Fencing - any views?

[Bonsoir]

Does anyone's child do fencing? At what age did they start? What sort of child does fencing appeal to?

DN does this. He's 14 and doing well apparently. He started at about 11 I beleive.

What sort of child is he? Not very physically active or sporty. In fact he can be quite clumsy and awkward but he loves this enough to make the effort and concentrate. It's been wonderful for him.

DD1 did this on a residential and loved it. We were unable to find her a class, sadly. What kind of child is she? Very waif-like and willowy; dislikes sport (although good at it) but likes dancing; very graceful.

How old was your DD1 when she tried it, janeite?

I love it when children can try out new sports on short courses, so that they know what they are getting into before I have to cough up ££££ for a year's worth of lessons!

I think she was in either Yr 7 or Yr 8, so 11 or 12.

Thanks .

Anyone else?

Children usually start to fence around the age of 7 or 8 but can start younger on a mini-fence course. The British fencing website will be able to point you in the direction of some local clubs who will be able to tell you more about what's on offer. Or you could post on the fencing forum fencingforum.com/forum/and ask for some advice, they're a friendly lot!

What sort of child? Well, my dh took up fencing at uni and managed to work his way up to british team selection and national champion, all without being particularly sporty or well-coordinated - I think he likes the strategy side of it! At competitions I'm always impressed at the confidence of the younger fencers competing alongside older fencers quite happily.

DS did fencing at an after school club just for one term in Yr9 and enjoyed it but had to drop it as he had far too many extra curricular things on. That was the classic type fencing with the facemasks etc. Ds liked it because it was quite fast moving and he prefers individual sports to team things, he doesn't like footy or rugby.

He now does a medieval fencing (read men with sticks) at the village hall once a week but I think this will be shortlived as most of the others are grown men who wear socks with their sandals and last week I saw a fat 40 plus man in a chain mail dress. I kid you not. DS finds them a bit weird but mainly because they're adults.

BTW Anna, did you ever get your dss's stammer sorted out? We were both posting about it about 6 months ago. DS now gets ST once a week which seems q. helpful.

My kid is going to start next week! He's 9 nearly 10. He is much better at individual racquet sports than team stuff so am hoping he'll get into this too. I may report back.

mumblechum - DSS1's stammer seems to have sorted itself out of its own accord. Having been quite noticeable last summer, it didn't seem any worse when he came back from the holidays in September and it has now disappeared.

I think, as various sources suggested, it must just have been a manifestation of growth - he had it as a little boy and it came back during puberty but it doesn't seem to be set in.

How is your DS doing with ST?

Thanks for all the advice on fencing!

am late to this, sorry

fencing ime is fab for those who have trouble with trad sports as it isn't overly dependent on physique, you have a whole person to hit, not a tiddly little ball, and it is individual not team. Also it is indoors in the warm, not muddy, and you don't have to wear revealing clothing (quite the opposite).

I started at school at 10ish and carried on at university and beyond.

Key is finding a good club and the right weapon - I am a fan of sabre, esp for youngsters, but ime It & Fr coaches are more foil/epee focussed and German / Hungarian more sabre-y.

Thanks for that, MrsB. I too like the idea of an indoor sport - here in Paris you normally sign up for sporting activities from October to June, so tennis is kind of a pain as it gets rained/snowed off so often for half the season.

There are quite a few fencing clubs around i Paris and I must go and take a look at them. I know that sabre is a possibility too.

something I wish I had done as well - we did have the option at school and one of my friends did it from age 10. She was naturally of large build, the sort of build that would never be skinny - but she was pretty light on her feet and was pretty good at it too.