Information for Short Story Desired

[Story Maker]

Hello Fencers:

I write literary fiction, and it turns out that two seventeen year-old boys in my current story fence. I've been researching a lot and learning a lot. My characters fence with sabres and have been fencing for about one year with an esteemed expert.

My questions are: At what point is a fencer ready for a tournament? Are there a variety of tournament levels? Are there clear-cut, national tournaments, or can one organization have tournaments as they see fit?

I hope you don't mind my questions; I want accurate depictions of my fencing characters. I've been watching u-tube videos and reading blogs. Hearing from you, real fencers, will be very beneficial.

Thanks!

Thea
Story Maker

[Inquartata]

A year is plenty long enough to be ready for competition at that age, assuming regular lessons and practices. It's even long enough to do well competitively, for smart, athletic kids.

Tournaments range from local ones, which can be either large and deep or small and shallow depending on the area ( US fencing is broken up geographically into a number Sections, each of which is made up of a varying number of Divisions ) through regional ones and national ones to international World Cups and of course the Olympics. The local tournaments are usually sanctioned by the national organization, but not always; sometimes clubs hold nonsanctioned tournaments, and there are a number of clubs which are not USFA members and which mostly consist of so-called "classical" fencing groups. These last feel that modern Olympic fencing is too much a game and too disconnected from the duelling past and they try to practice a "purer" sort of fencing, as they think it was done in the 19th century and early 20th century...

In modern Olympic fencing in the US, there are several large national tournaments each year, called NACs or North American Cups. These hold events in several skill ranges: Division I, II and III, plus various youth and veteran ( over 40 ) categories, plus wheelchair fencing. Each of these has two events for each of the three weapons, according to sex. A lot of events, in other words.

There are also parallel college fencing circuits.

[Story Maker]

Wow, thank you so much for your detailed response. This is really helpful.

Best,

Thea

[Mr Epee]

Of additional interest...

Given the age of the two boys, they would likely be eligible/participating in Junior events. Junior events are open to fencers under the age of 20.

If they were to show interest in competing in the US Junior National Championships, they would likely be focusing on a good performance at the Sectional Championships. Sectional Championships are generally held in April or May. National Championships are held during the first week of July.

The other major championship event for fencers in that age are the Junior Olympics. It is similar to the US Junior Nationals, but occurs in Feb. Qualification is easier, because fencers can qualify at the Division level (much smaller than Section), so that might be a good direction for your relatively new-to-the-sport fencers to focus their energies.

Also... re: saber fencing

Saber fencing tends to occur in small pockets of the country. Currently, the majority of quality saber fencers hail from New York, Atlanta, and Portland. It would be somewhat unusual for two fencers to start making results from outside the traditional 'saber pockets'. It wouldn't be impossible... but it would certainly turn a few heads.

Top saber coaches in the US tend to be from Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Internationally, Hungarian saber coaches are very well respected, but recently they have not enjoyed the same level of success in the US as their Russian and Polish counter-parts. Historically, the majority of top US saber coaches were Hungarian... many of whom came to the US to avoid life behind the iron curtain.



Hope that helps.

[Story Maker]

Thank you, Mr. Epee.

All of this helps. I intially gave these boys sabres because they seem more romantic (you may guffaw). After researching and learning about foils and epees, I stuck with sabres (no pun intended) since they are still being used. The non-fictional place where my characters go for their lessons is Salle Auriol, in Seattle, which is run by a master of all three weapons (you may know this). In my story, the name of the fencing organization is changed, as well as details about it.

Thank you, again! I will be posting a non-tournament question to the general list shortly.