New and Isolated but not Daunted

[Herman]

My family and I live on the coast in beautiful Cape Town South Africa.
In brief my son and I, he's 16 I'm 52 intend to take up fencing, but the only clubs and training facility's are in Johannesburg, the main business centre of South Africa, Johannesburg is 1,500 kilometers from Cape Town.
Can my son and I train via DVD and manuals??
We are very keen no matter how difficult challenge.
I am President of an internation trading organization, so I travel a lot with my son, who is being trained by me in our business, (we are very close) I have no doubt that from time to time we could arrange additional training or bouts within other clubs arround the globe, we also visit Johannesburg at least once every six weeks.
If anyone can advise on a strategy we could follow, I would be very gratefull.
One last question how do we choose between Foil, Epee and Saber or do you do them all??

[RebelFencer]

My family and I live on the coast in beautiful Cape Town South Africa.
In brief my son and I, he's 16 I'm 52 intend to take up fencing, but the only clubs and training facility's are in Johannesburg, the main business centre of South Africa, Johannesburg is 1,500 kilometers from Cape Town.
Can my son and I train via DVD and manuals??
We are very keen no matter how difficult challenge.
I am President of an internation trading organization, so I travel a lot with my son, who is being trained by me in our business, (we are very close) I have no doubt that from time to time we could arrange additional training or bouts within other clubs arround the globe, we also visit Johannesburg at least once every six weeks.
If anyone can advise on a strategy we could follow, I would be very gratefull.
One last question how do we choose between Foil, Epee and Saber or do you do them all??

Hey-

If at all possible I would recommend going to a club at least semi-frequently...it's easy for bad habits to set in if there isn't anyone to correct you. As to which weapon, try them all out and decide which one you like the best...not everyone specializes, but it is sometimes necessary to improve past a certain point.

[Inquartata]

You might try calling around to schools, gyms and other athletic organizations in your area. Sometimes you can stumble onto people who have fenced before but have stopped because they're in the same boat as you---they can't find each other. If that is the case then it might be possible to start a club where you are, or at least arrange some informal practices and/or lessons.

You can certainly learn the basics of fencing from books and DVDs, but if there is no one to correct the mistakes you make ( due to misunderstanding or misinterpreting the materials ) you will only ingrain bad habits. Then if ever you do get a chance to get formal lessons it will be doubly difficult for a coach to set you straight.

Choice of weapon depends on many factors, but in the end comes down to which one "calls" to you. If you have no instinctual attraction to one or the other already, it's best to try all three to get an informed basis for your decision. Or at least watch all three being fenced.

Alas, you may not have any choice in the matter. A lot of coaches are still firmly mired in the "foil first, for everyone" tradition. There's almost no real rationale for it, but coaches who learned that way tend to pass it on as gospel nevertheless...