En garde. Prêt. Allez!…read more
A year ago, my seven-year-old son's organized extracurriculars included kung fu, gymnastics, baseball, and swimming. Fencing was the furthest activity from his mind. But my wife and I brought him for his first introductory lesson with SF Youth Fencing's Maître d'Armes, Rob Handelman, at Halberstadt Fencer's Club in San Francisco anyway. Having fenced on my college's varsity sabre team (and trained at Halberstadt's for a time back in... a while ago!), I was eager to expose my son to this martial art. During my son's first six months of fencing training, it's fair to say that it was my passion for the sport that drove my son's participation, not his own. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2EArF1QpaY shows the tenor of my son's first few months at fencing, barely able to avoid tripping over his own feet! He's the little guy in the center foreground.)
But something happened about six to nine months into his participation with SF Youth Fencing: sabre rattling started climbing my son's activities rankings. From the bottom a year ago, fencing began a steady climb to the top spot, knocking gymnastics off the list entirely and reducing his baseball availability. How did Rob's program win my son over?
SF Youth Fencing's coaching staff, as the name implies, is incredibly child-friendly. The coaches are utterly competent in their craft, but also are marvels of patience, tolerance, understanding, awareness, and organization. Rob and his wife, Connie Louie (Prévôt de Sabre), are aided by Sándor and Marty, Moniteurs de Sabre, and a host of paid and volunteer assistants. The students' parents are also incredibly supportive to each other and to each others' kids. SF Youth Fencing is a community centered on sabre fencing.
Each session's instructional program includes a regular progression of warm-up games and functional drills, one-on-one and group instruction, practice and challenge bouts, and warm-down games. Just about any kid can be slotted into the program at any time, regardless of skill level. Progress, especially in the early stages, is primarily self-driven; each kid decides how hard to push, how deep to engage with the program. As kids progress up the skills ladder, the coaches dial up the instructional intensity, but never more than each kid can handle.
There's also an easy camaraderie among the students. You'll often find the more advanced students offering practical advice and assistance to junior members, even during bouts with them. For example, during my son's first introductory lesson, the one unequivocally positive aspect he demonstrated was his speed and agility during the pre- and post-session games. One of the better Y12 fencers sought him out after that first class and assured my son, "I can tell you're going to be a good fencer." Whether that prediction comes true or not, I appreciated the sentiment in which it was given and my son rode an early boost in his confidence.
My son's still climbing the learning curve, but over the last year it's been a pleasure to watch him proceed through a continuum of humoring his parents (OK, his dad!), to mild interest, to burgeoning curiosity, to self-driven engagement with the program. His bouts now show some promising sparks of creativity and skill, and sometimes sheer joy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn_WI8PfqmA , my son's on the far strip, right).
One year later, go ahead and put the question to my son yourself. "Are you a fencer?" He'll look you right in the eyes and respond, "Yes, I am."
