fencing clubs: whats yours like?

[arcon]

[ 10-19-2001: Message edited by: arcon ]

I really like my fencing club! The people there are very down to earth, and nice! I think my club favors epee.

-liz

[Zelda]

Brisbane City fencers www.cityfencers.com
Fence a bit of everything, we have State reps in all weapons (not too hard if you can pay you can go) and 1 international (Commonwealth youth games foil last year).

[JLaRue]

Check our website - West Michigan Fencing Academy - www.wmfa.org

[Dragoneye]

I think we've a fantastic club. It's not so much we've great equipment (believe me, we don't ) or facilities, but the fencers themselves. We've become quite the 'family' - very supportive of one another, et cetera. It's great.


Cheers,

Dragoneye.

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"Violent delights have violent ends." R&J - WS.

[This message has been edited by Dragoneye (edited 02-09-2001).]

[Shadow Fencer]

My fencing club is located in the basement of a college gymnasium and we fence on concrete floors with painted strips (a bit rough on one's shins) I've only been fencing at this club since last October and it's too soon for me to assess where I'd like it to go. It's a college club, there are various levels of fencers for foil, saber and epee. I don't think any particular weapon is favored, however there seem to be more steady foil and epee people. There are folks who compete and folks who fence whenever their job/course load enables them to fence. Instruction is given by the coach and assistant coach and the coach's coach! We're gearing up for a team competition next Saturday in all three weapons! We like to fence and have fun.

[Puppet Master]

My club's a college club too. Like most other college clubs without real coaches, our success is mostly year to year depending on the amount of organization the older people are willing to put into it. The experienced people are the coaches. We get a bunch of new people at the beginning of the fall and then they slowly drop away.

Shadow Fencer, what has held your attention/interest, is it soley the practices, the people or something else?

[Shadow Fencer]

Puppet Master,
What has kept my interest? The sheer thrill of being back into fencing after a 22 year hiatus! The fact that the coach and assistant coach are around my age helps as we have a fun time razzing each other and the college kids sometimes "don't get it", which is funny! I really enjoy the practice, the people and the something else!

I'm trying to start a HS fencing club! its gonna be in southern CA.. there's not much fencing activity in the riverside area.... wish me luck!

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?:én gardé
??:touche

[Rapier9mm]

my club is good! it was started by mr barry more. the club prefers foil mostly, then Sabre with epeé pulling in the rear (coz they are busy fencing foil) i'm not too sure of the club site address but there is a link to it at http://www.fencing.org.nz as New Zealand Academy of fencing.
The club is quite competitively geared i think

[U.M.Amherst.Sabre95]

"My club's a college club too. Like most other college clubs without real coaches, our success is mostly year to year depending on the amount of organization the older people are willing to put into it. The experienced people are the coaches. We get a bunch of new people at the beginning of the fall and then they slowly drop away."

That sounds like a perfect description of the College club and team (UMass) I was a member of back in the early 1990's. You're very much dependent on the overall effort the captains, officers, and coaches put into it, while also hoping to attract a type of fencer who'll bring just as much competative ability as the recreational. There does seem to be a fairly consistent ebb and flow of success over the years, and fortunately my old team seems to be finding its way back in terms of success.

In any event, here is some club and team information, even if I don't compete for them anymore...

University of Massachusetts Fencing Team
http://www.umass.edu/rso/fencing

Competes regionally against both club and varsity collegiate opponents including Brown, Dartmouth, Univ. of New Hampshire, Sacred Heart, Harvard, Stevens Tech, M.I.T., Brandeis...Team faculty advisor is currently ranked #1 by the USFA in Veteran combined men's epee, and Veteran-50 men's epee...competes in regional and national USFA events...alumni & friends of the program ( http://www.fumf.net )remain active in the sport either as nationally-rated competators (from "A" on down)or directors...sport has existed on campus in some form since 1875...team members have also competed competatively in England and Russia...fencers of all skill levels are members of the team...competes in several different leagues such as the the Northeast Fencing Conference (NFC), the New England Collegiate Club Fencing League (NECCFL), the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC), the New England Intercollegiate Womans' Fencing Association (NEIWFA) and the National Intercollegiate Womans' Fencing Association (NIWFA)...

But all in all, the team's just made up of good people...

[Foil Girl]

My fencing club is great. It's small, but it's gone from about 10 fencers a night to a whole lot more! Wow! There are really nice people there. And there's always someone ready to bout(And if no one else, our coach, where your first instinct is to run away from the REALLY tall person with the sword)!

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-Foil Girl
"If you don't have fun, you've already lost"

[Gary]

The Tidewater Fencing Club is in a rebuilding mode right now. Most of our fencers who competed on a regular basis have gone off to college and are on their college teams. Right now our strength is Epee, then Sabre, and foil is almost non-existent (working on that). We have some dedicated core members who compete and we seem to have a large amount of social fencers which is fine by us. We have the basic gear for begginers and we only charge $10.00 a month. We have a former South Korean Olympic fencer for our fencing master and a couple of us more experienced fencers teach the basics to the begginers. The club is growing, so fast that we are out of room!

[Foil Girl]

We're now out of room also! Our tiny little place, which holds only three grounded strips, and I guess the small areas in between are used as strips sometimes. Then we have a tiny sitting space, right next the door. That's it! My coach has now bought the rental space next door, and is going to knock down the wall between. Aah! Room!

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-Foil Girl
"If you don't have fun, you've already lost"

I fence at a small club in Kenosha, WI. We have mostly epee people with some really good sabre fencers. The age range is 14 to 72 years old. Our group is growing in number. The group has gotten steadly larger
and the fun factor continues to increase. I've been fencing for over 20 years and I think this group has both dedication and fun contributing to it's success. See you in our town for the NCAA fencing finals March 22nd to 24th. I will probably be a timer at that event!
Jeeves

[sabrechick]

I'm from the Sacramento Fencing Club, and I love it. We have one of the biggest saber clubs in the country (with about 125 members), and a huge faciltiy custom made for fencing. We're like a big family as well. We specialize mostly in saber, with an up-and-coming foil program. We just got a new saber coach named Sergey Bushev, and are starting to focus on being much more competative. Address: sacfencing.org/

[Moonitic]

I love my club (Schoolcraft College Fencing Club), I love my division (Michigan)...Can't complain. We focus mostly on foil, but there are some who dabble in other weapons. I've been there 7 years now...before the club was actually a club (before that, it was a group of people tired of taking the advanced class over & over). There's a good mix of social/competitive fencers, too. Always fun!

I think Doug has the URL for the site.

[Kallisto]

Here's our little ol' club in little ol' New Zealand: http://www.fencingmanawatu.freeservers.com/

It is (you guessed it) quite little, 'cause there's not many people around these parts, and the national obsession is a game called Rugby Union, which involves 30 guerillas beating the snot out of each other for the right to hold a stupidly shaped ball. Hard to get people interested in something different... But the people in the club are great and we do our best and have lots of fun in the process!!

P.S. We would be thrilled if you to leave a message on our message board!

[Moonitic]

As an addition to my earlier post, I'm pleased as punch to say we received a letter from the USFA stating that because we had 11 new people join the USFA this year, we've received 1 free membership for another new member (the winner of the midsemester tourney will get this honor)! 11 NEW people, besides the 7 who have joined beforehand (competitively, that is). My vice president & I were delighted to hear that on Friday night. If you live in Michigan & are free on Friday, stop by Schoolcraft & be prepared to do a TON of fencing! Yipee!!!

[Zelda]

Kallisto, LOVE your description of Union, its soooooooo true!