11-19-2007, 04:21 PM
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#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: IU Bloomington
Posts: 513
| Regrets Not Starting to Fence When You Were Little?
Personally I regret not starting to fence when I was like 8 years old. I used to have summer camp in the same exact place at the park district where the local fencing club practices were held. I would see the pictures on the wall and was SO CLOSE to starting fencing classes right then and there... but I didn't.
Then about 8 years later I started fencing...
I hate to think the "how good I could have been right now".
Due to this I have practiced extremely hard in a short period of time. Pretty high density stuff.
Anyone else out there have somewhat similar regrets about not starting to fence when they were younger?
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11-19-2007, 04:26 PM
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#2 | | Scrub
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Miami
Posts: 2,553
| I wish I hadn't drifted away from fencing for so long... | |
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11-19-2007, 04:28 PM
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#3 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: On the go!
Posts: 53
| I wish I had a million dollars .... .... .... HOTDAWG!!!!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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11-19-2007, 04:51 PM
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#4 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Under the sea
Posts: 2,799
| Je regrette rien.
Ok, that's not quite true, but in a fencing context it is.
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I AM the walrus
I'm not grumpy - I suffer from stupidity rage
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11-19-2007, 04:54 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: Over there -->
Posts: 3,873
| I miss Y-14. I am also regretting getting older because I'm almost out of Cadets. But it's useless to regret it, really. What is regretting going to do- make it stop? | |
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11-19-2007, 04:58 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 113
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Cookeit  Personally I regret not starting to fence when I was like 8 years old. I used to have summer camp in the same exact place at the park district where the local fencing club practices were held. I would see the pictures on the wall and was SO CLOSE to starting fencing classes right then and there... but I didn't.
Then about 8 years later I started fencing...
I hate to think the "how good I could have been right now".
Due to this I have practiced extremely hard in a short period of time. Pretty high density stuff.
Anyone else out there have somewhat similar regrets about not starting to fence when they were younger? | welll... yes & no. I often wish I had more time to train and fence, and starting young definitely would have been nice in many ways.
But little kids (generally speaking) cannot practice at a high intensity level, as you say you are doing currently. They'll get fed up and end up hating it. That could have spoiled fencing for you forever!
Now, if my arithmetic is correct, you are 16, yes? That's fantastic. Many fencers don't get to start till they're much older. Be happy. Train hard. :-) | |
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11-19-2007, 05:00 PM
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#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: IU Bloomington
Posts: 513
| Actually 17 and 18 in a little less than a month.
I have been fencing for about 2 years.
But yes, I started when I was about 16 =].
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11-19-2007, 05:03 PM
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#8 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: London, UK/Providence, RI
Posts: 334
| After a point, starting young really doesn't help that much...I started fencing whilst I was 7, and whilst i'm pretty damn good, I also know some people who have been fencing for 5 years or so who can beat me consistently. | |
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11-19-2007, 05:07 PM
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#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Columbia, Md.
Posts: 194
| Appreciate what you've got, kids. I started at 52. I'm loving it. It would have been nice to have started earlier, but life got in the way.
Don't forget to have fun!
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The spirit is willing, but the fleche is weak.
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11-19-2007, 05:09 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: SOTX Division. Also usually found here ->
Posts: 2,418
| I started at ten. My younger brother started at six. It's definitely going to help him when he gets to y14 (next year) because he'll have been fencing a lot longer than most kids and all. But in the end, it wasn't a disadvantage for me to start a bit older.
__________________ ...and his favorite was 'Carpe Diem'.
(But all things must come to an end.)
"Speak softly and carry a big stick!" - Teddy Roosevelt | |
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11-19-2007, 05:16 PM
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#11 | | Curmudgeon-in-Chief
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Somewhere in your nightmares!
Posts: 23,433
| I wish I'd started much earlier---not necessarily because I think I'd have been better because of it but because of all the years of enjoyment I missed by not being able to find fencing until I was 26...
