05-15-2008, 12:21 AM
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#1 | | Just Joined
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 10
| 37 yrs old and getting back into fencing
Hey there folks!
I fenced back in HS for 2 years but haven't touched foil since, except the kind you cook and wrap food with. Now I want to get back into fencing and possibly compete again. However, I am concerned that I might be too old to compete again since there are plenty of competitors out there that have been fencing for years and years. Are there any others like myself that have returned to fencing much later and successfully competed?
Thanks for any feedback you can provide. | 
|  | | And now for this message... |
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05-15-2008, 12:25 AM
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#2 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cougar Country
Posts: 8,209
| Welcome! There's plenty of us here who have returned to fencing or took it up as a new sport later in life. Compared to many of us... you're just a baby. 
Enjoy fencing and the forum.
__________________
If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war before her 18th. birthday, you can get out of bed.
~E. Jean Carroll
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw. ~Calvin & Hobbes | |
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05-15-2008, 01:30 AM
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#3 | | Just Joined
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 10
| OOOH, so glad to hear. I know this may sound premature, but are there any competitions for our age group? | |
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05-15-2008, 03:31 AM
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#4 | | Member
Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: California
Posts: 59
| Welcome Andy. I too have returned to fencing after a long lay off ( 9 years ) and also thinking of competing. I had forgotten how much fun fencing is and the toll it takes on my old bones! My fitness level has increased considerably and I am catching up with the youngsters we have at the club. The most important thing is to have fun...oh..and ditch the foil for epee!!!!!! | |
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05-15-2008, 09:11 AM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 1,572
| Quote:
Originally Posted by andy966  OOOH, so glad to hear. I know this may sound premature, but are there any competitions for our age group? | Most competitions are "open" which means anybody over 12. There are also veterans competitions (which start at 40--there are a couple of levels 40+, 50+, 60+, but many vet competitions are "mixed" in age categories).
I also came back after a long layoff (I fenced in college and a year or so after, and then came back when I was about 33). It's not that uncommon (nor is people taking it up later in life) and many who do so become quite competitive.
--Philistine | |
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05-15-2008, 10:46 AM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 970
| Welcome. At 37 you are still a senior and can fence all open events. At 40+ the veterans divisions start. Good luck.
__________________
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. ~ Dr. Seuss
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05-15-2008, 11:28 AM
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#7 | | Super Shoebie
Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: VA
Posts: 1,080
| Welcome!
I think you'll find fencing more satisfying now that you're older. Good luck, stay healthy and don't push it too soon. It's easy to get ahead of yourself when you're having so much fun.
Enjoy! | |
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05-15-2008, 12:05 PM
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#8 | | Perpetual Ephemerist
Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Virginia
Posts: 1,951
| Welcome back and have fun! As an older fencer, once you start, you have to keep fencing regularly in order to keep in shape.
This is not a bad thing.
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“The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men’s business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs.”
-- Clarence Darrow
The Internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.’
- Robert Metcalfe, Internet co-inventor
¯\(°_o)/¯ | |
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05-15-2008, 12:18 PM
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#9 | | Member
Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Memphis, TN
Posts: 94
| There's a guy in his fourties locally here who started fencing in college and only got back a month or so ago, and he enjoys it more now than ever, as far as I could tell! I agree with chefencer.
Anyway, welcome! | |
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05-15-2008, 12:19 PM
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#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cougar Country
Posts: 8,209
| Andy 966, If you think you're too old. Here's a picture of a 92 year old fencing (he's the blur doing the fleche) http://www.fencing.net/gallery/showp...2/limit/recent
__________________
If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war before her 18th. birthday, you can get out of bed.
~E. Jean Carroll
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw. ~Calvin & Hobbes | |
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05-15-2008, 12:26 PM
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#11 | | Just Joined
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 10
| WOW! I am glad I am in good company. Thank you for the warm welcome and it's nice to know that there are a lot more people out there like me than I thought. And I hope I am that quick when I am 92. | |
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05-15-2008, 01:19 PM
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#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: Over there -->
Posts: 3,789
| Quote:
Originally Posted by andy966 Now I want to get back into fencing and possibly compete again. | What are you waiting for?? Call your nearest club and get started!  | |
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05-15-2008, 01:26 PM
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#13 | | Just Joined
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 10
| Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty_monster What are you waiting for?? Call your nearest club and get started! | Yeah, I emailed them the other day and will be down there next week Wednesday to see which class I should start off with.
I am excited.
The next question probably belongs in the armory, but should I buy decent competition equipment now or buy the cheaper stuff and wait till I start competing to buy that stuff? Thoughts? | |
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05-15-2008, 02:33 PM
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#14 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2006 Location: E13
Posts: 470
| And on the left is me!
I started fencing at 35, almost 3 years ago and I'm not doing too badly. 
So go on, go fence. Quote:
Originally Posted by Fencergrl | | |
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05-15-2008, 02:53 PM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cougar Country
Posts: 8,209
| Quote:
Originally Posted by wahrman And on the left is me!
I started fencing at 35, | You're just a babe (in more ways than one)!  You would think that bully 92 year old would pick on somebody his own age.
__________________
If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war before her 18th. birthday, you can get out of bed.
~E. Jean Carroll
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw. ~Calvin & Hobbes | |
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05-15-2008, 04:02 PM
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#16 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Boston
Posts: 174
| I started at 37 last year.
The only advice I have is, check your ego somewhere safe, being beaten by 12 and 14 year old (boys and girls) can get a little bruising
That said, I've been to several competitions now, and while I am not winning, I am having alot of fun. And I can buy toys and call it "excercise" and not get any flak | |
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05-15-2008, 04:41 PM
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#17 | | Posting Hound
Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Defying Gravity
Posts: 12,033
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Fencergrl | Looks like a hook for a hand 
And being beaten by little kids has to suck.
but welcome back. Glad you chose foil.
__________________ Hunting Mephistopheles, the Questing Beast, and Quilboars. Be Back Later. | |
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05-15-2008, 05:45 PM
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#18 | | Scrub
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Miami
Posts: 2,234
| I restarted a couple years ago at 33; I'm better now than I was as a teen (albeit not as fast and with poorer endurance). I'm a better fencer technically, and I have a higher rating than I ever managed to get as a kid (not especially high, but still it was a milestone).
__________________
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."
- Homer Simpson | |
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05-16-2008, 03:36 AM
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#19 | | Just Joined
Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Blacksburg, VA
Posts: 15
| Welcome from one of the younger guys. Hope you enjoy rediscovering fencing. We need more experienced (in life, not fencing) people in fencing.
If you're ever near the southwestern part of Virginia give me a PM, I'm tired of being considered the "Old Man" at our practices. I mean, I'm 25... | |
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05-16-2008, 08:43 AM
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#20 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: Over there -->
Posts: 3,789
| Quote:
Originally Posted by andy966 Yeah, I emailed them the other day and will be down there next week Wednesday to see which class I should start off with.
I am excited.
The next question probably belongs in the armory, but should I buy decent competition equipment now or buy the cheaper stuff and wait till I start competing to buy that stuff? Thoughts? | Don't buy anything now. After you've used club equipment for a few weeks, buy a glove and mask. Then next time you wish to shell out the ca$h, get a halfway decent jacket (should last a year or two, so don't get a crappy one.) a bodycord and one electric weapon. And a bag to carry your stuff in. | |
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