Greetings to one and all!
Well, after lurking around here for a few years, I figured that I would finally take the plunge and say hello.
I've been a fencer for almost 16 years now, mostly fencing with the IUP Fencing club where I first learned to fence. I have been Treasurer, President, and now coach of the club.
Currently, I am unrated in any weapon, but in my "heyday" of actually getting to practice and compete on a regular basis (constantly teaching new fencers just doesn't get my skill set up very high) I managed to advance to a D rating in Epee and an E in Foil (Saber? Well, lets just say that I Love the weapon, but I've never been THAT quick...)
While I enjoy fencing all three weapons, the club focuses on foil since I believe that it is the basis for the other two weapons (and besides, it's what we have the most equipment for...).
I have always enjoyed teaching the sport to new fencers, and I will often relate how this is a sport that you can take with you all through life.
One of my favorite stories I like to tell our new fencers is of one of my first fencing competitions where I faced a pool of three 12-16 year olds, another college aged person and a (to me) little old man who I later came to know as Joe Odom who then ran the Pittsburgh Fencing for Fun fencing academy. This gentleman proved to me that this was the sport that I wanted to stay with for the rest of my life. When I first saw him standing at the side of the strip in his kit, I thought cool, someone that I might be able to beat! He was a stocky older black guy, white hair and about 5' nothing. But he was incredibly friendly and gave me lots of tips each time I came off the strip. I was fencing Epee in this particular competition and I had faced (and was humiliated by) these little "kids" one after the other. Then Joe took the strip. What can I say? Where I had expected slow, methodical fencing from someone that looked like he could only move at half speed, Joe started out with these tremendous fleché attacks with prisé de fur from low to high 4. He flew down the strip and landed 5 points in a row, coming out of the pools with 5 victories. Myself, I managed to get 1 point on him that day, and I was ecstatic that I had gotten that.
Yet all through the pools, Joe kept a positive, friendly attitude, always willing to help those around him with solid advice given in clear language that let you understand easily what you were doing, and how to correct it.
While I do not think that I have ever attained Joe's teaching skills (and definitely not his fencing skills), his is the example that I strive to achieve every time that I step onto the strip or teach a new fencer how to fence.
Phraedrique the Sullen
AKA Erik Blank
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