Both our sons fence sabre competitively and LOVE it. Our coach has produced Olympic gold & bronze medalists (Beijing & Sydney) and a World Champion (2005) in men’s sabre, and he is a great guy.
3 weapons in 6 weeks seems strange, more like a YMCA intro class :). Generally it’s that long before you even touch a weapon. But it might give you an idea of which weapon you prefer (sabre gets you to the “good stuff” faster, and IMHO is more fun). Foil is cool, but epee seems more like Dance Dance Revolution.
I highly recommend fencing, for competitive athletes or just casual folks. One hell of a workout, an intense mental challenge (it’s a chess game played with your body), and a great group of people.
Wow, I have a lot to learn. What a workout. My legs feel like wet spaghetti noodles. I have problems with balance and dizziness, she is being understanding about it. We have been doing free fencing a bit for the last 2 weeks and I still feel like a child. After years fighting in Eastern martial arts and the SCA it is a whole different world. I like it.
I asked her if she gives privates lessons. That would help me greatly I think.
I took fencing after I had been fighting the in SCA for a few years. Even though the technique was totally different, I found it gave me an advantage in awareness. When the other beginners got hit, they only knew there had been a touch, but I could follow the action and understand what happened. Already having the ability to judge distance helps too.
One thing that was a little unsatisfying for me was that foil is just enough like fighting with a short spear (my favorite) that I kept wishing I could hold the blade in both hands.
The best thing is to keep the goods moving. You never want to unload a shipment of good less than 25 miles from your your based. And have your suppliers always get you new goods. Goods that “fell off the truck,” are you best bet.
Take cash only as payment, and make sure you keep a plausible alibi at all time. You’ll soon be a successful fence
Well, in recognition of your admirable choice to take up this noble pastime, here’s a relevant excerpt from my blog in 2007:
**"One of the things I have observed in my peregrinations is that we have a fencing studio here in Oakland. Yup. And at first I thought, oh right, fencing, just what we need. That’ll come in handy on the mean streets of Ghosttown. —And, come the revolution, we’ll need our fencers. Uh huh.
But then I thought, you know, your average downpresserman probably wouldn’t have the least idea what to do if he found an epee in his face. Despite hours spent on his butt watching “Kill Bill” and stuff.
After years fencing foil and epee, I’m going to be starting smallsword and rapier this summer, and you do use your other hand in those (albeit not in the way you’re talking about).
When I did the fencing thing, I noticed that after fencing workouts/lessons that I really really REALLY liked riding my bike. It was my only transportation, and normally I hated it. But on the way home from the fencing lessons, it’s like all this energy got stored into my thighs/calves and that cycling unwound the springs, wheee!
Or if you want to be technical about it, they never advanced to the point of having foils and epees.
I actually tried to learn SCA fighting back in the 1980’s, and was rejected by every single “knight” in the area as they claimed they 1) already had too many people, but mostly 2) I was too small and too “weak” to be worth their while (and a couple of them told me that flat out in about those many words.) The SCA, of which I was a member for 3 years, in this Kingdom, is definitely not an “open smile” organization. They were even more insular and xenophobic than Mensa (which I also quit), which says something. Whereas all of the fencing schools I work at are tickled pink to have me.
I’ve heard stories like this. It is sad. Being a fencer in the 90’s when it was going through a painful childhood I am amazed that people put up with the shit the SCA’s ‘elite’ was handing out. I was also in a barony where the Baron was as insular and clique-ish as they come. But I just went to the practices and had fun, but rarely did much else. Thanks to the efforts of a lot of people things have improved vastly, both in the barony and the fencing community. There’s still a lot of BS, and I know some Kingdoms are still have idiotic “issues” with fencing (I still call it “Calontir’s peculiar institution”). But things are much better than they used to be.
