Your Kids, Their Swords, and Surviving it all with your Sanity Intact. This 25 page ebook covers everything you need to know to get your children into one of the oldest and safest Olympic sports. This ebook is 25 pages of no-fluff information highlighted by great photographs of fencing provided by FencingPhotos.com. Although I'm not charging any money for it, I still want something from you. I want you to join our community, read the book, and spread the word. If you like the book, then tell people about it. That's the catch. Why am I doing this? Because there are lots of parents who need it, and I can afford the time to work on it. I want to bring together a community of like-minded people, who want to make fencing a great experience for themselves and their kids. I like to share with others, and help them succeed. (The Parent's Guide to Fencing is distributed as a PDF, and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 or newer) To download, click here. Do you have a fencing site? You're welcome to distribute the PDF on your site as long as you do not alter any of the PDF and you give credit to Fencing.Net.
Excellent! One of my professors was asking me questions (her son is starting to fence) and this is perfect. Thank you so much.
Wait who wrote this/edited this? (Saw the part about getting into Carolina as an out of state - which is hard to do IN state xD)
Craig - I've noticed an inaccuracy. It says: "Going off the side of the strip with one foot halts the fencing action. Going off the side with both feet gets a penalty of the loss of one meter." But these days, at least, going off the side with only one foot also receives the distance penalty.
Hi, Craig and co. I got your guide some weeks ago (my husband downloaded it for me, I joined later. Next day if I rememberf right). I really liked it, and I took the liberty of translating it into spanish and adapting it to spanish competition rules and categories. I would like to distribute it (of course for free) to my student´s parents. Is it OK for you? I will give you credit for the original version and myself for adapting it to spanish fencing. I will also encourage my students to join fencing.net. If you have any problem with this, please lt me know as soon as possible. Thank you for your nice work.
Hi Craig- Thank you so much for making this available. My daughter has been in fencing for about a year and a half and is starting to attend tournaments. This has made the whole experience much more enjoyable. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
Great guide! As a fencing dad ushering his 5th kid into fencing over the past seven years or so, I still found out a few things I didn't know. (One is that epee was presented as a bit boring - you must be a sabre fencer!) Anyway, I did have a few small items that you might consider including if you do a revision. Reading through what I've written below, I hope I don't come across as nit-picking. But having had to explain all of the below and more to probably a hundred different parents over the years, these are some of the things that cause confusion to those new to the sport, and they really should be corrected. On foil (and sabre) bouts, you might want to be explicit about seeing two lights on the scoring machine. You do a great job on explaining right of way, but the explanation should be connected to what the parent will see on the machine. (Why didn't my kid get the touch? His green light was on and the other guy was off target with a white light!!)On epee bouts, it took me a minute to figure out what you meant by "best of nine wins the bout." "First fencer to five" might be clearer. On the competition season, isn't it August through July? In the age explanation, saying that your age for fencing is the age at the beginning of the fencing season is not correct. It's the fencer's age on the January 1 in the middle of the season. You also talk about the youth categories as "under 10," "under 12" and "under 14." That, too, could cause confusion - I'd use the actual name: "Youth 10, or Y10" and define it as "10 and under." You could go further and explain that the Cadet and Junior seasons end at JO's, but that might be too much detail. I'd definitely add a paragraph on a tool kit. Many parents have the capability to do simple repairs and adjustments, and the fencers should learn as well. On DE's, you might let the parents know that in Y10 it's best of three, five-touch bouts. And in sabre, the break is after 8 touches, not between three-minute encounters. Same in the "scoring" paragraph - it's "Y10" that's different, not "U12." And the pool bouts are three minutes, not four (except in case of ties, of course). On the tournament checklist, add a copy of the child's birth certificate. I know it's unevenly enforced, but you could find yourself not allowed to participate in an SYC or RYC without proof of age. Also, many tournaments will require a signed liability release - best to send it with the registration or at least with the coach or child to the tournament if a parent won't be there. And of course, add the tool kit to the list! Again, this is a great intro to fencing for parents, and I hope you'll keep it available.