Mid Atlantic RYC and NC Youth Circuit Event May 13, 2006 - May 14, 2006

[fencingmom2319]

Is anyone familiar with this tournament. I have a daughter who loves fencing but has a phobia about competition. I keep trying to tell her that competition will help her become a better fencer. Being completely new to all of this (she's only been fencing a year) I don't have a clue about how competitive these types of events are at all. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[sjpfencer220]

Although regionals can be sort of competitive, it depends where they are located. That particular event should not be very competitive at all, like a larger division tournament. I personally think it is a fine tournament to begin attending competitions with. Good luck

[chefencer]

We have several younger club fencers going. The whole point of RYC is to introduce competition in an appropriate, peer focused environment so that Y's won't be overwhelmed when they're old enough for opens.

[Woody-DFC]

I am one of the organizers at the event. We do intend it to be beginner friendly and have gone so far as to have fencers from our club who are too old to compete to volunteer as stripside "buddies" to help hook and unhook the younger fencers when they don't have a coach or a parent there with them.

[Jamlete]

I have been to several RYC's with my son, and he loves them. He and I have made many new friends each of the events we go to. I would have to say that Fencing is the most friendly sporting environment that I have ever been involved in. I coached baseball for many years and never have I seen the kind of support and respect that my son and I receive from other fencers and their parents. An example of this happened yesterday as my son was fencing in the finals of the y12 epee he strained his hip. (Maybe because he wanted to fence in 4 events in two days.) Any way he was hurting pretty bad, but didn't want to quit. So one parent went and got us some ice, then at least 6 or 7 others came by to see if they could help. This would have never happened in my opinion in any other sport. I only knew 2 or 3 of these people but they all wanted to help. And if you want to talk about sportsman ship after my son pulled himself out of his DE because he just couldn't fence, both the young man he was fencing and his father made it a point of coming over and wishing there best for him and telling him how great a fencer he was. I was very proud to see my son try to go on but was even prouder of the sportsmanship demonstrated by other around. My son couldn't believe how many people wanted to make sure he was alright. This is the environment that I want to have my son around more often.

So if you are thinking about letting your child complete let me tell you it is great, the people are great. In my opinion there are no greater athletes then fencers and this is coming from a guy that believes there are only two real sports.

Last and since this is getting really long I just wanted to thank the DFC and all others involved it was a great tournament. Great Job.