Thread: Any fencers?

Did it for two years in HS, and a couple more semesters in college. Foil mostly. Still have my foil and epee hanging up in the closet.

Used to do kendo, and light free style sword play (ala SCA). Also took one fencing class (foil) liked it, but haven't found the time to return to it.

I was thinking of getting my son involved. He is 13 I don't know if this is too young.

13 is prime time to get him started. That way if he competes, he'll have plenty of time to get good before college and possibly nab a scholarship

Wow, two kendo guys. My salle also had a kendo class, and they were very hardcore. Even with the armor, there's no way I could get beat with that shinai, plus all the yelling The kendo instructor we had was a very large man (super nice), and he could seriously beat the tar out of an opponent. I saw him compete once and was just in awe.

These guys are serious - and it is a blast. I have always wanted to fence, but I leaned toward heavier blades and the historical aspect of real sword fighting - not the stylized Conan stuff. These boys use Italian and German manuscripts from Medieval and Renaissance schools to train using Eastern style swords and methods from a long time ago. Very scholarly, very cool.

I highly recommend those guys who would like to learn an Eastern martial art, without the costumes and turkey legs, to check this out.

http://www.thearma.org/

K

That's pretty cool! Funny thing, I've tried to actually sword fight, but my body immediately goes into sport fencing mode. I start bouncing around, trying to fleche and jump

I did Kendo for four years back in college. Never did get around to testing for my first DAN but according to the sensi I was ready, there just weren't any tournaments in my neck of the woods at the right time. I have thought of getting back into it but there is only one club in my area and they meet in a campus building that I would have to pay a small fortune to have a pass for, that as well as the time commitment has kept me out of the ring. I miss the hell out of it though.

I tried to fence SCA style but after so long with real sword training, those fakers didn't stand a chance. They actually complained about how often they would get hit in the head by me HA HA HA

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

That's pretty cool! Funny thing, I've tried to actually sword fight, but my body immediately goes into sport fencing mode. I start bouncing around, trying to fleche and jump

I have the opposite problem. The style that worked for me was a mix of Aikido sword (or at least the sword that my sensei taught us in class) and classic Chinese saber. No jumping, lots of side stepping.

Originally Posted by RichZ

I was thinking of getting my son involved. He is 13 I don't know if this is too young.

13 is an excellent age. I played from my 11th till my 16th and it's a great sport. I competed in the Dutch Championships twice with decent reults (once 7th on Epee and once on Foil) and various other competitions like the Dutch Open championships (we even had russians coming over for that one). I ended up 4th on that one.

Maybe you've ever heard of Siebren Tiggelaar or Bas Verwijlen? They were in my....uhm..club? I used to train with Siebren.

I don't play now. Things got too intense for something that I wanted to be a hobby. But it's really fun to do and I've been thinking about starting again.