canada has strong epee clubs across the country. You can get good epee coaching in every province (and most major cities) in Quebec, BC, and all places in between.

If you let us know where you're interested in moving to, it would probably help us identify a club that's close.