In my salad days, fencing was still pretty much an affair of the Coasts, and I always seemed to be living in a backwater where it couldn't be found---and if it could be, it was dry foil only. 
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11-19-2007, 05:17 PM
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#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Carlsbad, CA
Posts: 610
| I started at age 17. Only really started doing well when I was 30. (I'm 33 now).
Sometimes I wonder how good I'd be if I'd gotten the coach I have now, when I was in college or my 20s. But then I realize that when I was in my late teens and through my 20s, I didn't have the emotional maturity, drive, or willingness to work hard that I have now. I also wouldn't appreciate what I can do now, because I wouldn't have worked through 12 years of middling to moderately OK results first.
Because I was not athletic AT ALL as a kid, it also took me quite a while to make the transition from couch potato to athlete.
So, all things considered, no regrets at all, just a lot of happiness to be fencing at the level I'm fencing now. | |
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11-19-2007, 05:35 PM
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#13 | | Curmudgeon-in-Chief
Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Somewhere in your nightmares!
Posts: 23,433
| Yeah. It's not just about when you start. It's about having a good coach, and a cadre of good fences to practice against, and the resources to compete, the drive, the time, etc. IMO those are more important than starting age.
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Use the Shift key, people! Keyboard manufacturers everywhere are ineffably saddened when you ignore what they made just for you!
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11-19-2007, 05:45 PM
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#14 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Milwaukee
Posts: 1,003
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Cookeit Actually 17 and 18 in a little less than a month.
I have been fencing for about 2 years.
But yes, I started when I was about 16 =]. | Yeah, but if you had started when you were 7 or 8 your "glory years" would be behind you.
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I'm a foil fencer, and I can change, if I have to, I guess.
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11-19-2007, 05:47 PM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007 Location: Eugene, OR
Posts: 1,047
| I wish I had gotten started a few months earlier than I did... I've wanted to fence a long time, but I think if I had started too much earlier I would have just gotten bored with it. As it is, I've been working hard at it, and I just had my first tournament yesterday. Everyone there was shocked to learn I've only been fencing 8 months, and the winner of the tournament came up to me and told me that I'm doing really well and shouldn't get discouraged. | |
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11-19-2007, 05:50 PM
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#16 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 268
| I just started at 33 years old, and while I don't really regret not having started sooner, I can certainly see where even my relatively young age puts me behind younger folks.
But it doesn't matter, in any case. I'll just do the best I can and not try to measure myself against people who are 15-20 years younger than I am. | |
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11-19-2007, 05:51 PM
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#17 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 177
| I started at 23. I used to read books about fencing when I was six. Unfortunately, rural Northest Missouri wasn't known for fencing in the 1980s. I got into the sport at the first opportunity. | |
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11-19-2007, 05:55 PM
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#18 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Milwaukee
Posts: 1,003
| "Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present.”
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Katherine (Lindsay Duncan)
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I'm a foil fencer, and I can change, if I have to, I guess.
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11-19-2007, 05:59 PM
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#19 | | Fencing Expert
Join Date: May 2000 Location: The valley of the -hot- sun, NorCal
Posts: 3,184
| Starting when you're 8 might not have done you any good. You could have changed your mind, got burned, decided it wasn't for you because the chemistry was there at the time, etc.
__________________ - Epee is the Louis Vuitton bag of fencing: only the best can get it, and the rest of the masses must content themselves with cheap knockoffs (sabre, foil)
- To not recognize the power of the French grip is to be in denial
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11-19-2007, 06:25 PM
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#20 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Bozeman, Montana
Posts: 2,566
| Yeah, I wish I would have started at about 19-20. I would have had the same coach, plus a much better sabre instructor. Hell, he (the sabre instructor) even told me he wished I had been around when he was still coaching, which he is unable to do often because of family issues. I'm glad I found it at 26, but I t would have been nice to start back then. And hell, I'd be all geared up by now instead of piecing it all together now.
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