Recommendations on good summer F/E camps for veterans

[Greg]

Seems like most of the camps are for youth. If you know of a decent foil or epee veterans camp anywhere in the US, please let me know. Thanks.

[striker]

Seems like most of the camps are for youth. If you know of a decent foil or epee veterans camp anywhere in the US, please let me know. Thanks.

Greg,
That is a good question. I do not know if fencing clubs separate their
camps to Veteran vs. non-Veteran camps.

Anyhow, Northwest Fencing Center is scheduled to run three camps this
Summer, a pre-nationals Foil and Epee, a Foil only, and an Epee only
camp. The camps are run by Michael Marx who was many times US
Foil Champion.

I am not a member of that club and I have not taken their Summer
camps before, so I do not know how decent is the camp. I asked
about it myself last Summer but I did not get any useful reply from
the forum members. Here is the link for the camp:
http://nwfencing.com/index.php?page=camps

[Peach]

As a veteran, I just choose a good camp. Then I:
1. attend half days
2. do half the drills.
3. go every other day.
3. do the drills halfway (for instance, barely bending the knees for frog jumps)

Or any combination of the above.

[fencerbill]

As a veteran, I just choose a good camp. Then I:
1. attend half days
2. do half the drills.
3. go every other day.
3. do the drills halfway (for instance, barely bending the knees for frog jumps)

Or any combination of the above.

Was this your policy at the Prise de Fer camp?

[bigdawg2121]

Talking to a few people the UNC camp is going to be pretty good this year. I know that adults have even been residential campers at that camp before. Coaching staff this year is Buckie Leach for foil and Paul Pesthy for epee (rumored to be bringing the Hurley sisters with him I believe).

[RITFencing]

Talking to a few people the UNC camp is going to be pretty good this year. I know that adults have even been residential campers at that camp before. Coaching staff this year is Buckie Leach for foil and Paul Pesthy for epee (rumored to be bringing the Hurley sisters with him I believe).

Wow, that sounds like a pretty good camp, actually.

["Fence like a Cat"]

What would Veteran's be interested in camp wise?

[Peach]

Was this your policy at the Prise de Fer camp?

Pretty much. I consulted my coach before I went. Because I was staying up there, I didn't have as much leeway to skip days. However, I alternated days going very easy and going hard(er) and never did all of the really tough drills. I should have blown off the tournament at the end, though, and did withdraw part way through (or was told to rather forcefully by Ariana), because I was really hurting by that point and would have avoided that if I had skipped the tournament.

[jdoiv]

What would Veteran's be interested in camp wise?

an open bar at the end of the day? Maybe some good red wine and cheese?
Massage and spa?

[swordwench]

Was this your policy at the Prise de Fer camp?

Wait a minute... do you mean I could have gotten out of there in not so much pain?!? (Memo to myself... I should speak to Peach before the next one!)

The epee camp was mostly made up of young bucks, though there were a few of us "older" people in attendance. We were significantly more sore by the end, but it was a great experience nonetheless. If nothing else, the kids made us work for what we got.

[KD5MDK]

How many people would be interested in a Vets Epee Camp? There's enough Veterans fencers in South Texas I wonder if they'd be interested in doing one in San Antonio or San Marcos...

[DonnaP]

Just FYI to anyone interested. I picked up some flyers during JO's regarding two Veteran specific (over 40) camps being offered at Fencing Academy of South Jersey (Mr. Ma) this year. A pre-summer nationals camp June 22-26 and a training camp Aug 23 - 27. Interestingly the camp days for the Vets only run 5 hours, from 2 - 7pm - I guess that give the knees and backs plenty of time to sleep in the next morning!! I am under the impression these are new - I was thinking about trying to attend - anyone else have any info??

PS Peach - I saw the ad for the Prise de Fer camp and just assumed it would be way over my head - but it sounds like you had a good time - would you recommend it to other vets (like me??) BTW - won't be able to make it to Reno - good luck to you!!

[Peach]

Just FYI to anyone interested. I picked up some flyers during JO's regarding two Veteran specific (over 40) camps being offered at Fencing Academy of South Jersey (Mr. Ma) this year. A pre-summer nationals camp June 22-26 and a training camp Aug 23 - 27. Interestingly the camp days for the Vets only run 5 hours, from 2 - 7pm - I guess that give the knees and backs plenty of time to sleep in the next morning!! I am under the impression these are new - I was thinking about trying to attend - anyone else have any info??

PS Peach - I saw the ad for the Prise de Fer camp and just assumed it would be way over my head - but it sounds like you had a good time - would you recommend it to other vets (like me??) BTW - won't be able to make it to Reno - good luck to you!!

Donna - Darn!!! Sorry you won't be there.

I got a lot out of the Prise de Fer camp, but Yury Gelman says he's not doing it again. He did it as a favor for Arianna, I think.

She was talking about having a women-only camp and I'd go in an instant--not only is Arianna a wonderful coach, with connections for other wonderful coaches, but in some fencing camps sometimes a very small handful of participants make it clear by their attitude that middle-aged women should be conspicuous by their absence, and that handful is invariably of the teenaged male type. I don't know if she's going to do it or not.

I'm of two minds about camps in general. I don't see that it really improves your fencing that much to do something for a week, and it can sometimes set you back physically if you overdo it.

Sounds like Mr. Ma is formalizing what he already did--when I've done his camp in the past, I usually arrive after lunch and do only the afternoon. Al Kovacs does the same thing. I don't know if I'll do the August one. I don't like to overtrain that hard that close to Veteran Worlds.

[fencerbill]

In 1999 Marvin Fine and I went to the Solti camp in Szombethely, Hungary, the week before the Vet Worlds in Siofolk (2 hour bus trip). Marvin won a bronze and I went undefeated in the pools. Of course we were much younger 60 Plus at the time.