Introductions

[magma]

Sorry girls! there's no way of genderizing on the board, i forget while i'm writing, i still tend to see fencing as masculine, and almost all of the students at my school are men.

how are you girls doing with your fencing. i can't write anymore today, i'd better move my butt to the gym. today i want to stay home, because of the war thing, it's very low and grim outside. people are a little upset, but staying inside all day can't solve anything.

[Aoife]

there's no way of genderizing on the board

I know, I know. I do try to come across as female, but it rarely works (especially if i start talking about sports cars ).

i still tend to see fencing as masculine, and almost all of the students at my school are men.

I tend to forget that fencing is a mostly male sport because everyone in my group is female (except for our coach).

how are you girls doing with your fencing

Okay thanks, just got back (well, that's a lie, just got back, ate, showered, then got online ) from a lesson. I started on November 7th, went every Thursday until Christmas, wen I started going Mondays too. I'm managing to scare my coach sufficiently by taking an unhealthily enthusiastic interest (every time he comes to teach us something new, I've learnt the theory behind it already ) I enjoy it immensly, especially trying to 'out-smart' opponants.

[Boo Boo]

Virtually all the people I fence (foil) with are men. I have to find women foilists for our county and regional teams and am really struggling this year... :-(

Boo
(suggesting the Aoife practices a lot and thinks about coming to university in the South West...)

[Zelda]

Boo if that isnt a blantent plea for opponents!!!! If I was still in the UK I'd take a trip to the South West (If the trains are running that is!) but I'm not, so I'll have to shelve that idea!

[Boo Boo]

Zelda

You are only 20 odd hours by plane + a couple of hours by train away.... will expect you next week then ;-)

Fencing loads of men is normally very good, but many women do tend to have a different style to men (so it can be a bit hard to adapt to fencing women when it comes to competition...)

I can't really complain - lack of opponents is definitely worse for you at the moment.

Boo

[Zelda]

Maybe next year boo when I finally get to graduate!

[magma]

absolutely, fencing women is very different than fencing men, men tend to acknowledge more, they will argue a point, but they also tend to know the rules, i like fencing them better, they're just a lot more fun. even the real 'serious' ones. well, zelda, i met an interesting person whlie out today from australia, for just a second, i almost yelled "Zelda",instead I ended up babbling inanely.

[Boo Boo]

Not sure about men acknowledging hits more than women: depends on the man/woman, who they are fencing and the specific circumstances.

Was fencing a guy last night, he did a long fast attack, I did a nice clean parry reposte. The piste didn't have much refereeing space and the president didn't see the hit. So when the president said "I don't know", my opponent said "if I wasn't 13:5 down, I would have acknowledged that"!!! Still, he lost the niext two hits after that ;-)

I haven't notticed that men tend to yell a lot more in practice too. I yell in competition (although not all the time), but quite a few men like to yell in training too (don't know many women that do).

Boo

[Aoife]

suggesting the Aoife practices a lot and thinks about coming to university in the South West

You never know, by the time I go to Uni, I'll have been fencing twice a week for 3 years. Is that anywhere near long enough? My current critera for University applications goes

1) Do they have an English course?
2) Do they have fencing?

And thats just about all I want to know

As for acknowledging touches, I see a fair range of responses from my all-girl group, from one person who doesn't seem to stop fighting even after you've clearly hit her (sometimes more than once)... and after she's hit you; down to myself, where if I feel a hit I'll always say, and whenever I hit my opponant I tend to instantly say 'sorry'. I know I should stop it, and I'm getting better, I'm just not somebody who likes hurting people (which is why I keep taking up agressive sports I guess... fencing, karate, archery, hocky, basketball.... well some basketball games I've played have been extreamly vicsious )

[pammie003]

Aoife,
You doing better than I did at the beginning! I had been at uni a whole year before I even found out that we had a fencing team. I went to the first practice because my roommate didn't want to go by herself. She didn't last long, but I ended up competing for the university. I was totally anti-sports up until joining the team due to some rather traumatic school experiences, back when we were all forced to participate (ugh, *shudder*- gym class). I ended up at my first competiton (RMC - one of the biggest in North America) only about 4 weeks after starting to fence. There was a true lack of female epeeists last year and we needed a third to complete the team.
So, what I'm trying to communicate here (sorry abou the long-windedness) is that anything's possible. If you love the sport, and it sure sounds like you do, all the practice time seems more like fun than work! In three years you could be anywhere! Reach for the stars, girl!

[Aoife]

Thank you pammie.

If you love the sport, and it sure sounds like you do, all the practice time seems more like fun than work!

It sure is! Never even considered it work!

[cowpaste]

Do asians not fence? :P

[Aoife]

Moer pictures of me. I knew I had some others on my site (I loose track of what's on there at times).

This first one was taken in Decemeber 2001 in Germany. The drinking age over there is 16... whcih I discovered to great delight (I was only 14, but oh well ). That, hopefully, explains my slightly maniacal grin.

Me in Germany

The second one is from April last year (boy nearly a whole year ago!) when I was in the USA. It's from my hotel in D.C. which was in the classy part of town and on the first night we had a drugs raid. It's in black and white because... to be honest I'm not sure why. Although I do recall my face being beetroot-red with laughter (it was an amusing encounter). (It's blurry from being condensed to a 400x400 pixel limit, sorry)

Me and the tall arm of the law

If I find any more I'll post them. Newer ones maybe.

[Swordsman]

Wait wait wait...you said NOT photogenic? Explain to me how that works, when you look good even drunk and 14?

[Danzan]

Well, in my continuing efforts to avoid anything resembling productive work today, I thought I'd add my picture (even though I'm not all that active on the forums).

It's not a brilliant picture, and it's over 3 years old, but it is just about the only one I can find even remotely worth posting.

[Aoife]

Wait wait wait...you said NOT photogenic? Explain to me how that works, when you look good even drunk and 14?

You're mad you are! (ahhh, the Germany exchange, perminatly tipsy for a week, what a grand memory )

[pammie003]

ahhh, the Germany exchange, perminatly tipsy for a week, what a grand memory

Tell me about it! Mine's fast turning into a year-long alcohol induced haze... still so far managing to pass classes. Fun times though! I hope you enjoyed your time in Germany as much as I'm enjoying mine!

[Aoife]

It was great fun. I wish I'd gone for longer, devolped my language skills (or lack of) better.

[Bonzolium]

To further the subject on fencing at University level in the UK, I run the Staffordshire University Fencing Club and have been doing so for this current academic year and last academic year as well. From my experience of running the club, there is an out-cry for all types of members to join up, so there are no worries about experience, though experience is a very nice thing to have in a new member. This is certainly true for clubs which perform well in the BUSA team competition, as the students are only at University for a short time in respect to the time it takes to become a very good fencer, so teams high up in the league desire people with some prior knowledge. So in other words, don't worry 9 out of 10 clubs will embrace you and the others will be more than happy to accept you.

If you want to have a look at the BUSA team championships, to have an idea which clubs fence and to see which clubs are doing well, go to: http://www.busaresults.org.uk/sport.asp?SportId=11 and have a peruse. My knowledge of clubs which have decent women's teams/ teams in general and facilities which are not limited, then a good starting point may well be Keele University as I know they have a good club there with good facilities and an excellent coach.

Hope this is of some use

[Gav]

Looking at the BUSA lists I was saddened (and a little disapointed) that my old uni' wasn't listed. I used to Fence for Napier in Scotland, the fact that its missing confirms my suspicion that it 's now defunct. A shame as I have good memories from it plus I made some good friends.