Why fencing?

[neevel]

Why I started: Never did much in the way of althletics beyond PE class in high school, knew I needed to get involved in some form of physical activity when I started college. Fencing was 1) different from what most everyone else was doing and 2) involved hitting people with swords.

Why I keep doing it: what Heizaburo Okawa looks like on the strip at 65+ years old. I may have started way too late and in the wrong place (Grinnell, Iowa) to ever have competed internationally on the Junior and Senior level, but I figure I've got 16 years to prepare for Veteran's World Championships.

-Dave

[laughingduelist]

Fencing and Kendo were the easiest to find club sports involving swords. I'm just not much of a team player.

[DHCJr]

My hero when I was a kid was Don Quiote. When I got to Long Beach State, I found out they had fencing, I just had to take it. The coach called me the worse fencer she had ever seen.

The next semester was the Long Beach Invitational, which was collegiate at the time and the Air Force Academy was going to be there, so I showed up to help score.

At the end, she asked me if I wanted to be the Manager. I told her I wasn't busy. Later she told me to go up to work with this guy up at the fencing store. That guy happened to be Dan DeChaine. He helped me a lot and he told me, don't thank me, just help out with others.

Because of that, you are all stuck with me for the next 1,000 years, since it will take that long to pay off all he has done for me.

By the way, as far as my fencing skills go, I can count the number of wins on one hand. Think what the people who lost feel like.

[counter riposte]

Why I started:

Gorgeous girl at school said "I enjoy fencing". My reply was...
"Really? ME TOO!" I enrolled in classes the following quarter.

The girl didn't work out, but the sport did...

[D'Artagnan1673]

Although I am not as articulate as Inquartata, I share a simular experience there. I had been raised on Excalibur and the original Star Wars. When I was a little older, I began to enjoy my parent's unique taste in movies and as Errol Flynn was one of my mother's favorites, I saw plenty of sword play as a child.

As I reached high school age, I began to want to learn to fence when The Man in the Iron Mask and Mask of Zorro came out. This desire was increased by my reading my share of Dumas novels in which the cavalier is so romanticized. One day I found out there was a club in the are and I could not help myself to try to fence. I realized that there would be no fighting off bandits from the staircase and so forth, however, that didn't matter. It was simply interesting to be handling a sword of any type and learning the basics.

[FoilyGeezer]

When I was a youngster, we was frequently bein' attacked by Mongol Hordes....so larnin' to wield a blade was purty important. Why, I remember once, when I was still in diapers being accosted by a band of tatty furred mounted blackgaurds and having to dispatch them whilst holding my baby bottle in the other hand like a parrying dagger....

Actually, I was randomly approached by one of the Captains of the fencing team freshman year of Highschool. He was looking for warm bodies and I fit the bill nicely, having a pulse and all. Besides I was too small and scrawny to play basketball (the only other winter sport). Thus being by my nature drawn to quirky, oddball things I enthusiastically said "Sure!" By junior year I wasn't so small and scrawny and had become one of the Captains of the fencing team myself. The rest is pre-history.

[whtouche]

I was in my junior year of highschool. A teacher at my school's husband was the fencing coach at another local highschool and wanted to know if there was interest at my school.
The girl that I was seeing at the time was super-interested, and thereby got me interested more than I already was.
So I guess I started on a combination of previous interest and her persuasion. I stuck with it because it's incredibly fun, and there are ENDLESS levels of complexity to unlock.

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by FoilyGeezer
When I was a youngster, we was frequently bein' attacked by Mongol Hordes....so larnin' to wield a blade was purty important. Why, I remember once, when I was still in diapers being accosted by a band of tatty furred mounted blackgaurds and having to dispatch them whilst holding my baby bottle in the other hand like a parrying dagger....

Wow, you fought off the Mongols with a foil? "Impressive, Green One"...

[Soldier]

Originally posted by whtouche
A teacher at my school's husband was...

Schools get married?

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

I started cause I like to hurt people.

