A funny thing happened on the way to the salle...

I was wheeling my rollbag down the sidewalk, on the way to my car and a fencing lesson, when I passed a few kids and adults near the parking lot. One parent noticed the fencing logo on the side of my bag, and asked "Is that for fencing?". Squashing the small part of my brain that wanted to reply with some witty, mildly sarcastic comment, I said "Yes, it is". The person smiled, and said "Wow! I didn't know people still did that!". Sigh.....

We're very fortunate to have an academy that offers a large number of beginner classes each year (something on the order of 40+ classes for youths and adults). The retention rate depends greatly on the personality of the instructor, but I think we average about 40% overall. About 55% of our members (not beginners) are recreational fencers, 40% are competitive, and 5% are historical.

I'm glad to hear that fencing seems to be growing across the Us - I know in our area (Northern Virginia), we've seem a steady growth for the past 5 years or so, based on the number of students we have, and the number of people who attend the beginner classes. There are a couple of high schools that have fencing clubs, but getting a team together is very, very difficult at that level - for a variety of reasons.

We do get out to some local middle schools for "demonstrations", and get some interest from these activities, but not too much. Budget constraints on our local schools seem to really hamper any efforts in that direction.

I think that any "grassroots" type of promotion we do will help develop a wider interest in fencing. We may not ever have the Bud Girls at the Summer Nationals, or the pretzel-and-beer crowd jumping off the couch and giving a high-5 for a brilliant feint-beat-disengage, one light touch - and that's Ok by me.

Now, did I lay my bong down next to the beanbag chair? Or is it over by the 8-track player??????