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Fencing continues to be active this summer. Everyone is focusing on their own needs and are improving by leaps and bounds.
The NBC Today Show recently had a couple US Olympic sabre fencers on their show. Now, I want to point out that wearing fencing knickers with out full-length socks is illegal, as is not fully zipping-up your lamé or forgetting to clip on your mask cord. Aside from that, it's an amusing little interview and nice publicity for the sport. You can find the video of it here.
The equipment order is coming up! It will be July 7 - 10th. Attached is the usual flier with basic information. It is now a two-page flier with a lot of electric and other gear on the second page. You'll also find some new sets of equipment on the front. In addition to the beginner's 5-piece set, there are now full-kit 10-piece sets for those who want them and don't have any gear yet.
I want to point out one thing for those of you who are looking at getting electric foil gear. The High-Quality Electric Foil upgrade set through the equipment order is $165. If you order it from Leon-Paul, it is $189 (free shipping). I strongly recommend you go with the Leon-Paul gear. It is much, much higher quality. If you are interested in doing this, talk to me about sizing for the lamé. You can find it online here.
I had a nice chance to give everyone an individual lesson this Monday. They are all staying sharp and continuing to improve. Hats off to all of you for coming out during the summer. I look forward to continuing to fence with you through the remainder of summer practices.
We are looking at adding some coach/officer positions starting this Fall. Yes, I know, yet another constitutional amendment. We have been growing by leaps and bounds, requiring us to figure out how we are going to continue to run the Club as it grows in ways our founding-forefathers never anticipated. We have already put the Coaching Amendment to good use in February choosing a new Foil Coach. In addition, I have used the Youth Amendment when asked by parents of young kids to determine whether or not they would be eligible to join the Club.
What we are looking at adding right now is Assistant Coaches. This Fall we'd determine an Assistant Sabre coach, as that is most pressing. Then we might look at getting an Assistant Foil Coach to start in the Spring. The Officers are working hard on putting this revision to the Coaching Amendment together. The selection process would be minimal (an open call to find out who's interested, the Coaches picking a candidate, and the Officers approving). No big interviews or tests to worry about. It's also a lot less responsibility than Principal Coach (new name for Henry, Danielle, and I to distinguish from Assistant Coaches). Think about whether or not you'd be interested in these positions.
In addition, I'm going to be looking for an Armourer starting next Fall. I have yet to discuss this with the Officers, so whether this becomes another open Officer position has yet to be determined. Regardless, we need someone other than me an Henry maintaining the Club's equipment, a reference for repairing personal equipment (you wouldn't be expected to repair their personal equipment, just help them do it themselves), and to run the biannual armoury clinics. They would also learn about electric equipment maintenance and repair as well.
Does this mean you need to have your own fencing gear or have your own tools? No. For now you'd be practicing on Club gear and my own gear and using my tools. Eventually you might want to get a few tools yourself (a wrench and screwdriver are handy in general!). No previous experience is necessary either. I will train you from start to finish. Mull this over this summer and think about whether or not you'd like to be an Armourer.
Since fencing at the Olympics are happening this summer, I thought I'd give you a bit more information about it. I will let you know when I found out more about online coverage of the Olympics. In the meantime, I suggest you check out NBC Olympics' page on Fencing.
Summer practices continue to go well and have a good turn-out. Amongst other things, we talked about some new pieces of footwork that can be used as tricks to spice things up when bouting.
We found out in April that group orders the Club puts together but does not make money on is still subject to sales tax. Because of this, equipment orders hence forth will also be subject to sales tax. The Club will continue to pay for shipping costs and you will continue to get the equipment at a discounted rate. However, you will notice a slight increase in prices over last school year to account for this tax.
Within the last week, George Kolombatovich wrote an article explaining and clarifying certain rules. Kolombatovich is the President of the Refereeing Commission for the FIE (the international governing body for fencing). You can think of him as the referee in charge of all refereeing around the world. You can find this article and a discussion of it. I want to talk about what he has to say about right-of-way. It's very much in line with what I've been saying, but I do not feel everyone has quite understood all of it.
Suppose Henry and I are fencing. Henry makes an attack first and has right-of-way. I then parry his attack. I do not gain right-of-way for parrying his attack. I have made Henry lose right-of-way. To gain right-of-way myself I must counter-attack immediately. Then and only then do I have right-of-way. Until either I make a counter-attack or Henry renews his attack (by redoublement, remise, or reprise) no one has right-of-way.
I encourage all of you to read the full article and his explanation. I also encourage those of you who enjoying discussions of rules to check out the discussion going on at the Fencing.net Forums.
We have officially started summer practices! We had a good turn out on Monday and looking forward to an even better one on Thursday. If anyone is in the area, I highly recommend you join us for a bit of fencing fun! We even had a couple new people show up, interested in learning how to fence. Remember, practices are Mondays and Thursdays from 6-8pm in HEC 110.
Practices will be less structured than they are during the school year. Expect lots of open bouting time. We'll do group footwork at the beginning of practice. Then I'll be coaching one-on-one or in small groups. Once in a while we'll do a large group drill, but not regularly. Also, we have a scorebox now. So electric fencing can happen any time now!
Tim Morehouse, a male sabre fencer headed to the Olympics this summer, recently started a blog and website. On his blog, you can find an interview (titled "Fencing is a Sexy Sport) with another future Olympian as well as some international sabre bouts. The first link takes you to his website, the second to his blog. I highly recommend you check these out!
As per the usual reminder, there will be an equipment order this summer. It will be July 7 - 10th. It's one week only. You must be present to pay and you must be present to pick up your equipment when it arrives! If this is not possible for you and you want to order equipment this summer, please send me an e-mail. Be sure to include what pieces of equipment you're interested in getting! I will send you suggestions about where the best deals are and help you in any way I can. Intermediate fencers should (although NOT required) look into getting an underarm protector and knickers sometime during the next year. Fencing after college requires more gear, and it's nice to build things up slowly. You may also want to consider getting some electric gear.
Tournament DVD's can still be ordered! DVD prices for the tournament will be $15 per event with $6 shipping and handling on the total order. A copy of the order form can be found here. Feel free to send in the order form along with the payment any time this summer. There is no real deadline for this.