Fencing helps in post op rehab and a passion is born

[gladius]

A fascinating story about fencing.

A 5 year old little girl suffers a very serious fracture in her right arm. Her mom thinks fencing could help her in the post op rehab of her arm. 12 years later, Olga Rachele Calissi is one of the youngest emerging stars of Italian women's foil.

In this interview with Olga (twice European WF cadet champion) Pasquale Giordano tells what happened and how it happened.

http://www.schermaonline.com/scherma...ticle&sid=2454

[Greybeard]

I second the theraputic value. Footwork drills taught me to walk after my stroke and again after my craniotomy.

Using drills I went from a chair to a walker to walking in 5 days. The move to chair is just due to recent events.

I am not a national champion, but fencing has some sort of magic.

[zéphirin]

I second the therapudic value. Footwork drills taught me to walk after my stroke and again after my craniotomy.

Using drills I went from a chair to a walker to walking in 5 days. The move chair is just due to recent events.

I am not a national champion, but fencing has some sort of magic.

This is a first for me and a positive one. Until now I have associated injury and fencing, the former as an unwelcome consequence of the latter both personally and in what I've seen with fencers of all ages at my club and around. The very young Olga and "mature" Greybeard's experiences show that fencing and healing can also be associated, with the latter as a welcome consequence of the former.

We all hear about the benefits of swimming and aquatics for rehab. We should also talk about this added benefit in fencing by bringing examples like these to the fore. When was football used in rehab?

Did anyone notice how young and early they start fencing in Italy? Olga is not the only one and I seem to remember that many of today's champions in Europe in general and Italy in particular did start at around 5-7 years of age. This is definitely earlier than what we do here. Any thoughts?

Great interview and great testimonial (by the bearded one)...

[Greybeard]

Great interview and great testimonial (by the bearded one)...

Are you referring to the interview I did with the local TV station?


http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish...ry_from_stroke

I was still very heavy footed and this was about 2-3 weeks before my seizures started. Tedd is the owner of the club and the guy who came to my house to do footwork drills in my garage with me to get me on my feet.

[NeilNZ]

That's awesome man!

[Superscribe]

Just wanted to get this out there:

I started with foil and fenced also epee and saber. I like saber but not as much as foil which for me represents the Cliff's Notes of fencing. If you are a good foilist you can fence well epee and saber. Foil is a weapon which encompasses all technical characteristics a fencer must know and master.

Man, that's just poetry right there.

The rest of the article is also very nice.

[zéphirin]

Are you referring to the interview I did with the local TV station? http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish...ry_from_stroke I was still very heavy footed and this was about 2-3 weeks before my seizures started. Tedd is the owner of the club and the guy who came to my house to do footwork drills in my garage with me to get me on my feet.

No, just to what you had posted. However, thank you for posting the link to the TV interview. This is really great and I'm happy everything worked out for you.

Your video clip is really something else and we all should be talking about (it is GOOD PR!!!).

Thank you for sharing