[Joan of Ark]

Originally posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!
I started cause I like to hurt people.

That's not very nice!!!... so, how many people have you managed to hurt really badly (physically)?...

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

i was never really a team player..i always liked to do my own thing, make my own path, that sorta thing. so i wasnt too into team sports. and a summer camp i went to once had it once, i said wow, that looks interesting, so i signed up. did it every day i could. ahh, the days of fencing outside in the summer!...

we learned target zones and how to stand but didnt learn parrys, etc, so half the time we were just hitting blades..i came back home and said wow, that was really fun.

took it up at one club, though it wasnt really a club..it was 2 guys who met at a schools gym with a group of kids once or twice a week, with dry stuff, and half the time was just warming up. seemed like at the end, the fencing was just an afterthought. didn't learn anything there either.

so, i told mom it wasnt being so fun anymore, but she told me to stick with it. and i did. tried getting on the high school team last year when i was in 8th grade. the coach said i couldnt, cause i wasnt yet in high school, but she gave me the name of a coach, Joe Fisher, and the club he worked at. i went there, nervous as everything, he asked what i knew, i said nothing..and the rest is history.

hell..i even remember and have the outfit i wore that day..

and i wouldnt give fencing up for anything. well..almost.

~Jes

[Joan of Ark]

Originally posted by JAySE SUiCiDE
and a summer camp i went to once had it once, i said wow, that looks interesting, so i signed up. did it every day i could. ahh, the days of fencing outside in the summer!...

I've never fenced out side. But in the summer, wouldn't that be hot...?

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

I've never fenced out side. But in the summer, wouldn't that be hot...?

oh it was. you can bet it was.. i dont know how i made it, honestly.

well..i shouldnt really call it fencing. it was kids waddling 'round sideways with swords, masks and white jackets on.

plus the coach wasnt really a coach..just someone who had done it a bit in college, which was, im assuming, way before she started teaching at that camp..

~Jes

[Joan of Ark]

Originally posted by JAySE SUiCiDE

tried getting on the high school team last year when i was in 8th grade. the coach said i couldnt, cause i wasnt yet in high school, but she gave me the name of a coach, Joe Fisher, and the club he worked at.

I know sorta what thats like. Im in 7th. My brother and his friend are trying to get a team together at their school (4 other schools in the district have them). Anyway, the whole hour drive to fencing practice 3 times a week, they are talking about starting a club there!!! Why can't they start it at the middle school? Its just across the street!! But, the good news is that Im not gonna go to the high school that they're at! They already have a fencing club where I'm going to go. In fact, I know the coaches and several of the students. Not to mention that the fencing club, even though its less than a year old is the 2nd largest club at the school (the 1st is band...) So naturally I am pretty anxious to get through 8th and get on to high school!

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

Originally posted by Joan of Ark
I know sorta what thats like. Im in 7th. My brother and his friend are trying to get a team together at their school (4 other schools in the district have them). Anyway, the whole hour drive to fencing practice 3 times a week, they are talking about starting a club there!!! Why can't they start it at the middle school? Its just across the street!! But, the good news is that Im not gonna go to the high school that they're at! They already have a fencing club where I'm going to go. In fact, I know the coaches and several of the students. Not to mention that the fencing club, even though its less than a year old is the 2nd largest club at the school (the 1st is band...) So naturally I am pretty anxious to get through 8th and get on to high school!

yeah..stinks, dont it? its funny too..after she (the coach) got the team together, and i took a few private lessons, i went to JO qualifiers and beat all of the girls on the team 'xept one..

bet she was kicking herself.

~Jes

[Joan of Ark]

Originally posted by JAySE SUiCiDE
bet she was kicking herself.

Who'd be kicking heself? The coach? Why?

[JAySE SUiCiDE]

Originally posted by Joan of Ark
Who'd be kicking heself? The coach? Why?

yeah, the coach, cause i was able to beat all of the girls she chose for her junior varsity/varsity team except for one, and she didnt choose me for the team..

or maybe im being egotistical..

~Jes